Fayette superintendent’s attorney says he asked for administrative leave

An attorney for Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Demetrus Liggins said Friday night that he asked for Liggins to be placed on leave.

The Fayette County Board of Education placed Liggins on paid administrative leave “pending review and resolution of information the Board received this week regarding your employment,” according to a June 11 letter from board chair Tyler Murphy to Liggins.

“In these circumstances, paid administrative leave is appropriate,” C. Ed Massey, Liggins’ attorney, said in an interview with the Herald-Leader. “It doesn’t demean him. It’s nothing negative. We need to take a break, figure out where we are and where we’re going to go. And it’s not going to be indefinite. We don’t want this to linger. We want to resolve this as efficiently and as effectively and as quickly as we can.”

Massey said Liggins hired him Wednesday after a confusing exchange of emails between Liggins and school board chair Tyler Murphy over whether Liggins was resigning.

When asked about the nature of the new information the board received this week that was mentioned in Murphy’s letter to Liggins, Massey responded that “there were some complaints by a third party that I think the board, as public officials, as elected officials, have a duty in the situation that they’re in to take a look at things. And that’s what they’re doing. And, that’s fine.

“I was a (Boone County School) board member for 22 years. You know, you sometimes have to put the brake on and do due diligence because you’re responsible for taxpayer dollars,” Massey said. “There’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of unhappy parents right now because of all the attention that’s been given to the perils of the district financially.”

Asked about the third-party complaint Saturday morning, school board chair Tyler Murphy told the Herald-Leader, “In accordance with our standard processes and procedures relating to personnel matters, we are not yet in a position to share anything that we have not already communicated.”

Massey said Friday that the situation in the district is “untenable.”

“This is untenable because the community’s not happy, the board’s not happy. Dr. Liggins is stressed and all of that is problematic when you’re trying to move forward in the best interest of the students,” said Massey, a former state lawmaker who said he’s passionate about education.

Massey said Liggins “wants to leave the district better than when he came over the things that he could control,” and he wants people to know “that he cares deeply about the students and student achievement and the performance of the district.”

Does Liggins want to leave right now?

“We haven’t made that decision yet,” said Massey. “I’m not sure that the continuation (of him staying as superintendent) is sustainable with the current board and with Dr. Liggins, along with the mix of the political pressure that they’re feeling.

“Sometimes you have to make a change, and if you have to make a change and we make a change, we want him to go on with his life and be able to offer services elsewhere that may be a better fit for him. And we want the board in Fayette County to succeed and provide a great competitive world-class education to the students,” said Massey.

Massey said Liggins does not think he’s to blame for the financial problems.

“When you inherit a problem, all you can do is your best to try to solve the problem,” Massey said. “I haven’t seen the audit. So whether the problem was addressed or became greater or lesser under Dr. Liggins, I don’t know that, but I do know that this problem did not develop overnight. It did not develop just on his watch.”

Massey said there is a lot of stress going on in FCPS, and the district needs to work closely with the Kentucky Department of Education.

“They need to work closely with the current commissioner (of education) and the state Board of Education and navigate through this because that community depends on it,” Massey said, talking about Fayette County.

Next steps will be for Massey and Liggins to work with the legal counsel for the Board of Education and “try to find a pathway forward that will be first in the best interest of the district, and then second in Liggins’ best interest,” said Massey.

“I think there’s a lot of people, um, casting aspersions or making judgments without knowing all the facts. We’re doing this, we’re slow walking it, so that we can do what’s in everybody’s best interest,” he said.

Murphy told the Herald-Leader Wednesday that he could not say whether new allegations prompted school board members to place Liggins on leave.

“This administrative leave is necessary to prevent significant disruption of the workplace and educational process,” the letter said.

Liggins was hired in 2021 by the school board, led by Murphy, to replace Superintendent Manny Caulk, who died after an illness in 2020.

There has been confusion over whether Liggins was going to resign.

Emails released by the school district showed Liggins emailed Murphy Tuesday morning to say he wanted to leave the job but wanted to negotiate a separation agreement first. Murphy took that as a resignation notice, according to the emails, and the school board notified the public that Liggins was resigning.

However, Liggins wrote Murphy back Tuesday night to say he was not resigning, and he wanted to withdraw his request for a separation agreement.

In the initial email, Liggins asked for a year of compensation and benefits if he quits.

FCPS has had to publicly deal with financial issues for more than a year now. Last year, the district said it had a significant budget deficit, and investigations revealed that both Liggins and some of his staff failed to prevent or properly deal with the budgeting plight.

More recently, FCPS discovered its finances have been misstated since at least 2008, and some revenue has been grossly overstated, leaving the district in worse financial shape than previously thought. In the wake of that discovery, FCPS cut 120 jobs.

After Liggins notified Murphy that he wanted to discuss a separation agreement, Murphy and the school board held a special meeting Wednesday to discuss the superintendent’s employment.

The board voted unanimously to put Liggins on paid administrative leave, hire a law firm to review his employment and name an acting superintendent.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a graduate of FCPS, and the teacher’s union Fayette County Education Association are among those who say Liggins should not get a buyout. Murphy has also said the board was not interested in a separation agreement for Liggins.

This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 11:06 PM.