House passes modified bill that would oust Fayette school board chair, add board members

The Kentucky House of Representatives on Friday advanced a Senate bill that would put two appointed members on the Fayette County Board of Education in addition to the elected five, and would make the current board chair ineligible for his role.

On Friday, the full House passed Senate Bill 4 with a 74-15 vote. While the bill started in the Senate, the House made changes. So the Senate will need to agree to the changes for the legislation.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Steve West, R- Paris, originally only created a new Kentucky principal development program.

But a revised bill approved on Wednesday by the House Primary and Secondary Education committee says in large school districts — Jefferson County Public Schools and Fayette County Public Schools — there would be two members with expertise in finance appointed to the board by the state treasurer. That would be in addition to the current five elected seats on those boards.

The changes to Senate Bill 4 would also mean that Fayette school board chairman Tyler Murphy could no longer serve on the board. The revised bill says a board of education member cannot work in a Kentucky school district more than 100 days per year. Murphy is a full-time Boyle County school teacher.

Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, a Fayette County Public Schools’ support professional employee, said in a floor speech that she was voting against the bill.

“When you vote to take away somebody’s right to run for office we are not doing good things for the Commonwealth,” Camuel said.

“SB4 as passed by the House is a test case,” Camuel told the Herald-Leader Friday afternoon. “This is terrible legislation, once again strips local control from the two largest counties. This is undemocratic and denies citizens in a community of their right to hold a specific office and to serve their community.

“This opens the door and creates a very dangerous precedent to allow legislators to target any person or group of people they dislike or disagree with from holding elected office.”

Another effort to oust Murphy from office

There is a separate effort in the Kentucky General Assembly to remove Murphy from office. A petition filed with the House Impeachment Committee alleges Murphy mishandled the district’s budget problems. The committee still is considering the petition and has not made a recommendation. If they recommend removal, the House and Senate would need to vote on whether to act on it.

Murphy’s term on the school board expires this year. He previously told the Herald-Leader he intends to file for reelection, but he had not done so as of this week.

Fayette County school officials have been criticized for a dwindling budget contingency fund and a failed attempt last year to increase the occupational tax that Kentucky’s attorney general deemed illegal. Lawmakers on Wednesday said both JCPS and FCPS have had financial problems. The Louisville school district is facing massive budget cuts with a deficit of $188 million.

The bill passed by the House Friday would become effective upon its passage.

A floor amendment passed in the House Friday would allow eligible elected members of a board of education to be chair or vice chair; modify eligibility requirements of appointed and elected members of a board of education; establish a two-term limit for appointed members of a board of education; and establish requirements for the initial appointments for appointed members of boards of education of large school districts.

Senate Bill 4 was assigned to a conference committee Tuesday so that House and Senate members could iron out their differences.

Brenna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Kentucky School Boards Association, said on Tuesday that “as the House and Senate attempt to resolve their differences on SB4, KSBA urges the conference committee members to remove the bill’s provisions that alter the composition of local school boards and prohibit board service based on employment in another district.”

SB 4, as currently written, undermines authority of locally elected boards of education and diminishes the voices of nearly 1 million voters in Kentucky’s two largest school districts, she said.

KSBA believes that all individuals exercising governing authority over a local school district should be elected by the communities they represent. If appointments must be made, they should be made by individuals directly accountable to the voters of that district – not a partisan statewide elected official, she said.

“KSBA also opposes any provision that would restrict otherwise qualified tax-paying citizens from serving on a local board of education based on their employment in a separate school district,” Kelly said. “Such limitations unnecessarily reduce the pool of experienced and knowledgeable candidates available for board service and undercut the principle that communities should decide who represents them through the electoral process.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2026 at 2:18 PM.