FCPS tried a ‘confidential project’ to study its budgets. It got the data wrong
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Fayette County Public Schools overspent approved budgets three years in a row
- Internal analysis misreported millions in revenue and spending by large margins
- Whistleblower lawsuit alleges retaliation for raising concerns over finances
Two months ago, in July, Lexington residents still fumed about an attempted last-minute tax increase by the Fayette County Public Schools, which was slowly acknowledging a multi-million-dollar budget deficit that has yet to be fully quantified or explained by school district leaders.
The school district’s finance chief, Rodney Jackson, had an idea.
“Hey Will,” Jackson wrote in a July 14 email to William Somersall, a finance analyst who was hired by the district last year. The Herald-Leader obtained the email and related materials through the Open Records Act.
“I have a confidential project that I want you to work on for me and let me see your skill set,” Jackson wrote. “Please see me when you get this email. Thanks!”
Jackson and Somersall declined to discuss their project with the Herald-Leader last week when contacted by phone.
But a review of their email exchange and attached spreadsheets shows that Somersall created for Jackson a comparison of the general fund budgets of the Fayette County Public Schools over recent years — revenue and spending, divided by category — against what the school district actually ended up collecting and spending.
After making some corrections at Jackson’s request, Somersall submitted his analyses.
He found that the school district’s financial reality rarely ended up matching what its approved budget had projected a year earlier.
In Fiscal Year 2024, for example, the most recent year he studied, the Fayette County Public Schools spent $38 million more than its $681 million general fund budget, according to Somersall’s analysis.
However, a Herald-Leader review of Somersall’s spreadsheets found apparent factual errors.
Some mistakes were large, such as Somersall listing $2.46 billion in Fiscal Year 2023 teacher salaries, which is several times more than the district spends on everything. The correct figure in that year’s budget appears to be $246 million, indicating that Somersall was off by a factor of 10.
Likewise, in the Fiscal Year 2024 analysis, Somersall listed state revenue from the telecommunications tax at $8.5 million. The district’s own budget for that year put the figure at 10% of that, or $850,000.
In a brief response to the Herald-Leader, school district spokeswoman Miranda Scully said the district does not stand behind the numbers in Somersall’s analyses. Scully would not provide any further explanation for what the project was meant to do.
“The document being referenced was a document which contained errors and was thus not relied upon by Fayette County Public Schools. Due to pending litigation, we will not be commenting further on this matter,” Scully said.
Scully did not identify the litigation to which she referred.
But the school district’s budget director, Ann Sampson-Grimes, recently filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that she was placed on leave because she warned her colleagues, including Jackson, that the district’s finances were in worsening trouble.
It’s alarming to discover that the Fayette County Public Schools not only can’t stay within its budget, it can’t seem to accurately determine by how much it’s overspending, said Calvin “Dee” Cranfill, a certified public accountant who worked for a decade as a contract investigator for the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability.
Cranfill studied Somersall’s analyses at the Herald-Leader’s request.
“I mean, the $2 billion error kind of jumps right out at you,” Cranfill said.
“Why they did this ‘confidential project,’ as they call it — which, by the way, is not allowed at a school district, but that’s another story. But then they screw up the analysis to try to find out how bad they screwed up in their budgeting?” he said. “I don’t think these guys could manage a hot dog stand.”
Jackson didn’t need to launch a confidential project to determine if the school district missed its budget numbers, Cranfill said. The district’s budgets and annual financial audits are posted online, showing what the school board approved for revenue and spending and what it actually collected and spent, he said.
Using the district’s own data, the Fayette County Public Schools has blown its budget for the past three consecutive years after staying well within its budget for the two years before that, Cranfill said.
For Fiscal Year 2025, the school district budgeted a general fund of $627 million and actually spent $687 million, he said. For Fiscal Year 2024, it budgeted $637 million and spent $674 million, he said. And for Fiscal Year 2023, it budgeted $609 million and spent $645 million, he said.
Superintendent Demetrus Liggins was hired in 2021, succeeding Manny Caulk, who died in 2020.
“When the previous administration was here, they were doing a great job covering expenses, and that was right through COVID,” Cranfill said. “And then after that, it’s been unfavorable to the tune of about $140 million they’ve missed.”
This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
