Fayette County School District’s contingency fund lags behind other KY districts
Only twenty-five of Kentucky’s 171 school districts have a smaller portion of their budgets in contingency, or rainy day, funds than Fayette County Public Schools, according to data in this week’s Kentucky Board of Education agenda.
Fayette County Public Schools’ contingency fund lags behind most other Kentucky school districts.
For the fiscal year that began July 1, the district’s contingency fund is 5.1% of the parts of the budget used to calculate the fund rate.
That’s smaller than the district’s typical 6%, but still larger than the state-mandated 2%.
Tracy Bruno, chief of staff for Fayette County Public Schools said the district does “not have working knowledge of other schools districts’ contingency funds.”
Fayette County’s contingency fund has been among several budget controversies in the district in recent months, as it has significantly dwindled and was much smaller than initially expected.
Two years ago, the budget’s beginning contingency balance was $82.5 million, and last year it was $43.2 million. For the $827.2 million budget the school board approved in September, the contingency balance was $26.3 million.
Investigations are underway to get to the root of budget problems in Fayette County, the state’s second-largest school district, and Jefferson County, the largest.
“They’ve got some real problems, and they have some real confidence problems from the general public in both Fayette County and Jefferson,” Senate President Robert Stivers said at a news conference Wednesday.
Some Republican lawmakers have called on FCPS Superintendent Demetrus Liggins to resign.
The Kentucky Auditor’s Office is conducting a special investigation of the district, and FCPS is also funding an audit of its own.
Most of the 25 Kentucky school districts with a smaller contingency fund rate than Fayette County are small. Six are independent districts.
They include Middlesboro Independent, Pineville Independent, Owsley County, Boyd County, Menifee County, Bell County, Floyd County, Bath County and Lawrence County in Eastern Kentucky, and Danville Independent, Wayne County and Jessamine County in Central Kentucky.
“Contingency” refers to budgeted amounts reserved for unforeseen future expenditures and not allocated for a specific purpose, according to Kentucky Department of Education documents.
The school districts with lower contingency fund rates, according to the Kentucky BOE document are:
- Spencer County 2%
- Breckinridge County 2.11%
- Middlesboro Independent 2.13%
- Cloverport Independent 2.56%
- Hardin County 2.61%
- Owen County 2.62%
- Metcalfe County 2.66%
- Danville Independent 2.7%
- Pineville Independent 2.82%
- Wayne County 3.18%
- Jessamine County 3.5%
- Owsley County 3.59%
- Boyd County 3.62%
- Walton-Verona Independent 3.82%
- Menifee County 4.02%
- Dawson Springs Independent 4.11%
- Bell County 4.13%
- Floyd County 4.3%
- Monroe County 4.32%
- Bath County 4.5%
- Trigg County 4.7%
- Grant County 4.72%
- Lawrence County 4.87%
- Bullitt County 4.89%
- McCreary County 4.94%
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM.