Before Des Moines schools blamed consultants for Ian Roberts, it paid them big bucks

Sooner or later, Des Moines Public Schools will need to hire a permanent replacement for Ian Roberts, an illegal alien who had been employed as the district superintendent until he was detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement on Sept. 26.

The story has put the district in a very negative national spotlight as people try to fathom how the talented Dr. Roberts was able to serve in multiple different school districts over the years without being caught.

For its part, DMPS blames the consulting firm that recommended Roberts. Alleging breach of contract and negligence, the district on Oct. 3 filed suit against JG Consulting, the firm hired in 2022 to identify and vet candidates for the role of district superintendent.

"Ian Roberts should have never been presented as a finalist, and if we knew what we know now, he would never have been hired,” said DMPS board chair Jackie Norris.

If the board wishes to pin the blame on consultants, it should at least consider its own role in using them — before and after Roberts was hired.

District hired consulting firm that paid Roberts

A Thursday report from the Associated Press said Roberts had requested the DMPS board’s emergency approval of $116,000 in contracts for “culturally responsive coaching” in September 2023, three months after he began his role as superintendent.

“But the district’s procurement manager discovered one contract was earmarked for a company that marketed Roberts as a consultant and speaker, sold his books and helped raise his profile,” the AP reported.

That company was Lively Paradox, a consulting firm in the Kansas City area founded by Dr. Nicole Price. Roberts was associated with Price and Lively Paradox as a consultant and speaker. It is unclear if he was a regular employee or a contractor.

Roberts was informed that a district contract with the company would be a conflict of interest. He then canceled the September 2023 board meeting he had requested.

Nevertheless, money was exchanged between DMPS and Lively Paradox only months later. The agenda for a December 2023 board retreat shows that Price was brought in to lead a two-hour teambuilding session. According to the AP, Price was paid $6,476 for the work, an amount Roberts could greenlight without the board’s approval.

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When contacted by The Gazette Monday, a representative for Nicole Price Consulting, LLC (for which Lively Paradox is a fictitious name) stated that Price would only be available to speak if The Gazette booked a 30-minute session on her online consulting calendar.

Shortly before a scheduled Oct 8 Zoom session, Price canceled via email, citing a “client emergency.” She did not respond to further inquiries from The Gazette by phone or email.

The Gazette sent a public records request to DMPS Monday afternoon seeking financial transactions related to the December 14, 2023 board retreat, plus any other transactions between the district and Price as well as her consulting firm.

The district acknowledged receipt of the request later Monday afternoon and advised that “due to the high volume of requests received since last week, processing may take additional time. Requests are addressed in the order in which they are received.”

As of Friday morning, The Gazette has not received the records requested from DMPS or a response to a Thursday noon follow-up inquiry.

Board members could plead ignorance to the association between Price and Roberts — although the position of “Executive Leadership Coach” with “Lively Paradox, LLC” was listed on Roberts' resume. And until last week, Roberts’ picture and biography were featured right below Price’s on the websites for both the Lively Paradox organization and Dr. Nicole Price as a consultant.

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Price’s consultant website also features a list of clients, including St. Louis Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, the Millcreek Township School District and Des Moines Public Schools – every district at which Roberts worked since Lively Paradox was founded.

Even if the Lively Paradox transaction is blamed solely on Roberts, other decisions to use consultants involve direct input from the board, including the $40,000 contract with JG Consulting, the firm DMPS is now suing for breach of contract and negligence.

The board had chosen JG out of 11 total firms who had submitted a bid, including three from Iowa. Of the four finalists, JG Consulting was not the least expensive.

‘Principal’ consultant’ part of more than one group paid by DMPS

Research from Laura Powell, an attorney from California and the founder of Californians for Good Governance, shows how education consultants not only helped forge the path to the hiring of Roberts – they continued influencing DMPS’ decisions as a district afterward, and with Roberts’ help.

Powell shared publicly available records showing the principal consultant from JG Consulting was Dr. Michael Hinojosa, a former superintendent for the Dallas Independent School District in Texas. Based on Powell's research, The Gazette confirmed Hinojosa is also the superintendent-in-residence for the Council of Great City Schools, a network of 81 urban school districts that includes DMPS.

The district paid $40,000 to CGCS in July 2024 for a two-year contract that began in 2023. The Gazette confirmed the contract to be for $60,000, with a $20,000 discount given if board approval was unanimous.

Powell also posted a 2024 conflict-of-interest disclosure signed by DMPS board member Kim Martarano that shows Martarano holds paid positions with CGCS.

Crabill presented his findings at a DMPS board work session alongside Michael Hinojosa, the principal consultant hired by JG Consulting to manage the search.

Hinojosa is connected to Ian Roberts through the organization New Leaders. He also works for CGCS.

DMPS pays CGCS tens… pic.twitter.com/0z2SswFJnp

— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) October 8, 2025

More groups, more cash, more connections

Hinojosa and Roberts were featured together as superintendents in a 2022 blog post for New Leaders, an organization that provides leadership training for aspiring principals, a program of which Roberts is an alum.

At the same New Leaders program, an instructor named Brendan O’Day taught a course on adaptive leadership for 10 years.

O’Day is a founding partner of The Meristem Group, LLC. At the later-canceled Sept. 2023 board meeting Roberts had initially scheduled seeking emergency approval to award $116,000 in contracts, the agenda shows he was to recommend contracts for “Adaptive Leadership and Culturally Responsive Coaching” for two organizations: Price's Lively Paradox and O'Day's Meristem Group.

New Leaders also provides strategic consulting for school districts. Roberts recommended at a March 26, 2024 work session that the district “approve New Leaders Organization as the vendor for the District Strategic Plan,” which the board approved unanimously. According to The Federalist, an online right-leaning news and opinion site, DMPS paid New Leaders $83,901 for the plan.

On their own, the transactions, both actual and proposed, might not seem terribly controversial.

Put together, the links between consultants and the money changing hands suggest a cozy – and lucrative – industry that DMPS is helping fund.

Where does DMPS go from here?

Some say that education consultants provide valuable skills and services to ensure schools can find the right leaders and focus on the right goals. Others say the business is a racket that wields too much influence and lines too many pockets.

DMPS has spent six figures of taxpayer money on that business. Now, it will spend boatloads more on attorneys to comb through the damage and shield the district from as much blame as possible for the Roberts fallout.

And that’s to say nothing of the expenditure required to find a new superintendent.

The DMPS board isn’t going to hire another illegal alien with a background too good to be verified. Those mistakes won’t be made again.

But if Iowa’s largest school district wants to avoid repeating other mistakes, it should start by relying less on fancy out-of-state experts. That’s a piece of advice I’ll give for free.

Comments: 319-398-8266; althea.cole@thegazette.com