Opinion ID: 1684540
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Whether Cobb Received A Fair Hearing Regarding The Day 4 Count.

Text: Cobb's other claim on her cross appeal is that she was denied a fair hearing because the Board engaged in misconduct with regard to the issue of the Day 4 count. Specifically, she claims that she presented sufficient evidence to the circuit court, in the form of an article from the Lexington Herald Leader dated January 11, 2000, to show that the Board committed sufficient fraud or misconduct to allow a supplementary evidentiary hearing. The newspaper article indicates that the Board had found problems with the computer software it used to keep track of student attendance, that these problems were significant enough that the Board was buying new software at a cost of almost $600,000, and that it had known about these problems since at least 1998. Despite the claims, we conclude that Cobb received a fair hearing. First, we note that Cobb's claim of fraud or misconduct by the Board is misplaced here. Review of a final order by an administrative entity, such as the tribunal, shall be confined to the record, unless there is fraud or misconduct involving a party engaged in administration of this chapter. [54] In this type of case, it is the tribunal, which is distinct from the Board, [55] with the help of the hearing officer, that is engaged in administering a KRS Chapter 13B hearing under KRS 161.790. As such, fraud or misconduct that would allow the circuit court to exceed the scope of the record in its review would have to be on the part of the tribunal or the hearing officer. Because Cobb has not alleged such fraud or misconduct, the circuit court was correct in confining its review to the record. We also note, however, that Cobb was free to offer evidence that it was a deficiency in the computer system, as opposed to her own fault, that led to the incorrect attendance count. In fact, Cobb did present some proof that the procedures for counting students was flawed as evidenced by the fact that Superintendent Fankhauser testified about an ongoing investigation into a problem with the counting of the number of bus riders in the 1997-98 school year, which was one of the problems discussed in the newspaper article. The fact that the investigation into the source of the attendance problem was ongoing when Cobb's hearing took place and the fact that Cobb failed to elicit more testimony, even though it is clear from the record that she had some knowledge that there may have been other causes of the attendance count problem, militate against a finding of misconduct or fraud by the Board.