Fayette schools budget group provides much-needed info, transparency | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Task force proposed lowering contingency fund rate to address $16M shortfall.
- Flat enrollment and rising costs highlight need for long-term structural fixes.
- Meetings increased transparency and may evolve into ongoing oversight efforts.
Contingency funds, travel budgets, deferred maintenance, naming rights and closing schools.
These were just a few of the ideas floated at the second meeting of Fayette County schools’ Budget Solutions Work Group, convened after the payroll tax debacle.
These volunteers were asked to help solve a short-term $16 million shortfall in three meetings, but it’s possible the task force will continue on for all the long-term problems the school system faces.
These include a 10% cut in federal funds, continuing cost inflation for personnel, and general uncertainty about state and federal support of public education, what with the Trump administration getting ready to ax the U.S. Department of Education.
The contingency fund was the most popular idea from the six work groups that assembled on July 15.
“The contingency fund is low-hanging fruit to get us through the year,” said task force member Ron Edmundson, a local pastor.
That’s because state law requires school districts to keep contingency funds of 2% of their total budget. But the school district has a policy of keeping 6%, for a total of about $42.9 million this year. If the board agreed to change the percent from 6 to 4%, they could collect about $14 million right off the bat.
But that would be one-time money that wouldn’t deal with recurring costs.
Hard decisions will be needed on facilities because student enrollment is projected to stay flat or go down. Eric Monday, executive vice president for finance and administration at the University of Kentucky, who is serving on the committee, also suggested possible changes in investments that could reap more benefits.
“This is a long term structural imbalance,” he said. “The issue will not be solved by an increase in the occupational tax ... clearly the long- term solution that has be discussed is the number of locations.”
Member Hunter Stout stated the obvious: “I think it’s a bit unrealistic to think we’ll come up with long term solutions in six hours of meetings,” he said.
He’s right. But these meetings have provided so much more information to the public than has ever been shared before. Frankly, if the district had done more in past years, they might not have been met with such a rebellion and distrust over the payroll tax.
Members asked many, many questions and officials answered nearly all of them in a document posted online.
It will take a long time to rebuild public trust, but this work group is a good start. They should continue some form of it into the future.
The people who volunteer to give up hours after work to talk school finance want the best for the district. They want to succeed, as work group member Sharon Price pointed out.
“When you look at Fayette’s outcomes, we’re the top,” she said. “We like that and we want all of that to stay, and we want to have the best teachers in the country.
“This is a perfect storm waiting to happen, everything has gone up, and the need and desire to always do more with less is a hard place to be in. We understand we’re here to fix this.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 12:25 PM.