Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour).

It’s been a while since I’ve issued a Legislative Newsletter. It’s been a busy summer. As Fall arrives, I am beginning to work on legislation for next session along with the usual constituent work. Of course, there are also the hot issues that arise at any time of the year, and I am certainly engaged in those as well. The hot issue right now is the news on Friday, Sept. 26, that the Des Moines Public School Board had hired an Illegal Immigrant, Mr. Ian Roberts, for its highest position in the district, the Superintendent. This shocking revelation is compounded by numerous other factors surrounding Mr. Roberts arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.). The overarching issue is of course that Mr. Roberts is a foreign national that is in the country illegally and was given a “Final Order of Deportation” in May of 2024, which was likely ignored by the Biden Administration. Mr. Roberts fled the I.C.E. agents in his car, then on foot, endangering the agents and the public, and was caught hiding in the woods nearby. He was also found to be carrying a loaded handgun in his school owned vehicle, along with $3,000 cash. It’s also been revealed that his employment forms (I-9) included a false claim of U.S. Citizenship, which is an act of perjury. I won’t cover all the other many details here, much has already been written in the media about his arrest, and much more detail is forthcoming soon. My aim here is to review the legislature’s action thus far, and what some of the possible next steps could be.

First, the House Government Oversight Committee Chair, Rep. Charles Thomson, immediately issued a letter ordering the DMPS School Board to preserve any, and all documentation, including emails and other electronic documents, regarding Mr. Roberts employment. There are many questions that need to be answered and hopefully most can be answered after reviewing this documentation. This letter is a first step in initiating a thorough investigation.

That committee under Chair Thomson will be conducting interviews, hearings, and reviewing relative documents in the coming weeks. There are also at least two consulting firms involved in the hiring of Mr. Roberts, they, along with the DMPS School Board, will be part of the investigation. I’m confident the investigation will turn up more facts and possibly lead in directions unknown as of this early writing.

The most fundamental responsibility of any school board is the hiring of the school superintendent. The superintendent is responsible for all the operations of the school district, including implementing all the policies approved by the board and in hiring and managing all the employees of the district. All other responsibilities of a school board are mere details compared to that one fundamental task. What is abundantly clear to me is that the DMPS School Board has severely failed at that most fundamental responsibility and can not be trusted to manage the affairs of Iowa’s largest school district. That failure also brings into question the hiring practices up and down the chain throughout a school district with thousands of employees. Therefore, I will be pressing for either the governor, or the Dept. of Education, to temporarily take over the operation of DMPS so that a fair and accurate review of the hiring practices and employees can be conducted.

The Iowa Dept. of Education’s Board of Education Examiners (BoEE) had issued Mr. Roberts an Iowa Administrator’s License in 2023 shortly after he was hired by DMPS. This will also be the subject of an investigation, possibly in the House Education Committee under Chair Skyler Wheeler. As we now know, several of the degrees Mr. Roberts had claimed to possess have been found to be false, adding to the frustration as to how he passed review by the school board and their consultants, let alone the BoEE. These lapses, along with understanding how a foreign national who is in the country illegally could be given a license, will need to be investigated and resolved. Changes to that process may also be forthcoming in the next legislative session.

It is also clear to me that a school district with 30,000 students is far too large, and far too prone to this type of corruption. In the coming legislative session I will also be pressing for the DMPS to be broken up into a number of independent districts, possibly in the 5-7 range. This will bring the school boards closer to the families they serve and therefore increase the oversight from the citizens they serve.

On Saturday following the arrest, the DMPS school board took a bizarre action by placing Mr. Roberts on “paid Administrative Leave”. It’s inconceivable that a school board would take such an action in the face of the simple fact that their employee, the superintendent, has been ordered to be deported as an Illegal Foreign National, and will possibly be charged for numerous crimes including fleeing law enforcement, perjury, and weapons charges. This act by the school board may also be a crime itself under Federal law, knowingly employing a Foreign National in the country illegally is also a federal crime. The following week Mr. Roberts finally resigned his position as even more revelations were revealed, including past criminal offenses.

Needless to say, I am appalled by all of this. Even more appalling is the response by many top Iowa Democrats in defending Mr. Roberts actions. The House committees will be dealing with this over the coming months, and in the 2026 legislative session.

Rep. Dean Fisher’s district covers all of Poweshiek County and most of Tama County excluding the northeast corner.