The board of the state’s largest school district has voted to give interim superintendent Matt Smith the job permanently. Smith was named interim superintendent of the Des Moines schools almost one year ago after former superintendent Ian Roberts was arrested by ICE agents.
District leaders say Smith has expanded outreach for multilingual families and helped shape the districts Reimagining Education initiative. Smith says the district can expect him to be the same kind of leader he was in his previous role. “I look at working with my team and with others and getting their feedback around how do we need to continue to evolve and shift our infrastructure to make sure that we are delivering on these promises and these commitments to students and families?,” Smith says.
Smith says his top priorities include improving literacy outcomes and graduation rates, and moving forward with the district redesign. “I will certainly implement my style, which is to be very collaborative and to bring folks around the table, to learn from their experiences and to make sure we have a multitude and diversity of voices there,” Smith says.
Federal officials say former Des Moines Superintendent Roberts entered the U.S. from Guyana in 1999 on a student visa, was not authorized to work in the U.S. He was found to have a gun in the district car he was driving when he was arrested. Roberts reached a plea deal and was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to lying about being a citizen and illegally possessing guns. He is expected to be deported back to Guyana when his sentence is complete.
(Maura Curran, Iowa Public Radio, contributed to this story)