Interim Kentucky education leader overrules school board: Superintendent won’t be fired

Interim Kentucky Education Commissioner Robin Kinney has decided not to remove Nelson County Superintendent Wes Bradley from his position.

Kinney released an investigative report Friday in which she rejected the Nelson County school board decision to fire Bradley.

“The board failed to provide competent and relevant evidence supporting at least one charge for removal,” Kinney said in her report, which the Herald-Leader obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act.

Kinney additionally ordered the district into a Kentucky Department of Education management improvement program which could lead to a district management audit. Such an audit could lead the Kentucky Board of Education to decide that the Kentucky Department of Education should take over the management of Nelson County Schools.

Kinney cited “a tremendous amount of dysfunction” between the school board and Bradley.

“The Board and Superintendent Bradley have spent significant amounts of time and district resources embroiled in controversy which have resulted in distraction of the Board and the Superintendent from what should be the district’s number one goal — improving the academic performance of schools within the district,” Kinney said in a news release Friday. “This ongoing and lengthy distraction has also contributed to an environment of animosity between different factions in the Nelson County community.”

Bradley and school board chair Amanda Deaton did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment.

Minutes of a March 4 school board meeting show the Nelson County Schools’ Board of Education voted to remove its superintendent because of neglect of duty and academic and educational neglect resulting in extremely low academic performance. They cited failure of leadership, of conduct that had caused division in the district, and of conduct that caused the majority of the school board to lose trust in Bradley.

However, principals and parents say they support Bradley.

Having the Kentucky Education Commissioner decide whether to accept a superintendent firing is a normal process. The law gives the commissioner 30 days to investigate once the paperwork has been received, which was March 6.

Those 30 days expired Friday.

Nelson County Schools, located an hour from Lexington, has recently been in a state of unrest.

Teachers and students protested over the potential merger of the district’s two high schools in October and the resulting staffing shortages closed schools for two days, the Herald-Leader previously reported.

In an Oct. 17 resignation letter from school board member Damon Jackey to Bradley, Jackey said there was a lack of professional leadership among other board members. He said there were “unethical and potentially illegal actions by certain members of this board.” Bradley read the letter aloud at a school board meeting.

The school board’s former attorney Eric Farris said in a December resignation letter that a series of issues ”have brought me to the realization that continuing to represent the Board is not possible.”

“I will not elaborate here but we are unable to reconcile our duty to the Board and certain ethical concerns,” Farris said in the letter.

A group called Nelson County Forward has filed a lawsuit against the Nelson County Board of Education, citing, in part, irregularities by the board with regard to the superintendent.

Nelson County Forward’s attorney Matthew Hite previously told the Herald-Leader the group opposes merging the two highs schools together.

Hite said he had requested texts and emails from the board members which may shed light on potential violations of the Open Meetings Act.

This story was originally published April 5, 2024 at 3:05 PM.