Iowa education director who resigned takes new state job

DES MOINES — The former head of Iowa’s state education agency, who last month announced she was resigning to pursue other opportunities, now has a new job with the state.

Ann Lebo, the former director of the Iowa Department of Education, started Monday as the performance results administrator for Early Childhood Iowa, which falls under the umbrella of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

“She brings a broad range of expertise in educational leadership to our team,” HHS spokesman Alex Carfrae responded in an email to The Gazette. “Her skills, relationships and understanding of educational systems will be assets as we develop a comprehensive model for prevention that is committed to supporting the well-being of young children, families, and caregivers.”

Carfrae said Lebo’s immediate focus will be related to Early Childhood Iowa’s recent application to the Administration for Children and Families grant, which emphasizes strengthening partnerships between the early childhood education and child welfare systems.

“In addition, she will assess our opportunities for collaborating with our K-12 education partners,” Carfrae wrote.

Lebo took a pay cut by leaving the Department of Education and joining Early Childhood Iowa. Her annual salary as director of the education department was $154,300 for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022, according to a state directory.

Her new annual salary is $128,960, with a one-time recruitment bonus of $7,600, according to HHS.

Lebo announced her resignation in February, soon after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that allows families to use taxpayer money to pay for private school tuition.

Her last day as director was March 14.

Reynolds earlier this month appointed Chad Aldis, an Iowa native with degrees in economics and law, and experience working for multiple charter school and private school choice think tanks, to succeed Lebo.

Aldis served as vice president for Ohio policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where he began working in 2013. He has provided testimony and worked with the state’s governor, lawmakers and state education officials on school funding, charter school accountability, graduation requirements and private school choice, according to his biography on the institute’s website.

Before joining Fordham, Aldis served as the executive director of School Choice Ohio and has worked at the Florida Department of Education and for the Walton Family Foundation and as a legislative analyst for the Education Committee of the Florida House of Representatives.

Unlike Lebo — who holds doctorate degrees in education administration, previously served as executive director of the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners, was a secondary school principal and taught English for 17 years — Aldis has no experience teaching or serving as a school administrator, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, criticized Reynolds’ pick for never having worked or taught in a public school.

“(H)e’s a lobbyist who has worked for special interest groups that push private school vouchers and ending retirement plans like IPERS,” Konfrst said in a statement.

The governor’s office and Department of Education provided a single email from Lebo to Heather Nahas in the governor’s office in response to a records request from The Gazette for all communications to and from the governor, her office and Lebo from Jan. 1 to Feb. 27 that reference her resignation, termination, transition, departure or employment.

The two-sentence email from Lebo to the governor’s office states her resignation is effective March 14 and that she looks forward to "cooperating with the period of transition and wish all the best for my successor and the Iowa Department of Education."

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com