Indianapolis Public Education Corporation Board Meeting - July 22, 2026
Indianapolis Public Education Corporation Board Meeting - July 22, 2026
The Indianapolis Public Education Corporation (IPEC) board met on July 22, 2026, to approve the mayor's recommendation for executive director, receive a detailed update from the Performance Framework Working Group, and extend legal contracts. The meeting was chaired by [Chairperson Harris]. Key actions included the unanimous selection of Dr. Kariga Rausch as executive director and the approval of contracts for legal counsel through September 1.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the meeting.
Discussion Items
- Executive Director Appointment: The board unanimously approved Mayor Hogsett's recommendation of Dr. Kariga Rausch as executive director. Dr. Rausch, a lifelong Indianapolis resident, brings over two decades of experience across district, charter, nonprofit, and city government sectors. He currently serves as President and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). His previous work includes raising $25 million for NACSA and leading the "What's Possible" campaign, which engaged over 7,000 IPS residents and resulted in IPS allocating resources for preschool for the first time. Board members praised his bridge-building skills and understanding of the local education landscape.
- Performance Framework Working Group Update: Board member Eddie Rangel presented an update on the single school performance framework required by HEA 1423. The framework will assess schools across six lenses: academic results, student growth, discipline, enrollment, finance and governance, and facilities. Two decision-making paths were clarified: IPEC leads on facility reallocation, while the IPS board or authorizer leads on chronically low-performing schools. The working group has held two stakeholder meetings with IPS and charter authorizers, who emphasized the need for clarity, consistency, and efficiency to avoid duplicating work. Nine guiding principles were shared, including that the framework supplements existing decision-making, uses multi-year data, and will not produce a single summary score. The next phase involves community engagement, starting mid-August, and a progress report is due to the legislative council by August 1, 2026. The full framework is due November 30, 2027, and becomes effective in school year 2028-2029.
- Legal Contracts Extension: The board approved separate contracts for Mike and John extending through September 1, 2026. Board member Ashley Thomas requested that the next phase of contracts be integrated into Dr. Rausch's onboarding plan to ensure a smooth transition.
- Acting Executive Director's Report: Acting executive director Mike O'Connor reported on progress toward referendum ballot language, which was submitted to the Marion County Clerk's Office ahead of an August 1 deadline. He also noted that the first IPEC funding installment of $1.4 million is expected to be transferred late this week or early next to accounts established at JP Morgan Chase.
Key Outcomes
- Approved the mayor's recommendation of Dr. Kariga Rausch as executive director (motion passed unanimously).
- Approved legal contracts for Mike and John through September 1, 2026 (motion passed unanimously).
- The board received the Performance Framework Working Group update and noted the upcoming progress report to the legislative council by August 1.
- The next board meeting was scheduled for August 12, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. in the City-County Building (room to be determined).
Meeting Transcript
All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here. We're going to try to start on time or one minute late. It is my pleasure as chairperson to my house. Is it not on? Or am I just not speaking loudly enough? Anyway, delighted to open the meeting, the July 22nd meeting of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation. We have done a fair amount of work since our last meeting, or moving forward on the referendum. You are going to hear an update tonight from the performance framework working group. And the main item on the agenda tonight is the executive director hire. But before we do that, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. The motion has passed. Terrific. Well, the first item on the agenda is the executive director process and search. And we have a candidate. We're delighted he is here in the office in the audience, Kariga Rausch. We have gone through a rigorous and multi-month long process to get to this point. We had 36 people apply for this role, and we want to thank each and every one of them for their interest in helping to make education in Indianapolis better. A working group of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation interviewed several candidates and recommended six finalists for the mayor to consider, which he did. He did interviews with all six of those people, and want to offer a very special thank you to the mayor. Interviewing six people is a lot of mayor time. And also want to offer a very special thanks to the six finalists, all of whom are exceptional people in their own rights, and we really appreciate their willingness to be part of this process. It's made it stronger and richer. But under stat the statute that created the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, the mayor recommends to our board for uh approval uh an executive director, and he has now done so. Um that person is Kariga Rausch, who is in the audience, whom you'll hear from here in a second. Kariga is a lifelong resident of Indianapolis and has worked across many different sectors in education and in different forms of government and nonprofit, uh, including working in this building uh for two mayors, Mayor Peterson, whom I worked for, uh, and Mayor Peterson's successor. And it says actually something quite remarkable about Karriga that he was asked to stay on to a successive mayoral administration, which is not normal and it is specially not normal when under the circumstances that that uh change in mayor's office took place. So uh very interesting. And I know our very own Ashley Thomas had a chance to spend to work with Kariga as well, so she's had experience with that. He has spent the last decade at the National Association of Charter School authorizers, where he's really focused on improving uh accountability for charter schools so that we ex so that high quality schools accelerated across the country and there's real accountability for low performing schools. Uh among his many accomplishments, he also raised a significant amount of money, 25 million dollars to support NAXA's strategic initiatives and deliver um strong results for their sector of schools. Um before that, he led a multi-coalition group that ultimately resulted in the Indianapolis Public Schools offering preschool for the first time. The what's possible campaign that was changed chaired by IPS Superintendent Dr. Eugene White and Mayor Ballard. He holds a PhD in education psychology from Indiana University and has written a number of articles on education, specifically on special education and student discipline. Um I have had the pleasure of knowing Kuriga for about 20 years. In addition to being an outstanding education thinker, education leader, he is also just a stellar human being. It's just one of the finest people I've had I've had a chance to get to know. So delighted that we are in this place today. I did want to give a moment for the people that my fellow executive director working group members to make any comments they want to make before we move forward. So Patricia, you want to do that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
openpublica.com