KY Attorney General: Fayette school board violated the KY Open Meetings Act

The Fayette Board of Education violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act at a December 2025 meeting, Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office said Tuesday.

A ruling said a woman named Nikole Gieske submitted a complaint to the “presiding officer” of the Fayette school board, claiming its Dec. 18, 2025, meeting violated the Act.

At the video teleconference meeting where some members participated virtually, the board violated the KY Open Meetings Act when a member was not visible on camera at all times business was being discussed, as required by state law, the ruling said. The board did not suspend the video teleconference until the members were onscreen, as required by state law, the ruling said.

The member was not named in the ruling.

Under state law, “members of the public agency who participate in a video teleconference shall remain visible on camera at all times that business is being discussed,” said the ruling.

“Any interruption in the video or audio broadcast of a video teleconference at any location shall result in the suspension of the video teleconference until the broadcast is restored.”

In response to the complaint, board officials told the Attorney General’s office the board member “experienced connectivity problems for two brief periods (each less than a minute) during a nearly fifteen minute board member discussion about the Rise STEM Academy and George Washington Carver Academy.”

The discussion dealt with a controversial proposal to move the George Washington Carver STEM Academy for Boys and the Rise STEM Academy for Girls into a new school that was initially planned to house only the girls’ academy.

The board ultimately voted 3-1 to advance a proposal to house the two schools together at the new, $58.4 million building off Versailles Road until the board can find a new, permanent home for the boys school. The board response said that the member “was visible and audible for the vast majority of the board members’ discussion.”

“The board also admits it did not suspend the teleconference until the broadcast was restored,” the ruling said.

“The plain language of the Act is clear,” the ruling said. “The Board violated the Act when its board member was not visible on camera at all times that business was being discussed..., and when it experienced interruptions but did not suspend the video teleconference until the broadcast was restored.”

The Fayette County Board of Education did not violate the Open Meetings Act on another front that Gieske raised in that its notice clearly stated its meeting would be a video teleconference, the ruling said.

FCPS officials did not immediately comment on the AG’s ruling Tuesday.

This story was originally published January 20, 2026 at 3:59 PM.