Although the agenda listed the item as a vote of confidence, it quickly became a debate about the validity of the evaluation conducted on Superintendent John Paul Amis at a meeting of the Perry County Board of Education on Thursday.

Amis claims that the evaluation conducted by the board last month is invalid because they did not develop criteria for the evaluation as required by the Kentucky Revised Statutes.

Amis received poor/unsatisfactory votes from Donnie Spencer, Bruce Fields, and Stu Fugate, while John "Punkin" Combs voted excellent.

Amis filed an appeal of the evaluation with the Perry County Growth and Evaluation of Certified Personnel Appeals Panel on June 18. The panel, which consists of Jonathan Jett, Sandy Patterson, and Debbie Halcomb met for the appeal hearings on July 13. John "Punkin" Combs was the only board member who appeared at the hearing.

According to the findings of the panel, the board did not adhere to the process outlined in KRS 156.101 when they conducted the evaluation without setting the criteria and process used to evaluate certified school personnel.

According to the panel, the Perry County Board of Education did not develop a plan for the evaluation of the superintendent, nor did they explain the criteria for the evaluation by the end of July 2003. According to the panel, the evaluation is rendered invalid.

Amis told the board members about his appeal of the evaluation during the meeting on Thursday.

"Sorry, but you can't win," Amis said. "Your evaluation is invalid, it's null and void."

After debating about the evaluation, Donnie Spencer, board chairman, told Amis what he thought.

"We actually hoped you wouldn't even be here by now," Spencer said.