Report: KY school board violated state law in discussing superintendent ouster

The McCreary County School board violated the state Open Meetings law by not publicly discussing the proposed dismissal of a superintendent in 2023, the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability said in a June investigative report.

The office investigates alleged wrongdoing in Kentucky schools.

It is requiring McCreary County school board members to get two hours of training on the state Open Meetings Law by Aug. 1, according to the report released to the Herald-Leader under the Kentucky Open Records law.

John Gunn, who was superintendent at the time, ultimately resigned in 2023 as part of an agreement with the school board in the southern Kentucky school district.

“Dr. Gunn’s status was certainly an issue of public importance required to be discussed of the public, but was decided before the board met to take action on the matter,” the June 2 Office of Education Accountability report said.

Under state law, all meetings of a quorum of the members of any public agency at which any public business is discussed or at which any action is taken by the agency, shall be public meetings, open to the public at all times.

Board minutes for Jan. 23, 2023, and Feb. 7, 2023, show no discussion regarding Gunn’s performance or any negative actions on his part. In fact, there is no indication that his removal was a consideration at that point, the state report said.

According to the investigative report describing events that led up to Gunn’s resignation in February 2023, board Chair Johnny Barnett said that he contacted all board members individually to share an audio recording of a conversation he had with Dr. Gunn and “they agreed that he needed to be dismissed.”

After speaking with an attorney and before his resignation, Gunn accepted a paid suspension of approximately one week and agreed to have no contact with district employees or board members during this time, the report said.

Barnett told the Herald-Leader in a telephone interview, ““I have nothing to hide on it. I (did) what was right. I was bribed by Mr. Gunn. He wanted to get me favors for him to get favors, and I will not sell out on the kids in McCreary County school system. I do not want favors. I don’t work that way.”

“I do the best that I can with this job,” he said.

Gunn did not comment Wednesday to the Herald-Leader on Barnett’s response.

“Another problem with the process” was that when the board moved to go into closed session on Feb. 20 and Feb. 22 as well as March 9 it did so under the guise of discussing potential litigation, the report said.

Although state law authorizes a public agency to go into secret session to discuss “proposed or pending litigation,” there was no serious threat on record from Dr. Gunn that there might be “proposed or pending litigation” in this matter, according to the report.

The rationale to go into executive session was not authorized by the Open Meetings law, the report said.

Criminal charge dismissed

Gunn went to the board of education office just after 6 a.m. the morning after he resigned to pick up personal items, but his access card had been deactivated and he couldn’t get in, according to a previous Herald-Leader article.

Authorities charged that when Gunn went to the office, he had a .45-caliber pistol.

There were no students at schools nearby at the time, and there were no employees in the office.

A school resource officer arrested Gunn when he went back to the office later that day. He did not have a gun at the time. He was charged with felony unlawful possession of a weapon, a previous Herald-Leader article said.

Gunn had purposely gone to the central office early in order to collect his belongings, and has said he did not realize he had the gun in his pocket, his attorney, David Hoskins previously told the Herald-Leader.

“He absolutely did not go there with the intent of harming anybody,” Hoskins said in a 2024 article.

With some exceptions, such as for police officers and ROTC members, Kentucky law generally bars carrying a gun at public and private elementary and high schools.

The crime is a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

During the criminal proceedings, Hoskins, argued that the law was an unconstitutional infringement on Gunn’s right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Hoskins cited a 2022 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court set a new standard for deciding the legality of gun restrictions, commonly called the Bruen case.

The Supreme Court said that gun laws must be assessed on whether they are consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

Hoskins argued there was no historical analogue regarding regulating carrying guns on school property — as opposed to schools themselves — and as a result Kentucky’s prohibition on carrying guns as it was applied to Gunn was unconstitutional.

Circuit Judge Dan Ballou, citing the Supreme Court case, dismissed the charge against Gunn.

Hoskins told the Herald-Leader this week that the criminal charge had been expunged from court records because the charge was dismissed.

This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 9:27 AM.