The Des Moines Register

'Sky's the limit': Des Moines Public Schools superintendent has big hopes after first year

By Samantha Hernandez, Des Moines Register,

1 day ago

Within the first few months of his first year as superintendent, Ian Roberts managed to visit every school in the Des Moines school district.

It was a feat some longtime school board members have not accomplished.

The visits were part of a vow Roberts made to work with students and staff as he stepped into the role as the district's 15th superintendent.

"There's so much that has caused me and inspired me to just think about this question around ‘Why am I here?’" he told the Des Moines Register. "And I'm talking about the experiences that include just inheriting an amazing group of adults who are either in leadership or teaching and serving students in schools that demonstrate every single day their commitment to provide our students with a quality public education."

Roberts replaced embattled Superintendent Tom Ahart, who resigned at the end of the 2021-22 school year after almost a decade in the role. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ahart found himself in the state's crosshairs for carrying out the Des Moines School Board's directive to have students start the 2020-21 school year online in violation of state law.

He later received a written reprimand from the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners for the move.

At the time, Iowa law required schools to offer families at least 50% in-person instruction. School officials could apply for a waiver to take school online for two weeks.

Ahart left at a time when Iowa's largest and most diverse school district was struggling to help students recover academically from the pandemic, student achievement lagged behind the school board's then-recently set goals of improving Black male student achievement in the areas of mathematics and reading, and housing and food insecurity among students were on the rise. Associate Superintendent Matt Smith served as interim superintendent while the school board launched a closed, nationwide search to fill the position during the 2022-23 school year.

Roberts' 2023 appointment was called "historic" by many because he is the first person of color to lead Des Moines Public Schools in its 117-year history. More than half of the district's 30,000-plus students identify as people of color.

"I certainly recognize the historical moment when I was selected as being the first person of color to lead Des Moines Public Schools," Roberts said. "All my interactions with students, with their families ― certainly the time that I spent in classrooms ― looking at how students respond to me, the conversations, the questions that they asked really reinforces to me now that representation really does matter."

While student academics have yet to hit benchmarks set by the school board ― particularly for Black male students ― Des Moines officials say Roberts has done what he promised: leading the district with compassion and becoming a bridge between school officials and community members.

Roberts and his team mingled with students and staff at each school, read to classes and listened to people's thoughts and concerns.

"Dr. Roberts has done exactly what he said he was going to do from the onset, which is he's going to lead with a radical empathy and is going to be present both in the schools and in the community," Smith said. "And he's going to lead systemic change. And, I think, he's delivered on all three of those aspects."

Some of Roberts' successes have been attributed to his visibility in the schools and community during the school year.

That has been important as the district begins to look at its finances and the state of education in Iowa and nationally, said School Board Chair Jackie Norris.

"I think just in general, the traditional model of education is being reviewed," Norris said. "And it's really imperative that DMPS does that. In addition, we've seen repeated budget cuts by the state and also some enrollment impacts because of open enrollment. And all of these you can look at them as challenges or opportunities.

Roberts and his staff have been looking at these issues and others in a thoughtful and strategic manner, she said.

In June, the board signaled its continued support of the direction Roberts is taking the district by approving a new three-year contract .

Here are Roberts' big takeaways from his first year at Des Moines Public Schools.

'Anything is achievable,' DMPS Superintendent Ian Roberts says

Visiting students in schools has helped Roberts understand the magnitude of his position as the first Black Des Moines Public Schools superintendent.

"One of the most memorable moments for me this year comes from that visit because of a fourth grade Black boy," Roberts said.

Roberts overheard a conversation between a "very charismatic" student and his friends.

"He said out loud, 'Yo, did y'all know he was gonna be Black?'" Roberts recounted. "And so, my interest was piqued and I started to listen to the conversation."

The student's friends reminded him they had been told the day before that a "very important person was going to visit," he said.

The child's question got him thinking.

"In my mind, the thought that I had was 'Wow, I wonder why he never associated someone being important with being Black as well?'" Roberts said.

On a visit to North High School to moderate a panel, students stopped him to chat or simply introduce themselves. Roberts took the time to connect with each student.

Those conversations sometimes get personal, he said.

"Many students have asked me if I have had to face any challenges based on my racial or ethnic makeup, based on my skin color," he said.

He tells them the truth during those conversations: Yes.

"I've had to face challenges based on people's perception of who I am or what I'm capable of," Roberts said. "But I always end those conversations by reminding them that anything is achievable or possible, the sky's the limit. Whatever they set their minds to do regardless of their cultural background, their phenotype or historical makeup, they can achieve anything."

Striving to boost achievement among Black, Latino males

For years, Des Moines Public School officials have worked to improve student achievement and offer a more equitable education. The focus in recent years has been on Black male student achievement in math and reading.

Ahead of the next school year, the school board has added Hispanic male student achievement as part of this initiative.

