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Indianapolis Public Faculties board member Gayle Cosby introduced her resignation from the board on Tuesday, simply over a yr into her time period.
In a press release at a board assembly, Cosby mentioned she would finish her service on the board on Friday as a result of ongoing well being challenges. In her remarks, she criticized current efforts to change Indianapolis Public Faculties because it grapples with declining enrollment and a aggressive constitution faculty sector.
Her departure leaves a emptiness on the seven-member board, which is able to lose a substantial quantity of energy underneath a brand new regulation that redistributes assets between district and constitution faculties.
Starting this yr, a brand new nine-member board appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett will assume important monetary powers usually reserved for the varsity board, together with the power to levy property taxes, request a referendum on the poll, and challenge bonds for debt. The appointed board is slated to achieve management of IPS buildings and transportation for each district and constitution faculties in 2028.
“We have to be trustworthy in regards to the present second,” mentioned Cosby, who serves as board secretary and represents the District 2 portion of IPS that stretches from components of the Close to Eastside to the Far Eastside. “We’re witnessing an unprecedented and coordinated assault on the very thought of ‘public’ in public schooling.”
The board elected Allissa Impink as its new secretary in a cut up vote that additionally mirrored a divided vote over whether or not to postpone the vote for secretary.
Board president Hope Duke Star and board members Allissa Impink, Nicole Carey, and Cosby — who all rejected a movement to postpone a vote for secretary till the vacant District 2 seat is stuffed — supported Impink for secretary. Board members Deandra Thompson, Ashley Thomas, and Angelia Moore voted to contest the agenda and later voted for Thompson for secretary.
Cosby was elected to the board in 2024. She additionally served on the board from 2013 to 2016.
Cosby kicked off her second time period in workplace with a sharp critique of efforts to dissolve IPS, together with a invoice that will have changed it solely with constitution faculties. Over the previous yr, she has proven robust help for preserving conventional district faculties, backing a proposal to take care of an elected board that serves as the only constitution faculty authorizer.
Cosby was first elected to the board in 2012 with donations from teams that help constitution faculties and faculty selection, together with Stand for Youngsters Indiana and Indiana Democrats for Training Reform.
However in her first time period, she turned a critic of the district’s reform plans, which included partnering with constitution faculty operators via the district’s Innovation Community. She didn’t search reelection on the finish of her first time period.
Cosby ran once more in 2024, this time with a $28,000 donation from the political motion committee for the Indiana State Academics Affiliation. She defeated reform-backed candidate Hasaan Rashid, who raised about $12,000 greater than her, with 54% of the vote.
In her resignation remarks, Cosby criticized the transfer handy management of IPS buildings over to the brand new appointed board, arguing that they don’t seem to be “surplus commodities to be auctioned off.”
“To see these property stripped away underneath the guise of selection is a betrayal of the generations of households who constructed this district,” she mentioned. “The privatization of public faculties — the sluggish, calculated dismantling of a unified district right into a fragmented market — is just not a reform. It’s a displacement of the general public’s voice.”
State regulation requires that the varsity board appoint somebody who lives in IPS boundaries to fill Cosby’s seat and end her time period, which ends in 2028. Board coverage requires the board to fill Cosby’s emptiness inside 30 days. Three different seats are additionally up for election this yr, and District 4 board member Impink — whose time period ends in 2028 — has introduced a run for Indiana Senate District 46.
Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township faculties for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.
