Judge orders suspended member back onto Bath County school board

Ups and downs on the Bath County Board of Education continued Wednesday as a judge ordered a recently suspended member back onto the board.

Bath Circuit Judge William Lane issued a stay of a state decision suspending Bill Boyd from the troubled school board for 90 days.

That means Boyd is back on the Bath County board — at least for now — and Vearl Pennington, who was picked by the state Board of Education to fill in for him, is out.

But Lane's decision is not final, so Pennington could go back on the board again if Lane ultimately overrules Boyd's appeal.

Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross said Wednesday she couldn't recall such a situation occurring before.

"It's such an odd turn of events," Gross said. "It's possible that it happened before, but it would have been years and years ago."

Two factions on the Bath school board have been squabbling for the past few years, one side backing superintendent Nancy Hutchinson, the other trying to oust her.

In September, the Kentucky Board of Education voted to suspend Boyd, the Bath board's former chairman, for 90 days for policy violations related to the dispute. This month, the state board named Pennington to fill in until Boyd's suspension ends in mid-December.

Boyd, however, filed suit in Bath Circuit Court to overturn his suspension, which led to Lane's ruling Wednesday.

This story was originally published October 28, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Judge orders suspended member back onto Bath County school board."