Kansas City, Kansas, school district superintendent leaves for job in North Carolina
Charles Foust, superintendent of the Kansas City, Kansas, school district, has resigned to take a new position, the district announced Friday.
Foust will be the superintendent of New Hanover County Schools in Wilmington, North Carolina, Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools said Friday.
Foust became superintendent in 2018.
“We are grateful and appreciative of Dr. Foust’s leadership during his time here with us,” Randy Lopez, Board of Education president, said in the announcement. “His commitment and dedication to our students and their families will be missed.”
Foust was hired to lead the KCK district in the midst of controversy over who the district’s superintendent should be. At the time Jayson Strickland, a longtime administrator in KCK, was the favorite of many to replace retiring Superintendent Cynthia Lane.
Many believed that Strickland, the district’s deputy superintendent, was Lane’s hand-picked successor. But the board instead hired Foust on a three-year contract worth $230,000 per year, plus benefits and other allowances. Strickland has since left the district and is currently superintendent at Hogan Preparatory Academy, a charter school in Kansas City, Missouri.
KCKPS was Foust’s first superintendent job. He came to Kansas from Monroe, N.C., where he was an upper-level administrator in the Union County Public Schools. He had previously taught in the Houston Independent School District.
So when the school board hired Foust, residents were worried about an outsider coming in. They were concerned that he would use the district as a stepping stone and pass through quickly. The district, with 22,000 students — most of them Black, Latino, Asian or mixed-race — only had three leaders in the previous 20 years.
Lopez said the board will continue to plan the reopening of schools with staff.
An interim superintendent has not yet been named. District officials said the board will discuss the process for hiring a new superintendent next week.
“We will maintain our focus on providing a quality education for students,” Lopez wrote.
According to KCKPS, Foust’s leadership helped to close achievement gaps and bring low-performing schools to the top.
His bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education came from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He also earned two master’s degrees in instructional technology and school administration from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Foust also holds a doctoral degree in professional leadership from the University of Houston, according to KCKPS.
According to a news release from the New Hanover district, Foust was chosen from a field of 39 candidates.
“I sincerely believe all students have the ability to learn; our job is to create and offer a first-class education in a safe and inviting setting,” Foust said in the release. “My charge is to assist all employees in the development of our school district so that we move from a good district to a world-class educational facility.”
The Port City Daily reported his contract says he will be paid $225,000.
Before the interim superintendent took over in March, the Port City Daily also reported Foust is replacing superintendent Tim Markley, who resigned in the middle of a student sexual abuse crisis.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 2:35 PM.