The change in focus is because of the district's growing Hispanic and Black populations, Roberts said. About 21% of the district's students are Black and almost 33% are Hispanic.

"We certainly grounded our establishment of interim goals and interim guardrails based on the data that is before us and so when we've looked at the data, for example, our students in grades six through eight, we have seen some sort of disparities around achievement between our all-student groups versus our Black and Latinx males," Roberts said.

"We decided to focus on ways to provide appropriate intervention to those students so that they can also get caught up."

One tactic includes professional development for teachers.

"I think in the schools we've seen growth," he said, "What we tend to monitor in the public space is proficiency, and we've not seen our proficiency numbers increasing."

The board regularly hears from school officials and staff about how students are faring in the classroom. In recent months, educators have begun to give short presentations before the monitoring reports to highlight the positives they are seeing in the classroom.

"While we are not necessarily at proficiency for those board monitoring (reports), there's really significant and celebratory growth happening in many of our classrooms in our schools," Roberts said.

'When elephants fight': Working to build bridges with state government

In March, Roberts spoke during Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow's confirmation hearing, praising Snow's visits to district schools and saying she "anchored her discussions and conversations in data that is credible and reliable."

During an April 2 board meeting, several people raised concerns about Roberts' support for Snow.

At the time, Roberts said "when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled upon" when talking about building inroads with lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds' administration. The saying is a paraphrase of an African proverb .

“ When people in positions of influence are not trying to find middle ground and see spaces where we can get along and collaborate only one group of individuals or two tends to get hurt," he told the Register. "Those are children and the teachers who serve them . "

Mentor urges Roberts: 'Let this be more than just a prayer answer'

Roberts' worst day on the job was when he received the news early March 31 that longtime school board member Teree Caldwell-Johnson had lost her battle with cancer.

Caldwell-Johnson announced she had cancer last year and resigned from the school board in early March due to her declining health.

Roberts has publicly credited Caldwell-Johnson, who served on the board for 18 years, with persuading him to accept the job at DMPS. At her funeral, Roberts told a packed church that Caldwell-Johnson was the first person he had considered a mentor in almost 25 years.

“In nine months, Teree Caldwell-Johnson has impacted my professional pursuits, how I view my role as a pre-K-12 educator and even how I think about myself as a person,” Roberts said.

He was, and still is, inspired by Caldwell-Johnson's "unquestionable" love for Des Moines Public Schools. During one conversation, she told the superintendent that he was a long-awaited addition to the school district.

"She said, 'Dr. Roberts, I prayed for you for many years, and the people of this community prayed for you, and here you are. Let this be more than just a prayer answer,'" he recounted.

Roberts hopes to carry on the vision Caldwell-Johnson had for the district.

“(I want) to carry on her dream and build upon her legacy, but never to try to fill her shoes." Roberts said. "But I definitely want to do my small part in making her dream a reality, and that dream is Des Moines Public Schools being an exemplary pre-K-12 institution where every single student receives a quality education."

'Best day of my life': Two stand out from a memorable first year

One of two events that stood out for Roberts from his first year was Team Frostbyte ― students Sujal Pokhrel, Champ-Pacifique Mukiza, Jefrey Alen, Moss Louvan and Romas Pokhrel ― being chosen to present an app they designed as part of the NASA App Development Challenge last December. The app shows what a landing on the moon might look like based upon the data NASA had given them.

His pride was apparent in May when he moderated a panel at North High School meant to give team members a chance to talk about their project and their visit to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Roberts ― a former Olympian who is known for being high energy ― worked hard to get the crowd of students and staff excited to greet the team as they walked on stage. He played the clean version of the song "We Ready" by Archie Eversole twice to hype them up.

"Definitely one of the best days because it sends the message not only to the state of Iowa, but to the entire country that there is quality education being delivered to students in Des Moines Public Schools," Roberts said of the team going to Houston, "and Des Moines Public Schools have some of the smartest and most amazing scholars in grades pre-K through 12 right here in the middle of the country."

The second day that stands out to Roberts was the first day of the 2023-24 school year. He watched a preschool student get out of her parents' car and take in the scene of staff greeting children and their parents. She eventually joined the other students.

"There she is, holding the hands of her peers, all of whom are having their very first day of school and she threw her hands up in the air and said, ‘This is the best day of my life,’" he recalled.

Her comment spurred Roberts to send an email to several district leaders.

"I posed the question to them, ‘What do we have to do as a school system to make sure that every single student ― not only in pre-K, but pre-K through 12 ― have many opportunities where they are visiting our schools and they are in our classrooms saying, ‘This is the best day of my life’?" he said.

Roberts is still working to find an answer to that question.

Samantha Hernandez covers education for the Register. Reach her at (515) 851-0982 or svhernandez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @svhernandez or Facebook at facebook.com/svhernandezreporter .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 'Sky's the limit': Des Moines Public Schools superintendent has big hopes after first year