Ky. High School Teacher of the Year was accused of misconduct last year, records show
Kentucky’s 2024 High School Teacher of the Year, a Jefferson County Public Schools math teacher who was recently reassigned to non-instructional duties, was accused of misconduct last year, employment records show.
Kumar Rashad most recently taught mathematics at Breckinridge Metropolitan High School in Louisville. He has been temporarily reassigned to a bus compound “pending final personnel decisions” as of Oct. 9, employment records show.
A letter reassigning Rashad ordered him to stay off the school campus and have no contact with other school faculty, staff or parents of students at the school.
Carolyn Callahan, chief communications officer for Jefferson County Public Schools, said the district does not comment on personnel matters. Rashad did not immediately respond to a message sent to his Jefferson County Teacher’s Association email address, though he said in a statement to WDRB in Louisville he was confident an investigation would clear his name.
Under the Open Records Act, JCPS provided the Herald-Leader with employment records that included letters from the Education Professional Standards Board.
In 2022, Education Professional Standards Board officials told Rashad in a letter that they were reviewing a report of educator misconduct about Rashad sent to them by the Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent. There was no detail included about the report and the employment records did not include a resolution to the report.
JCPS also provided a document from a 2018 conference with Rashad over remarks that Rashad made in an email to former Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis, accusing Lewis of racism.
The email incident was one of a high-profile situations in Lewis’ time as education commissioner.
The Herald-Leader reported in 2018 that in a communication to every Kentucky educator, Lewis said he had received this week “the most hateful and disrespectful emails I’ve ever been sent, from people who teach Kentucky children.”
Lewis said it’s likely the emails were prompted when he said he would ask the 2019 General Assembly to create a funding mechanism or process for charter schools.
The Courier-Journal reported that Rashad sent Lewis one of the emails.
The document provided by JCPS says Rashad was found to have violated the professional code of ethics in that incident, as well as the school district’s acceptable use agreement.
A 2019 letter stated that the Education Professional Standards Board had voted to “admonish” Rashad “for failing to exemplify behaviors which maintain the dignity and integrity of the profession.”
The board also asked him to complete additional training in professionalism.
The Herald-Leader previously reported that the other teacher who wrote a critical email to Lewis, a Meade County teacher who was initially fired for sending the critical e-mail to Lewis, ended up resigning as part of a settlement agreement with her school district.
Rashad was named High School Teacher of the Year in September.
He has been a teacher for 20 years and has served on the Louisville Metro Council since February.
His LinkedIn account indicates that Rashad worked in the Herald-Leader’s advertising department from 1998 to 2000.
