The Irvington Community Schools board is relaunching a search for its next leader after parents and staff protested a leading candidate for the job.
The board had hoped to appoint its chair, Rashay Foster, as its next CEO, but backed away from the decision after dozens protested the idea this week.
The charter school network, which includes elementary, middle and high schools in the eastside neighborhood, is well-established and serves about 1,000 kids in what parents describe as a tight-knit community. But the network has been without a leader since last spring, and some of the board’s actions this summer have led teachers, parents and students to publicly challenge the school board’s search process.
Teachers say they were invited to a virtual town hall on Aug. 4 where Foster was presented as a leading candidate for the position despite having sat in on interviews with other CEO finalists earlier in the summer.
That raised concerns about whether other candidates were given fair consideration, said John Elmore, a social studies teacher at Irvington Preparatory Academy.
“I certainly don’t think it’s ethical to have a candidate in on the interview process for other candidates without resigning their influential board chair position,” Elmore said. “I would like more transparency from the board. The community, the teachers, the staff, the students — they have a right to know what processes are happening behind closed doors.”
Upcoming meeting
ICS school board meeting
🗓️ 6 p.m. Aug. 27
📍 Irvington Community Middle School, 6040 E. Pleasant Run Parkway South Drive
The concerns escalated last week when the board called, then canceled a public meeting after teachers called off work and forced an unplanned e-learning day at the charter network’s high school.
Then on Tuesday, Aug. 12, parents, teachers and staff rallied outside of a closed-door meeting, where board members met to discuss the network’s leadership. The next day, Alexandra Curlin, an attorney representing the board, released a statement saying the board would reopen its search.
“Given the lack of community support for moving forward with Ms. Foster’s appointment, the board has determined that we will reopen the CEO search,” the statement read, in part. “This decision is not a reflection on Ms. Foster’s character or qualifications, which remain strong, but rather an acknowledgment that school leadership must be supported by the ICS community to be successful.”
The statement did not address whether Foster would be involved in future CEO search efforts, and did not describe what reopening the search would entail. Foster did not respond to multiple emailed requests by Mirror Indy to comment.
Little shared publicly about CEO search
The charter network’s board isn’t sharing much publicly.
None of the six board members returned emails sent by Mirror Indy this week. And meeting minutes posted to the charter network’s website provided limited context for CEO search discussions this spring.
The board discussed posting its open CEO role during an April meeting, according to the meeting minutes. And, in May, according to another set of minutes, a search committee interviewed candidates with hopes of narrowing their search to two finalists by June.
No minutes have been posted since May, and it’s unclear whether the board has met since then.
Some parents say they’ve only recently learned about the search through conversations with their kids or teachers. Educators say they’ve pieced together what little they know from talking to a select number of teachers who were invited to candidate interviews.
But, educators say, board members haven’t provided information directly.
“They have not told us anything,” said Breanne Cline, a mom of three students attending Irvington Community Schools. “All of it feels very unethical and very not transparent.”
Staff surprised by CEO finalist
Some say they believe Foster, who joined the Irvington Community Schools board in May 2024 and became its chair in August 2024, had early interest in the CEO role but was not among the two finalists invited for interviews over the summer.
Elmore was invited to an interview panel for one of the finalists. He said Foster also participated in the interview. He said he heard very little about the CEO search until last week when Foster was presented as the leading candidate.
“The revelation of a third candidate came as a surprise,” Elmore said. “There was really no information about that over the summer.”
Teachers who attended the Aug. 4 town hall say they preferred someone with a background as a principal or building-level administrator.
The board chair’s LinkedIn page shows that she has worked as an elementary school teacher and instructional coach, but never as a school administrator. There’s also no record of Foster having an educator’s license in Indiana.
The board, in the statement shared through an attorney, defended Foster’s experience and the board’s search process.
“Ms. Foster is a qualified and dedicated educational leader who applied for the CEO position in good faith and participated in a thorough interview process, as did several other highly ranked candidates,” the statement read, in part. “At every step, the board acted within the parameters of a fair, professional and transparent search, with the goal of securing the best available leader for our school community.”
Public meeting canceled amid outcry
The frustration came to a head last week when word spread that the board planned to have a public meeting Aug. 8 — a Friday night.
Staff say they only found out about the meeting through a sign posted at the entrance of one of the schools, and speculation quickly spread that the board might use the meeting to take a vote on the CEO position.
Some teachers say they made a plan to call off work, and by the evening of Aug. 7, families were notified the high school would move to e-learning. The next day, around 2 p.m., the school network posted an update to its Facebook page communicating that its Friday evening meeting was canceled.
“The decision was made to allow the (board) additional time to reflect on incoming communications regarding our public CEO search, as well as the interruption to the learning experience at our schools,” the notification read.
Just after, the Facebook page posted notification of another meeting — a closed door session Aug. 12 with the brief descriptor: “concerning the ICS leadership plan.”
CEO search reopened
Teachers, students and parents gathered outside the Aug. 12 meeting. They carried signs reading “We Demand Transparency” and “We Demand a Qualified CEO.” Dozens stayed for the duration of the two-hour closed meeting, chanting “hold the hire” and “your corruption is the disruption.”
Some expressed optimism that the board might be listening to their concerns. Others say they felt cheated out of their opportunity to speak at the canceled Aug. 12 meeting.
The board, in its written statement, criticized the tone comments had taken in recent days, especially on social media. Curlin wrote, without providing specific examples, that “certain statements have crossed the line into personal attacks and unfounded allegations, including claims that are not supported by fact.”
“As educators and community leaders, we have a shared responsibility to teach our students the value of civil discourse — the ability to disagree passionately while remaining respectful, to listen to differing opinions with an open mind, and to ground our criticism in facts rather than personal insult,” the statement reads, in part. “We ask our community members, including our faculty, to model this standard.”
While teachers say they’re encouraged by the decision to reopen the CEO search, they also expressed a lack of confidence in the board moving forward.
“They have removed the chance for meaningful discourse along every step of the way by cancelling meetings, refusing to respond to questions from the public, and by failing to communicate with any transparency or regularity,” Irvington teachers wrote in a provided statement. “Now they have now chosen to blame faculty for community upset regarding their ethical missteps. Irvington and ICS deserves better.”
The board’s next scheduled public meeting is 6 p.m. Aug. 27 at Irvington Community Middle School, 6040 E. Pleasant Run Parkway S. Drive.
A correction was made on Aug. 18, 2025: An earlier version of this article misspelled attorney Alexandra Curlin’s name.
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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.
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