Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.Indianapolis Public Schools board member Gayle Cosby announced her resignation from the board on Tuesday, just over a year into her term. In a statement at a board meeting, Cosby said she would end her service on the board on Friday due to ongoing health challenges. In her remarks, she criticized recent efforts to change Indianapolis Public Schools as it grapples with declining enrollment and a competitive charter school sector. Her departure leaves a vacancy on the seven-member board, which will lose a substantial amount of power under a new law that redistributes resources between district and charter schools. Beginning this year, a new nine-member board appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett will assume critical financial powers typically reserved for the school board, including the ability to levy property taxes, request a referendum on the ballot, and issue bonds for debt. The appointed board is slated to gain control of IPS buildings and transportation for both district and charter schools in 2028. “We must be honest about the current moment,” said Cosby, who serves as board secretary and represents the District 2 portion of IPS that stretches from parts of the Near Eastside to the Far Eastside. “We are witnessing an unprecedented and coordinated assault on the very idea of ‘public’ in public education.” The board elected Allissa Impink as its new secretary in a split vote that also mirrored a divided vote over whether to postpone the vote for secretary. Board president Hope Duke Star and board members Allissa Impink, Nicole Carey, and Cosby — who all rejected a motion to postpone a vote for secretary until the vacant District 2 seat is filled — 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 also served on the board from 2013 to 2016.Cosby kicked off her second term in office with a sharp critique of efforts to dissolve IPS, including a bill that would have replaced it entirely with charter schools. Over the past year, she has shown strong support for preserving traditional district schools, backing a proposal to maintain an elected board that serves as the sole charter school authorizer.Cosby was first elected to the board in 2012 with donations from groups that support charter schools and school choice, including Stand for Children Indiana and Indiana Democrats for Education Reform. But in her first term, she became a critic of the district’s reform plans, which included partnering with charter school operators through the district’s Innovation Network. She did not seek reelection at the end of her first term.Cosby ran again in 2024, this time with a $28,000 donation from the political action committee for the Indiana State Teachers Association. She defeated reform-backed candidate Hasaan Rashid, who raised about $12,000 more than her, with 54% of the vote. In her resignation remarks, Cosby criticized the move to hand control of IPS buildings over to the new appointed board, arguing that they are not “surplus commodities to be auctioned off.”“To see these assets stripped away under the guise of choice is a betrayal of the generations of families who built this district,” she said. “The privatization of public schools — the slow, calculated dismantling of a unified district into a fragmented market — is not a reform. It is a displacement of the public’s voice.” State law requires that the school board appoint someone who lives in IPS boundaries to fill Cosby’s seat and finish her term, which ends in 2028. Board policy requires the board to fill Cosby’s vacancy within 30 days. Three other seats are also up for election this year, and District 4 board member Impink — whose term ends in 2028 — has announced a run for Indiana Senate District 46. Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.
