Beshear: ‘There shouldn’t be a buyout’ for Fayette County superintendent on paid leave

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a Thursday briefing that Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Demetrus Liggins should not get a buyout after he was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this week.

Beshear’s comments were preceded by days of confusion surrounding whether Liggins was going to resign from his post. Emails released by the school district showed that Liggins emailed Fayette County Board of Education Chair Tyler 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 to say he was not resigning, and he wanted to withdraw his request for a separation agreement.

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

Beshear, a graduate of FCPS, addressed that request in a press briefing Thursday.

“If he’s leaving with the shape that that current school system is in, there shouldn’t be a buyout,” Beshear said. “That’s not a knock on him. It might or might not be his fault, but you don’t leave a school system that is in a difficult place and expect it to pay you more when you are already laying off ...”

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.

Murphy also said the board was not interested in a separation agreement for Liggins.