DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Three months into his tenure leading Des Moines Public Schools, Ian Roberts asked the district board for emergency approval of $116,000 in contracts.
Agreements to provide training on “culturally responsive coaching,” the superintendent said, were due to be approved within days. But the district’s procurement director discovered that one contract went to a company that promoted Roberts as a consultant and speaker, selling his books and helping raise his profile, an Associated Press investigation found.
Finance officials warned Roberts that hiring Kansas City-based Lively Paradox would be a conflict of interest, and Roberts canceled the special board meeting he had requested in September 2023.
Since his arrest last month by immigration agents, the public has grappled with how Roberts became a longtime superintendent despite allegedly lacking authorization to work in the United States, having a history of criminal charges and promoting falsified credentials.
The AP found that as Roberts’ profile in education grew, his connection with Lively Paradox and its founder Nicole Price became rewarding during a period when many organizations were championing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Blurring the line between his public and private jobs, the investigation found that Price received tens of thousands of dollars in contracts from school districts where Roberts held leadership positions.
The AP reviewed district records, court records and books and marketing materials published by Lively Paradox and Price, who met Roberts during a chance encounter at an airport a decade ago.
Roberts, who remains in federal custody, has argued that his outside work helps transform education. His lawyer declined to comment.
Months after Des Moines officials halted their attempt to hire Lively Paradox, the district paid the company $6,476 in consulting and travel expenses for Price’s work facilitating a two-hour team-building exercise at a school board retreat in December 2023, records show. Roberts could approve that amount without board approval, a spokesman said.
Roberts listed on his original resume for the Des Moines position that he was an executive leadership coach at Lively Paradox and had been since its inception, while jumping from district position to district position in four states. Price co-authored two books with Roberts and wrote the foreword to another, touting him as a former Olympic athlete and inspirational educator known for transforming schools.
“I think Dr. Roberts is one of the best leaders I’ve ever known,” Price said in an interview after Roberts’ arrest, when he allegedly fled from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and illegally possessed a firearm. “Calm under pressure, leading with empathy, mission-driven and focused and able to engage people.”
When Roberts changed districts, the job for Price continued.
When Roberts changed jobs, Price and Lively Paradox continued to land him new clients, the AP found.
Price’s clients include a variety of corporations and government agencies, his resume shows. But for those Roberts has worked for, the school districts she listed as clients appear to be located exclusively in Kansas and Missouri.
In a 2021 video posted to Instagram, Roberts joined Price to celebrate Lively Paradox’s fifth anniversary. He recalled targeting St. Louis Public Schools for the new company’s business when Roberts served as the network’s superintendent.
“Their district was one of those where I thought, ‘Okay, I’ve got to get them as a client,’” Price said. “But I went through the same RFP process as everyone else.”
Roberts said that with their position in the district and their affiliation with Lively Paradox, they made St. Louis one of the first “to take on the job of becoming a culturally responsive district.”
It’s unclear how much the district paid Price, but records show he was paid thousands of dollars for a 2017 presentation. He also taught a workshop there in February 2018, his resume shows.
After Roberts became an administrator at Aspire Public Schools in Oakland, that public charter school system paid Price at least $8,300 for services, according to a disbursement report covering part of 2019.
Price provided leadership training to the Millcreek Township School District in Pennsylvania in 2020 and 2021, while Roberts was superintendent, according to his resume.
He said there was nothing inadequate about his work at Roberts Districts, “just a long-standing commitment to mission-driven work and empathetic leadership.”
St. Louis Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools and Millcreek Township School District did not respond to requests for comment.
Roberts and Price hooked up after airport meeting
Price recalled that Roberts was “impeccably dressed” when they met in 2014 at a North Carolina airport. At the time he worked at a leadership company where he focused on diversity and inclusion.
Price credited Roberts with teaching him how education was different from the corporate fields in which he had worked. They discussed their idea that, instead of firing unproductive subordinates, educational leaders should give them every opportunity to develop.
Price said they stayed in touch. In 2016, she was laid off and founded Lively Paradox, in part to focus on providing training to urban school leaders.
Roberts was with her from the beginning. In 2017, the two wrote “The Power of Seven Second Chances,” their vision for managing schools with compassion.
They later co-authored “Dangerous Indifference: The Case for Culturally Responsive Leadership,” which asks leaders to accept and understand differences. Price wrote the foreword to Roberts’ next book, “Radical Empathy.”
Price said the books, self-published and available for purchase online, “didn’t really have big sales” because Roberts ordered them primarily to give away at conferences.
He said the two worked closely for years to train school leaders and transform organizations.
It is unclear how much outside income Roberts received. Lively Paradox advertises a two-day “high performance workshop” for $38,975, keynote presentations for $15,000, and training packages for $9,995.
Their collaboration has continued with Roberts behind bars. Price said Sept. 29 that Roberts’ wife told him to move forward with publishing a book called “Unshakeable,” a compilation of Roberts’ inspirational messages to Des Moines schools.
Price said she knew nothing about his immigration status and was shocked by his arrest.
Roberts flagged for conflict of interest
When he was hired in Des Moines in 2023, board members were aware of Roberts’ outside work. His contract, which included an annual salary of $286,716 this year, allowed him to “engage in occasional consultations or speaking engagements, writing, lecturing or other professional activities” with the approval of the board chairman.
The only agenda item for the meeting called for Sept. 29, 2023, included Roberts’ recommendation to award $116,000 to Lively Paradox and another firm for professional development.
The document said the district evaluated four vendors and Roberts made the recommendation that the two “best met the needs of the district.” The expenses would come from federal funds intended to improve the performance of school leaders.
District procurement manager JoAnne Khounlo-Philavanh discovered that Lively Paradox included Roberts as part of its team, district spokesman Phil Roeder said. She and the district’s chief financial officer, Shashank Aurora, met with Roberts to discuss the conflict of interest, she said.
Roberts wrote to board members that the meeting was no longer necessary after he “received another update from the finance team.”
Current board president Jackie Norris was a board member at the time and said district staff brought concerns about a conflict of interest to her and they were raised with Roberts. He added: “I firmly believe that a review of all expenses related to the former superintendent is needed.”
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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.