With finance issues prevalent, who’s on the 2026 ballot for Fayette school board?

Two Fayette County Board of Education members, Tyler Murphy and Amanda Ferguson, are running for reelection and have drawn opponents.

Murphy and Ferguson’s terms both end in December, and after the June 2 filing deadline for November’s election, they both will face contested races.

The races for each seat are underscored by a lengthy, sometimes contentious controversy over Fayette County Public Schools’ finances. The district reported a significant budget deficit in 2025, then earlier this year announced that finances have been misstated for nearly two decades. These issues, according to Supertindent Demetrus Liggins and interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch, have left FCPS with signficantly less money than thought in its contingency fund.

Here’s who will run in each election.

Second district

Tyler Murphy, a Boyle County school teacher, was elected to the Fayette school board in 2018 and reelected in 2022. He currently is the chair of the school board. His current term expires after Dec. 31.

A state law passed in the 2026 legislative session makes Murphy ineligible to run again, but he has filed anyway. Senate Bill 4 disqualifies people from running for school boards in Kentucky’s biggest school districts if they work a full-time job in another district.

Murphy filed a lawsuit Tuesday against over the law, arguing it’s unconstitutional.

Both his activism with a teacher’s union and the school district’s financial problems have drawn the ire of Kentucky Republican lawmakers.

Some Democrats also have criticized him for the financial problems. Murphy has said he is working to resolve them. Critics say he has not questioned Liggins enough.

He is opposed by a Lexington woman, Kathy Schiflett, who worked 23 years for the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts before retiring in 2021. R.J. Hijalda, a swim coach and a lead at Grounded All Day Cafe in Lexington, also is running for the seat.

Fourth District

Fourth District school board member Amanda Ferguson has become known for questioning Liggins and Murphy about the district’s financial problems and opposing votes she doesn’t think are in the school district’s best financial interest.

Because of that, she typically has not drawn the ire of residents or lawmakers regarding FCPS’ financial issues.

Ferguson was elected to the board in 2022, but also had served previous terms, being elected in 2006, 2010 and 2014.

Rodney Allen Jackson, a Lexington pediatric dentist and a member of the Lexington board of health, has filed to run against Ferguson in the November general election.

Jackson, a Floyd County native, founded the Pediatric Dentistry of Hamburg in Lexington in 2003 and is an owner.

Jackson is Ferguson’s only opponent in the general election.