Hannah Fingerhut And Ryan J. Foley, The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district, who was detained last week by immigration agents, falsely claimed a doctoral degree when applying for the job two years ago but was hired even after the school board learned about the misrepresentation.

Ian Roberts, who immigration authorities say was living and working in the U.S. illegally and who resigned this week as Des Moines’ superintendent of schools, claimed in his 2023 application that he received a doctorate in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University in 2007, according to documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request.

Although Roberts was enrolled in that doctorate program from 2002 to 2007, the school’s public relations office confirmed in an email that he didn’t receive that degree. It declined to say which degree requirements he hadn’t met.

The Des Moines school board learned before hiring Roberts that he hadn’t received the degree, but it still chose him to lead the district, which serves about 30,000 students.

“As part of the background check process that was done at the time, it indicated that he did not complete — he began but did not complete a degree from Morgan State,” district spokesman Phil Roeder told the AP.

The background check was conducted by a third party and is not a public record, Roeder said.

On Wednesday evening the board released a statement saying Roberts provided a resume to a consulting company in which he indicated he had earned a doctorate from Morgan State, but that the search firm later flagged that he hadn’t completed his dissertation.

A revised resume showing Roberts didn’t received the doctorate from Morgan was provided to the board, the statement said. After his hiring the district sought documents from the consultant, which provided the original resume and not the revised one.

“The Des Moines School Board is also a victim of deception by Dr. Roberts, one on a growing list that includes our students and teachers, our parents and community, our elected officials and Iowa’s Board of Educational Examiners, and others,” board chair Jackie Norris said in the statement.

Roberts, who is challenging the order to deport him to his native Guyana, remained jailed Wednesday in Sioux City, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Des Moines. When asked to comment on Roberts’ false application claim, his attorney, Alfredo Parrish, said he was looking into the matter and would discuss it with his client.

The job profile in the web archive of JG Consulting, a firm the district hired to assist in its 2023 superintendent search, said applicants must have a master’s degree and at least 30 hours of graduate work in administration. Roberts appears to have met those requirements.

In his application materials, Roberts also wrote that he had a doctorate in educational leadership from “Trident American University” obtained in 2021. Roeder said the board’s background check confirmed that Roberts did receive that degree from that online school, though it is called Trident University International. A school official declined to comment.

Experts say Roberts’ false claim should have raised red flags

The false claim on Roberts’ resume might not have been legally disqualifying, but it may have raised concerns about his integrity, education administration experts said.

“That’s a pretty big discrepancy,” said Sadika Jubo, managing partner of the School Liability Expert Group, a New Jersey firm that provides expert witnesses. “I think red flags would go up for the district. … If they are making misrepresentations on their CV, is this a person of moral character? They are going to be in charge of the district, money, funds, people’s lives. Is this someone that we want to hire?”

When detaining Roberts, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents cited a final removal order issued last year and an unspecified past weapons charge. Since his detention, a state board has stripped Roberts’ license to be superintendent and the Des Moines school board has voted to accept his letter of resignation, which Parrish wrote on Roberts’ behalf.

According to Parrish, Roberts was under the impression from a prior attorney that his immigration case was “resolved successfully. Parrish’s law firm has filed a request to stay Roberts’ deportation with an immigration court in Omaha, Nebraska. He described a “very complex case” that will take time to investigate but acknowledged Roberts could face deportation at any moment.

Parrish confirmed that his client was born in Guyana, but he didn’t say whether Roberts had ever applied for U.S. citizenship or legal permanent residency, if or when he was authorized to work in the U.S., or what happened during removal proceedings that resulted in a final order of removal last year.

Other details on Roberts’ resume confirmed

Roberts, who ran in the Olympics for Guyana, had two decades of experience working as an educator and education professional across the country. He has long used the doctorate title.

Roberts’ biography on the Des Moines school district’s website touted a doctorate in urban educational leadership from Trident, misidentifying the degree, with no mention of Morgan State.

Trident, acquired by American InterContinental University in 2020, is a for-profit university that offers online degree programs.

The AP confirmed some of the other degrees and places of employment listed on Roberts’ resume, including his undergraduate degree from Coppin State University in 1998 and master’s degree from St. John’s University in 2000. Georgetown University did not respond to emails seeking comment about Roberts’ 2013 master’s degree.

His employment as a superintendent at Millcreek Township School District in Erie, Pennsylvania; a network superintendent at St. Louis Public Schools; and a principal and teacher at Baltimore City Public Schools was confirmed by each school district.

Aspire Public Schools, a charter school system in California, said it doesn’t comment on past or present personnel. A federal grant application submitted by Aspire in 2019 named Roberts as chief schools officer, as does his resume.

District of Columbia Public Schools did not respond to a public records request about his employment there.

A Pennsylvania settlement

After he got the Des Moines job but before his term began, Roberts was at the center of a costly personnel settlement involving his treatment of a key subordinate and longtime colleague. It was intended to be kept secret.

The former director of human resources for the Millcreek Township School District, Melody Ellington, claimed that she faced unspecified unlawful treatment after she was hired by and worked for Roberts from July 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022.

The two previously worked together in St. Louis public schools from 2015 to 2018, where Ellington was budget director and Roberts was a network superintendent.

A settlement agreement states that Ellington claimed she was unfairly pushed out of her job and that she had “threatened litigation,” while district administrators denied wrongdoing. The district agreed in late June 2023 to pay Ellington $250,000 as part of an agreement requiring that she, Roberts and other officials would not disparage each other. Roberts started the Des Moines job on July 1.

Ellington and her lawyer didn’t respond to messages seeking comment on the settlement, which had a nondisclosure provision but was obtained by the Erie Times-News in late July 2023 through the public records law.

At the time, Roberts told the Des Moines Register that he couldn’t comment on the settlement but noted it wasn’t the reason he left Millcreek and accepted the Des Moines job. He said the school board “felt it was in the school district’s interest to approve the settlement,” according to the Register’s reporting.

The Des Moines school board chair at the time, Teree Caldwell-Johnson, said the board did not know about the settlement during his hiring because it only became public afterward.

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Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

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