Fayette school employees announce they were laid off, some looking for new jobs

Fayette County Public Schools employees began Wednesday to confirm they were laid off amid significant financial issues for the district.

“I was laid off yesterday,” said Holly Brooks, an instructional resource technician for Fayette County Schools, who alleged her entire team of five in the department of Library and Instructional Resources had their jobs cut.

“This will negatively affect our teachers and our students,” Brooks told the Herald-Leader Wednesday. “The budget for our department is very small and we are some of the lowest paid employees at the district office, but what we do is important. I feel that it was not valued or understood by the leadership team who made the decision to cut it. “

Eight people in technology were also laid off Tuesday, Brooks said as other FCPS employees announced on social media Tuesday they were being laid off or their work days were being cut.

The announcements came out within days of FCPS Superintendent Demetrus Liggins announcing the district faces significant financial issues because of problems with the district’s accounting practices dating back to 2008.

At least three employees posted to social media to say they were impacted, including one who said they received “really hard news,” prompting hundreds of people to respond with expressions of support. Some said they were looking for new jobs.

The three declined to make further comments to the Herald-Leader, and didn’t say what positions they worked in.

Brooks said her team is involved in the ordering, processing, and cataloging of all the library books across the district. In the 2024-25 school year, they processed 20,353 books from 215 purchase orders. Brooks has a master’s degree in library and information science, but the district does not currently require that level of education for the library catalogers. Her team runs the Teacher Resource Center, where staff members can come and print color copies, create posters, and other instructional materials for their classrooms, she said. There were a recorded 5,087 separate visits from staff members to the Teacher Resource Center last year, she said.

“We also do remote orders for some of these services and last year completed 2,107 orders for staff members,” she said. The center is also a library for staff members with thousands of items available for check out such as curriculum, math materials, staff development books, and classroom sets of books, Brooks said

Brooks also said her team helps librarians with special projects by going in person to the schools to organize shelves, repair books, and assist with tasks that librarians do not have time in their schedule for.

“We have also helped open new schools,” Brooks said. “For example we assisted at Mary E. Britton Middle so the opening day collection could be in order and ready for the first day of school.” “My coworker, who is part of my team that was laid off, manages all the textbooks in the district,” Brooks said. “We have not been told what will happen to all these services when we are no longer here to do them. My assumption is staff members at the individual schools will be on their own to figure this out. All of our librarians just had their work days cut and now much of what we do will probably have to be done by them or not be done at all.”

FCPS officials won’t say how many employees will be affected by reductions. But school officials said the cuts, which includes elimination of positions at the district level and cuts to number of days worked, will generate $1.9 million in savings for the cash-strapped district.

The district announced Monday two types of cuts for the district’s more than 8,000 full and part-time employees. Employees with 12-month contracts, or 10.5-month hourly contracts, as well as those in child nutrition, librarians and law enforcement will have cuts to the number of calendar days worked.

Laura Hartke, an organizer with KY 120 United AFT, an educators’ union, shared a letter with the Herald-Leader that showed a media librarian had their hours cut. The letter said the employee, who was not identified, would have their work days reduced from 206 to 199 for the 2026-27 school year.

“Your salary for the 2026-2027 school year will be correspondingly reduced,” the letter said.

This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 2:21 PM.