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Irvington Community Schools will restart its search for a new CEO after pushback from staff, students, and parents over a hiring process that included the network’s board chair as a top candidate.
The decision announced by the charter network’s board of governors on Wednesday follows a rocky return to school for ICS, which typically serves over 900 students at three separate elementary, middle, and high school campuses on the eastside of Indianapolis. Former CEO Häns Lassiter resigned from the position in February, although a message to parents from the board chair did not explain why.
ICS staff say the board hosted a virtual meeting Aug. 4 in which Rashay Foster, chair of the network’s board of governors, was presented as a “top” candidate for the CEO job. In response, staff at the high school called out sick en masse before a public meeting of the board on Aug. 8, which was later canceled. The call-outs forced students into a virtual learning day, and drew parents’ attention to a search that some of them did not know much about.
“The concerning thing is that we don’t know what’s going on,” parent Shannon Abbott said on Friday, when she was trying to figure out why in-person learning was canceled. “As a parent, I feel like I should know what’s happening in my child’s school system. We were promised transparency, and there has been a great lack of transparency in this entire process.”
Dozens of students, staff, and parents gathered outside Irvington Preparatory Academy, the network’s high school, on Tuesday to demand a different CEO, citing staff concerns that Foster participated in the hiring process for a position for which she had also applied. The board also met in a closed-door session Tuesday to discuss the network’s leadership plan.
Staff and students at Tuesday’s protest also expressed concerns with Foster’s qualifications for the job.
Foster has previously served as a teacher and a literacy coach and consultant, and is listed as a manager for The New Teacher Project Teaching Fellows program in Indianapolis. Staff told Chalkbeat they desire a candidate with experience as an administrator.
A day after the protest, the board said in a statement that it was reopening the search for a new CEO. It acknowledged that school leadership must be supported by ICS in order to be successful.
At the same time, the board’s Wednesday statement also called Foster a “qualified and dedicated educational leader” who applied for the position in good faith and participated in a thorough interview process just like other highly ranked candidates.
The board’s statement did not lay out a timeline for the next steps of the search process. It also did not indicate whether Foster participated in the hiring process for other candidates.
Foster did not respond to multiple attempts to reach her for comment.
“I feel like with what’s happening, you’re just kind of ruining the essence of what the school is and not listening to the people who matter at the school, which are the teachers,” senior Oliver Lutzke said at the protest Tuesday. “And those teachers aren’t really being heard.”
Parents also questioned whether the hiring process was ethical.
“How are we teaching children, especially this age group, to grow up to be adults without teaching them integrity?” parent Danielle Beam said during the protest. “This is unethical, what they are doing. How they are handling it is wrong.”
But the board said its members are “deeply concerned” about the tone and content of recent public and social media commentary regarding Foster.
“While healthy discussion about school leadership is important, certain statements have crossed the line into personal attacks and unfounded allegations, including claims that are not supported by fact,” the board said. “This kind of rhetoric undermines not only the integrity of our process, but also the example we set for our students.”
Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.
