The former CFO of a Kentucky county board of education is set to receive $300,000 as part of a settlement to her whistleblower case.
Stephanie Anderson, who previously served as finance chief of the Oldham County Board of Education, had filed suit in 2023 claiming her former employer demoted her for refusing to provide inaccurate information about another employee’s termination hearing.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, also claimed the board had engaged in violations of the state’s laws on whistleblowing and civil rights.
The settlement, first reported by local newspaper The Oldham Era last week, is not an admission of wrongdoing by the board. The document, obtained by the paper via a Kentucky Open Records Act request, states the settlement doesn’t constitute an “admission that any action [the board] took with respect to Anderson was wrongful, unlawful or in violation of any statute, law or regulation.”
Per the settlement document, Anderson is set to receive $30,000 for “damages related to her wage loss.” The board will also write a $270,000 check to Anderson and her attorney to cover legal fees and “non-wage damage including physical symptoms associated with emotional distress, pain and suffering,” according to the document.
The settlement goes on to say Anderson is not entitled to be rehired by the board of education, and she won’t apply for future positions there.
In her earlier complaint, Anderson said she had been demoted at the beginning of 2023. That came around the same time she testified at a termination hearing for a school board attorney. In that hearing, Anderson “testified that the former attorney was never paid incorrectly at all.”
“Stephanie’s testimony at the termination hearing also disclosed facts and information that also related to her suspicion that the termination itself amounted to Superintendent [Jason] Radford’s mismanagement of the District, and that the termination amounted to an abuse of his authority,” the complaint read.
As part of the settlement, the board has agreed to “permanently remove any documents with allegations of cause for separation or demotion from Anderson’s personnel file.”
