How much did FCPS cut from its budget? District finally provides answers

Nearly a month after the Fayette County Board of Education approved a tentative $711.3 million general fund budget, the school district released numbers Tuesday showing how much the district has cut from its budget and how many school employees lost their jobs.

The district’s tentative budget for the fiscal year, which begins July 1, includes just shy of $20 million in cuts, according to information provided to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Those cuts included a reduction of $6.9 million in operating costs, on top of more than $11 million saved from the elimination of 120 positions and $1.9 million saved from cuts to staff work days. That’s roughly $19.8 million in cuts.

School officials have said the cuts to staff work days will not affect teachers and paraprofessionals.

The district previously disclosed in May how much the cuts to positions and work days will save the district. It released the amount it cut in operational costs on Tuesday after repeated questions from the Herald-Leader.

Details about what those reductions in operational costs include were not released Tuesday.

District officials also clarified how many of those 120 positions were open and unfilled, and how many people lost their jobs.

District officials said 49 staffers contracts were not renewed and 22 positions were eliminated. The staff in those jobs were offered other positions in the district, said Miranda Scully, a spokeswoman for FCPS. District officials have not yet clarified how many people were laid off and will not be returning to FCPS.

The proposed cuts to work days and staff days is effective July 1.

Kentucky’s second-largest school district has been marred in controversy for more than a year, largely over its finances. The district is currently trying to balance its books while continuing to restate and find problems with past years’ bookkeeping, a problem district officials have said goes back to at least 2008.

In addition, the district is currently at odds with Superintendent Demetrus Liggins. The district put Liggins on paid administrative leave earlier this month over questions surrounding an email allegedly placed under the door of Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, who is also an FCPS employee.

Liggins has since demanded he be reinstated and alleged the district violated the state’s open meetings laws when they placed him on administrative leave.

District says it will exhaust contingency fund to balance this year’s budget

In addition to cuts in the tentative budget, the district previously said it was trying not to begin the next fiscal year with a negative budget balance — that it would be at zero.

During a Tuesday press conference, acting Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the district’s beginning balance may even dip below zero, but the district is still trying to finish the current fiscal year.

“I personally think that we could be in a negative situation, but again, I don’t know,” Koch said. “We are still processing receipts. We are still processing payables. ...There’s a very good chance we could be in a negative situation.”

Koch was hired earlier this year to help the district untangle its books and right its finances.

The board recently approved a $95 million short-term loan to help it make its payroll this summer. That loan will be repaid when the district receives its property and other tax collections later this fall.

School officials also said Tuesday they will exhaust $27 million in the district’s contingency fund to balance this year’s books, which close June 30. The district had previously asked the board for permission to use the contingency fund but did not disclose at the time how much of the contingency would need to be tapped to balance the books.

This story was originally published June 23, 2026 at 1:36 PM.