KDSN RADIO News
State agency that licensed ex-Des Moines superintendent to be audited
The State Auditor’s Office will review the procedures a state agency used to issue a professional administrator’s license to Ian Roberts, the former Des Moines superintendent who faces federal gun charges and is accused of falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen.
Last week, members of the Des Moines School Board and its acting superintendent asked State Auditor Rob Sand’s office to re-audit the district. Today, State Senator Tony Bisignano requested an audit of the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners' licensing and background check procedures. Bisignano said Iowans deserve to understand how processes at the state level failed to identify Roberts’ deceptions, which included his claims of U.S. citizenship and degrees he did not earn.
“Everybody that touched this got duped, whether it was in another state or whether it was here in the state of Iowa,” Bisignano told Radio Iowa. “There’s just a number of failures and so they’re just another step to get the full picture of what happened.”
Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, said the Iowa Senate Oversight Committee should hold public hearings to review how Roberts got that state license and how he landed the job leading Iowa’s largest school district. “With so many agencies involved, it will help us in the future in a lot of other ways,” Bisignano said.
Earlier this month, Governor Kim Reynolds directed all state licensing agencies to check the federal E-Verify and SAVE systems to confirm applicants are authorized to work in the United States. A few Republican lawmakers have called for the state to take over management of Iowa’s largest school district. Three Republican senators had asked State Auditor Rob Sand to launch an investigation of Des Moines Public Schools, but Sand said state law required the request had to come from someone within the school district. School officials made that request on October 14.
