Breathitt County Schools have been controlled by the Kentucky Department of Education since December of last year. However, school board members have followed through with a threat to sue, and are asking for immediate changes.
The Kentucky Department of Education and State Manager, Larry Hammond still has control of the Breathitt County School district, and school board members are not happy about it.
Attorney for the five school board members, Ned Pillersdorf, says the deal between board members and the state was broken after a meeting to close Rousseau Elementary ended abruptly.
“When they attempted to have advisory roles at a meeting held on may 28th two days later they were stripped of their duties and have no official duties,” said Pillersdorf.
Commissioner Terry Holliday responded to Pillersdorf's threat of a lawsuit. In a letter, he denied their request for the removal of the KDE from the county by saying.
"Until the members of the Breathitt County Board of Education can demonstrate a clear understanding of their advisory role…Mr. Hammond will continue to hold monthly community forums rather than monthly advisory board meetings."
So now the lawsuit is asking state management to be removed, and all powers and duties be given back to the school board members.
Officials with the Department of Education say they have not received a copy of the lawsuit yet and have no comment.
Friday, August 02, 2013
Breathitt County school board members file lawsuit against state
This from WYMT:
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2 comments:
I don't know anything about the facts surrounding this but it should be interesting. Elected Board members of the community are blocked from even an advisory role? So does that mean if KDE installed leader doesn't approve of what board members wish to vocalize in an advisory role, he can just hold public forums? Is that option really codified in the intervention play book? Sounds like a bad path to follow when you start discounting elected representatives and decide to rely on your interpretation of what the attendee's of a public form happen to vocalize? So is the public now the advisory group? What if he doesn't approve of what they say?
I really don't think KDE wants to open this can of worms in the courts as it might just lead down a much larger path they don't want to go.
Ok, now I see the interim supt. that came in after the fed case is suing the board and KDE for failure to provide due process as a result of her suspension by the board. Sounds like she may have been feeding FBI, state, KDE info on misconduct and got the boot from the board for it, then the agencies left her out to dry for blowing the whistle.
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