Two Irvington Community Schools board members will no longer serve the eastside charter network after a leadership shakeup this week.
Rashay Foster, who previously chaired the board, gave her resignation during the board’s Aug. 27 meeting, reading a statement that defended her ethics and academic credentials.
She had been considered a top candidate for the network’s open CEO position until parents, teachers and staff protested the idea this month.
Get the backstory
In a prepared statement, Foster said she resigned “to ensure that the work and the path moving forward for Irvington is not hindered.”
Meanwhile, the board’s academic committee chair, Ashli Adams, was voted out of her position by the remaining board members.
Adams, speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, said she believed the board was acting in retaliation for a report of sexual assault she brought against an Irvington staff member.
“Rather than issuing an appropriate and timely investigation, the matter was mishandled and minimized,” Adams said. “I was later told to recuse myself from discussions because I was deemed too emotional.”
The board did not directly address Adams’ comments. In a statement provided afterward, an attorney for the board said, in part, “the board’s decision to remove Ashli Adams from the ICS Board was for governance reasons and was not connected to her public allegation of sexual assault.”
Three new board members, meanwhile, were installed during the meeting. And, the board approved new policies, including on anti-retaliation and conflict of interest.
The overhaul comes just weeks after the board said it would reopen its CEO search and no longer pursue Foster as a candidate.
In the meeting Aug. 27, interim chair Jamie Scott announced that the board is seeking an outside consultant to help in its CEO search moving forward. After the meeting, Foster said she has no interest in pursuing the role.
Rashay Foster speaks
Irvington Community Schools, which includes elementary, middle and high schools in the eastside neighborhood, is well-established and serves about 1,000 kids. The network has been without a CEO since this spring.
Foster’s consideration for the position spread quickly this month after staff were invited to a virtual town hall with her near the start of the school year.
At the time, Irvington Community Schools staff raised concerns about transparency surrounding the CEO search and said they’d hoped the board would consider candidates with more experience in school leadership.
Foster, who has said very little publicly before this point, defended her record at the beginning of the Aug. 27 board meeting and in speaking to reporters afterward.
She said she has passed an administrators’ exam, completed a master’s program in administration and has spent the last five years coaching educators representing more than 70 schools.
Foster said she never played a role on the Irvington search committee formed to evaluate candidates. Though she initially applied for the job, she said the search reached a point where she was no longer the leading candidate.
When that candidate was brought in for a town hall with staff, Foster said she was advised it would be appropriate to attend to learn more about the potential leader she would be working with as chair of the school board.
It was only after the search committee disqualified that candidate, Foster said, that she was informed she was still being considered for the position.
While the former board chair maintains she would have been a good leader for the school system, she said she recognizes that her candidacy had become a distraction.
“It was hard to make the choice to resign because my mindset, my intentionality is to do what’s best for kids,” Foster said, “but, it felt like the narratives were so loud and false that it would be hard to move forward or build rapport even more than I had already done so.”
Another board member walks away
Just minutes after Foster resigned her position on the board, members took a vote to remove Adams from the governing body. Less is known about why.
Adams spoke for just under three minutes during public comment, saying that she believed school officials did not appropriately handle her report of sexual assault. She also distanced herself from the CEO search process and said that she was never part of the committee that reviewed candidates.
After the meeting, Adams told a reporter she was pressured to resign from the board, but refused.
In a written statement, the board’s attorney Alexandra Curlin said that Adams was removed for “governance reasons, including the board’s need to preserve impartiality, avoid the appearance of impropriety in ongoing leadership decisions and maintain effective board function.”
The statement further said that Adams’ comments during the Aug. 27 meeting are being treated as a report of sexual assault and that the school system “immediately initiated the steps necessary for a formal investigation.”
The meeting left a weird taste in the mouth of the more than two dozen parents and staff who attended.
Some thanked the board for revisiting its CEO search and introducing new members. Others expressed continued concern about communication and transparency. They pointed to a recent lack of sharing school board meeting details in advance online — something the school network had done in the past.
“There were protests at the school two weeks ago,” social studies teacher John Elmore said during a public comment. “And it’s been pretty much radio silence over the last two weeks over what steps that the board was taking.”
Curlin says the network’s recent call-out for new board members remains active. Those who are interested are asked to submit a resume and cover letter to board@ics-charter.org by Sept. 1.
Though, Curlin said candidates would likely be considered later on as well.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 17.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
