Fayette County School board calls special meeting, but won’t say why

After meeting in closed session for nearly two hours on Monday night, the Fayette County Public Schools board set another special meeting for next week, but would not say why.

Monday’s extended private discussion, and the announcement of a special meeting on March 4, comes amid discussion about Superintendent Demetrus Liggins’ performance. Earlier this month, an attorney hired by the Fayette County School Board to investigate Superintendent Demetrus Liggins’ role in tending to district finances found multiple policy violations by the superintendent.

“The board continues our work and evaluation on the appropriate next steps and we will be setting a special meeting for Wednesday March 4 at 5:30 p.m. and more information will be forthcoming on that,” said school board chairman Tyler Murphy after board members left closed session.

Monday night, Murphy did not respond to questions about whether the school board was discussing Liggins during closed session.

“The board’s conversations are ongoing,” he said in a text.

The report, filed by attorney Leigh Latherow who was hired by the district, found that Liggins failed to comply with two policy obligations. The investigation also found Liggins failed to follow board governance while the district faced a budget crisis.

WKYT reported that Board Member Amanda Ferguson said “ the special meeting is to continue consideration of next steps for Liggins as a result of Latherow’s report.”

Ferguson did not immediately respond to a text from the Herald-Leader. Board member Penny Christian said Wednesday morning, “I will not confirm anything that will be discussed in closed session.”

Murphy told the Herald-Leader Wednesday morning, “The purpose of the meeting will be addressed in the public notice for the meeting, which will be forthcoming in accordance with established procedures. They should be getting that out in the next day or two.”

The district acknowledged last year it was facing a projected $16 million budget shortfall, and a contingency fund that was expected to be big enough to fill that gap actually held much less money than expected, district officials said in August last year.

The report said there “was sufficient information to find that Dr. Liggins failed to comply with the obligations of him set forth in Policy 02.12 (Administration: Duties of Superintendent), Board Policy 04.1 (Budget Planning and Adoption), and the School Board Governance Manual.”

The report also said Liggins should have looked deeper into the district’s financial situation by at least May 2025, which is when school board members first discussed the possible $16 million budget gap during a meeting. The report also said Liggins did not have an effective budgeting process in place to monitor expenses and how they affected the district’s budget, and didn’t have the right personnel and systems in place to address financial issues.

Liggins acknowledged errors when responding to the report.

“As superintendent, I relied too heavily on the leaders and team working in the area of budget and finance every day when I should have been asking sharper questions and demanding more comprehensive detail,” Liggins said.

Earlier this month when the report was released, Murphy said, “ the board will carefully consider the findings of the investigation and “anticipates making a determination on appropriate corrective measures in the coming weeks.”

Liggins addressed criticism Monday, saying the school district has stabilized its budget.

“There’s no shortfall,” Liggins said. “There is no missing funds. There’s no $16 million shortfall.”

Roszalyn Akins, executive director of the BMW Academy in Lexington, was among the people who came to Monday’s school board meeting to praise Liggins.

“Dr. Liggins we thank you for all that you’ve done,” Akins said.

Akins cited the addition of schools, facilities and magnet programs, mentoring programs for new principals, academic achievement and fewer lower performing schools. She praised Liggins for equity advances and for recruiting high quality teachers.

This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 5:00 AM.