As deadline looms, superintendent’s attorney waits on Fayette County schools response

As the Wednesday deadline imposed by Superintendent Demetrus Liggins’ attorney loomed, the lawyer said he had not heard from the Fayette County Board of Education by 2:30 p.m.

“We still are awaiting Board Chair (Tyler) Murphy’s response as required,” said Liggins’ attorney Amos Jones. “He has sen(t) nothing, though the School Board’s failing attorneys have acknowledged our correspondence.”

Jones sent notice to the school board June 19 demanding Liggins be reinstated from paid administrative leave. Jones and Liggins demanded his job back, arguing he was illegally placed on leave by the school board. Jones and Liggins gave the school board a deadline of Wednesday, June 24, to restore Liggins’ role.

Jones told the Herald-Leader Murphy had not requested an extension on the Wednesday deadline.

“With the statutory deadline for Chairman Murphy’s response looming and likely being blown, I hope he understands the implications of such a Fifth Amendment procedural due process violation,” said Jones.

“The due process action I’m discussing above is the failure to respond by the 5 p.m. (3 business day) statutory deadline. Breaking that (state law) is a fifth amendment violation by Murphy/Board. They’re transgressing the constitution,” he said.

Jones said the implications of the violation is that the Kentucky Attorney General can invalidate the “actions done in the dark.”

“He’s a Social Studies teacher educated at Transylvania University. Surely he understands he’s supposed to follow the Kentucky Revised Statutes,” Jones said, referring to Murphy.

Jones also told WLEX-TV that if the district didn’t meet the stated 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline, his team would publicly reveal “alleged district matters.”

Jones told WLEX Liggins had “blown the whistle,” and threatened to reveal district information. But it was unclear what exactly would be disclosed.

“If they don’t get it straight and figure out who the real problem is in this matter, on whom Dr. Liggins has blown the whistle. Then it’s going to be all opened up and names will be named,” WLEX quoted Jones as saying.

Jones and Liggins contend the school board violated state law when it received Liggins’ notice to school board members that he was interested in negotiating a separation agreement and interpreted it as a resignation.

Jones on Wednesday referred the Herald-Leader to the letter he sent to Murphy on June 19, which said if the board does not grant the requested relief, Liggins reserves the right to appeal the denial or failure to respond to the Kentucky attorney general. Jones also said Liggins could file an action in Fayette Circuit Court, seek an order voiding the administrative-leave action, and other remedies.

FCPS officials on Wednesday did not address the comments attributed to Jones in the WLEX report. They also wouldn’t say whether school board members would give Liggins his job back or meet other demands by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

“The Fayette County Board of Education remains focused on serving our students and maintaining stability across the District,” FCPS officials told the Herald-Leader Wednesday.

“The Board will continue to follow the law and make decisions based on facts and the best interests of our schools and community. Because these matters involve personnel issues, potential legal considerations, and ongoing Board processes, it would be inappropriate to litigate them in the press,” the board’s statement said.

The school board said it was focused on “our students, our educators, and the successful, stable operation of Fayette County Public Schools.”

How we got here

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. Liggins says that was illegal and violated the state’s open meeting law. Murphy and school district officials told the Herald-Leader on Friday the decision was “legal and appropriate.”

Liggins’ leave came days after state 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. Liggins has said he never wrote the email or slipped it under Camuel’s door.

Camuel, a Democrat who represents part of Lexington in Frankfort, 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 the message and has never worked with Liggins.

Liggins’ contract runs through 2029.

Assistant Superintendent Bill Bradford is currently leading the district while Liggins is on leave.

According to a news release last week from Jones, a civil rights lawyer and 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,” Jones said.

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

In a letter putting Liggins on leave, the board 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,” Jones said.

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 there was no vacancy because Liggins never resigned, executed a separation agreement or retired, and he 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.”

Also on June 19, Liggins submitted a written complaint to Murphy alleging the Fayette County Board of Education violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act during the 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.

This story was originally published June 24, 2026 at 4:42 PM.