The varsity district superintendent arrested by ICE this week lied about attending MIT and was the topic of two intercourse discrimination lawsuits, The Submit has discovered.
Snappy-dresser Ian Andre Roberts, 51, was fired by Des Moines Public Colleges after it emerged he was working illegally and had been avoiding a deportation order.
Roberts spent over twenty years bouncing across the nation’s training system, holding high posts from coast-to-coast, but in addition proved controversial.
“He ruined our district for 3 years,” a former colleague within the state informed The Submit. “He was very easy, affable, however the overarching feeling you bought from him was smoke and mirrors, mystique.”
He’s additionally rumored to have been caught having intercourse with a feminine coworker on college property at his earlier position as a superintendent in rural Pennsylvania, a submit he held from 2020 to 2023.
Former colleagues claimed to The Submit Roberts was a sketchy determine and pathological liar. They mentioned they felt he was employed due to his Variety, Fairness and Inclusion bona fides — and claimed as soon as on the job he did little work.
“He was a participant. He favored the ladies,” a supply who knew Roberts, who requested to not be named, informed The Submit.
One other supply expressed concern to the college board in Pennsylvania Roberts may not be a authorized resident based mostly on informal feedback he had made — however their concern was ignored, they mentioned.
Studies point out Roberts has not been legally allowed to work within the US since no less than 2020, when his employment authorization expired.
Initially from Guyana, Roberts had been ordered to be deported throughout the Biden administration. He was arrested by ICE on Sept. 26 after making an attempt to flee officers and was discovered hiding in brush. The varsity-owned car he was driving contained a fixed-blade searching knife, a loaded Glock 19 firearm, and $3,000 in money.
Since then it has emerged he has faked lots of his credentials.
In line with the Des Moines Faculty District web site, the slick supervisor earned an MBA at MIT’s Sloan Faculty of Administration. Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the elite college informed The Submit they haven’t any document of it.
He additionally claimed to have attended Harvard and Georgetown. These colleges didn’t reply to requests for verification from The Submit.
For years, Roberts additionally falsely claimed he had a doctorate diploma from Baltimore’s Morgan State College. A faculty official informed the Des Moines Register he didn’t acquire a level from that faculty, both.
Roberts was superintendent of Millcreek Township colleges close to Erie, Penn., for 3 years.
Throughout that point the college district was inundated by lawsuits — and compelled to pay out over $400,000 in intercourse discrimination settlements — claiming Roberts promoted much less certified ladies over extra deserving males.
City gossip claimed Roberts ran out of Millcreek after he was caught having intercourse with a feminine coworker on college property — though this might not be verified by The Submit.
“There have been rumors flying round about his, let’s say, extracurricular actions,” a former colleague in that district mentioned.
A lawyer for Roberts didn’t instantly return The Submit’s request for remark.
On the time of Roberts’ abrupt resignation, nonetheless, Millcreek colleges was additionally within the strategy of negotiating a $250,000 a settlement with former HR chief Melody Ellington. She was threatening to sue the district for “constructive discharge” following her personal resignation in 2022 after just one 12 months on the job.
“Constructive discharge,” in accordance with the Labor Dept., applies to conditions when a resignation is involuntary attributable to a hostile or insupportable work setting.
Apart from Ellington, Roberts is the one college district official recognized by identify within the settlement, in accordance with the Erie Occasions-Information.
One supply informed The Submit that Ellington was Roberts’ girlfriend, however this might not be confirmed. Ellington, moved out of state after her resignation, and didn’t return requires remark.
In line with Ellington’s LinkedIn profile, she labored at St. Louis public colleges as Director of Price range from 2015-2020, the identical time Roberts was superintendent of St. Louis public colleges.
A former colleague informed The Submit that Roberts “introduced Ellington with him” to Millcreek when he accepted the job.
Former colleagues and Millcreek group members mentioned some members of the college board have been very “drawn to” notions of DEI and fairness, which drew them towards Roberts as a candidate regardless of his “evident pink flags.”
Amongst these pink flags, a 2020 firearms violation, which is on the root of him now being detained for removing.
As soon as he began the job, coworkers, mother and father, and members of the group seen one thing was off.
“It appeared like he was extra concerning the persona of being the superintendent and not essentially fulfilling all of the tasks to the district and oldsters and college students,” a former colleague, who didn’t need to be named, informed The Submit.
“However these locally who have been happy together with his rent, from a DEI perspective, have been reluctant to handle it, or didn’t see it.”
Others seen Roberts appeared extra preoccupied with operating a side-hustle, giving speeches about racial fairness and tending to varied BLM-themed initiatives, than doing the work of a college superintendent.
Former colleagues additionally mentioned he was a pathological deceiver, telling lies about extraordinary, conversational issues that weren’t constant from individual to individual — corresponding to what number of kids he had.
Even nonetheless, whereas Roberts publicly claims to have a spouse, his former co-worker informed The Submit that they had by no means met or seen her and wouldn’t be stunned if she didn’t exist. One other one who knew Roberts mentioned Roberts didn’t disguise the very fact he was actively on the wife-hunt for immigration causes.
In his position at Des Moines colleges, the biggest district within the state, Roberts raked in a fats $287,000 annual base wage. He formally resigned on Wednesday, whereas detained.
The district insists it didn’t break any legal guidelines and obtained all the suitable paperwork to confirm his employment eligibility.
Millcreek employed him following a vetting and search course of by Minneapolis-based recruitment agency Ray and Associates, a consultant for Millcreek informed The Submit. The recruitment firm didn’t reply to a request for remark.
“The Faculty District obtained all required clearances, together with an FBI background verify, previous to Roberts serving as Superintendent. No disqualifying occasions have been recognized,” the college district mentioned in an announcement.
Extra surprising, it was revealed this week Roberts has an lively Democrat voter registration in Maryland, prompting congressional Republicans to demand solutions from the Maryland State Board of Elections about “gaping holes” within the state’s election integrity programs, in accordance with Fox Information.
Earlier than transferring to small city Pennsylvania, Roberts held a high-power, soft job as Chief Colleges Officer for Aspire Public Colleges in Oakland, Calif. and was a superintendent for public colleges in St. Louis, Mo., and was a principal at excessive colleges in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.
The Submit has additionally discovered Roberts labored as a full-time substitute trainer within the New York Metropolis public college system from October 2000 to September 2001.
Information point out he got here to the US from his native Guyana to check at Baltimore’s Coppin State College, the place he graduated in 1998. He then earned a grasp’s diploma from St. John’s College in Queens.
Roberts can be an Olympian, having competed for Guyana within the 2000 Sydney Video games within the males’s 800m.
In 2022 he informed his alma mater, Coppin State College: “Sooner or later I hope to return to my birthplace of Guyana, South America as a public servant.”
That dream will seemingly be occurring prior to he deliberate.
