FCPS Superintendent Liggins demands job back, says district violated open meeting law

Fayette County School District Superintendent Demetrus Liggins is demanding his job back, arguing he was illegally placed on leave earlier this month.

A lawyer for Liggins sent the district a statement overnight Friday demanding officials reinstate him in the next four days.

The lawyer, Washington-based Amos Jones — seemingly a new lawyer with whom Liggins had not worked during the initial stages of his employment fight — contends the school violated state law by interpreting as a resignation Liggins’ notice to school board members that he was interested in negotiating a separation agreement.

Liggins notified the school board June 10 that he was interested in pursuing a separation agreement that included a year of compensation, but when the school board announced he was resigning, he countered that his notice did not qualify as a resignation and sought to withdraw his request to discuss a separation agreement.

The district instead placed him on paid administrative leave in a move Liggins says was illegal and violated the state’s open meeting law.

Board chair Tyler Murphy and school district officials told the Herald-Leader on Friday the decision was “legal and appropriate.”

Liggins’ leave came days after Rep. Adrielle Camuel, an administrative assistant in the district, made a complaint to the board that Liggins slipped a note under Camuel’s office door that implied a threat of legal action for criticizing his leadership.

Liggins was captured on video slipping a piece of paper under Camuel’s office door. Camuel’s lawyer says that paper was a printed email purporting to be from a law firm advising Liggins may have been defamed by critics.

Camuel was publicly critical of Liggins after the superintendent announced job cuts to deal with the district’s yearlong budget problems.

Camuel’s lawyer said she immediately questioned the authenticity of the email, which was obtained by the Herald-Leader. The firm that purportedly sent it, Kaplan, Johnson, Abate and Bird, told the Herald-Leader it did not write it and has never worked with Liggins.

Liggins’ contract runs through 2029, and assistant superintendent Bill Bradford is leading the district for now.

According to a news release from Jones, a civil rights lawyer who is a Lexington native, Liggins’ “new legal team contends that FCPS manufactured a resignation where none existed. Dr. Liggins had proposed discussions toward a possible, mutually negotiated separation agreement — not submitted an unconditional resignation — and expressly corrected the Board’s characterization before it acted. Nevertheless, FCPS publicly announced a ‘resignation notice,’ treated his occupied office as vacant, removed him from every function of the superintendency, and transferred those functions to another administrator.”

Jones further contends that the school board cited the wrong statutory authority in placing Liggins on leave.

They said that letter invoked KRS 160.160 and KRS 160.370, “although neither provision expressly creates an indefinite procedure by which a board may suspend a contracted superintendent, prohibit him from communicating with district-affiliated persons, exclude him from all school property, and install a substitute officeholder. KRS 160.370 instead identifies the superintendent as the Board’s executive agent and professional adviser.”

The notice argues that the school board attempted to avoid KRS 160.350, which is the statute specifically governing superintendent terms, vacancies, acting appointments, and removal for cause.

The lawyers say no vacancy arose because Dr. Liggins never resigned, never executed a separation agreement, never retired, and was never lawfully discharged.

“This is not administrative leave in any meaningful sense,” Jones wrote. “They announced a resignation that never happened, displaced the lawful superintendent, installed another superintendent, silenced Dr. Liggins inside his own system, and then hired investigators to determine whether the result already imposed should be imposed. Kentucky law does not allow a school board to manufacture a vacancy, perform a removal first, and search for a justification afterward.”

Open meetings complaint

Also on Friday, Liggins submitted a written complaint to school board chair Tyler Murphy alleging the Fayette County Board of Education violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act during its special-called, June 10 meeting that resulted in Liggins being placed on leave.

The complaint accused the school board of illegally discussing Liggins’ employment in closed session, and conducting substantive deliberations and reaching consensus in private.

Liggins is asking the school board to acknowledge the violations, rescind his administrative leave, restore him as superintendent, correct the public record and begin the conversation anew about a potential separation agreement.

Liggins said in the complaint that if the board does not meet his demands, he reserves the right to appeal the denial or failure to respond to the Kentucky Attorney General and file an action in Fayette Circuit Court.

“Dr. Liggins remains willing to resolve this matter promptly and without unnecessary litigation,” the complaint reads.

“The appropriate first step is for the Board to acknowledge that it conducted resignation-related public business in an unauthorized closed session, rescind the actions produced by that session, and restore the lawful status quo,” the complaint reads.

This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 7:40 AM.