The kids are doing their jobs. It’s time the adults did theirs | Opinion

The students and teachers of Fayette County are doing their jobs. It is long past time that the adults in charge of the district did theirs.

Our 7-year-old attends Glendover Elementary and it is an AWESOME school. The principal (Ben VanderHorst, who could be out of central casting for the sweetest, most caring principal), the teachers (most recently my son had Jennifer Russell, who should win teacher of the year), the staff, every one of them is a 10 out of 10, and on most days a 100 out of 10. And it is not alone. Fayette County’s four-year graduation rate reached an all-time high of 92.4% last year, our students continue to outperform the state average at every grade level, and our postsecondary readiness rate climbed from 77.5% to 82.2% in a single year. By the measures that actually matter to children, FCPS is doing a good job.

That is exactly why the circus at the top is so hard to watch. Superintendent Demetrus Liggins, a person with a Ph.D. who has spent his life dedicated towards improving children’s educational outcomes, has recently engaged his second law firm to demand, on a four-day deadline, that he be reinstated, while reserving contract, defamation, civil-rights, and tort claims. All of this is unfolding against a reported $16 million shortfall, more than $2.5 million in administrator credit-card spending over six months, a $38,000 failed tax campaign, and a whistleblower lawsuit alleging the board was not told the truth about the district’s finances.

It also follows reporting that a printed note was slipped under the door of a district employee who had criticized the superintendent, attached to an email attributed to a law firm that says it never wrote it and never represented him. Sound financial stewardship and a steady hand were supposed to be hallmarks of this administration. The record, lately, speaks for itself.

So here is my plea, offered with genuine respect. Dr. Liggins, please step away, and please do not spend one more taxpayer dollar litigating to claw back a job over what began as a request for a single year of pay. And Chair Tyler Murphy, the same gentleness applies to you. It is time to resign. I say this not in anger but in sadness, because the two of you have done real good work, and you are now undoing it in public, day after day.

I spent years serving as a general counsel, so let me offer the most useful thing I know about fights like this. Litigating a grievance you cannot let go of is like gripping a hot stone so you can throw it at someone else. The person who gets burned first, and worst, is the one holding the stone. Walking away is not surrender. It is the only move that protects everyone, including yourselves.

The Herald-Leader carries a share of this too, and I say that as a reader who is grateful for this paper. FCPS and restaurant news have become a kind of local Mount Rushmore alongside UK sports and local crime, the reliable subjects the paper returns to again and again. Every flinch at Central Office seems to draw a story. At the same time, this paper has done hard and important reporting that shines light into dark corners, and that work matters. So, I would ask the newsroom to weigh, alongside each new filing and each new statement, whether another round of coverage helps this community heal or simply keeps the wound open.

To everyone with a hand in this, for the sake of the schools and for your own sake, please move the focus off of yourselves and put it back where it belongs, on the students. Let Glendover, and every school like it, get back to being the story.

Nate Simon is the founder of Simon Law, PLLC and a proud parent of children in Fayette County public schools.