FCPS’ summer from hell ends with new budget surprise. District must do better | Opinion
At the Fayette County schools budget workshop on July 15, the people who volunteered to help the district solve its $16 million shortfall were confused.
Why were district officials pooh-poohing the idea of using the district’s contingency fund — 6 percent of its budget, so roughly $42 million — to solve the shortfall, then build the fund back up?
Sadly, we now know what district officials knew then: The contingency fund isn’t even close to 6 percent of the budget. When everything is calculated, it will be more like $15 million to $22 million. On Thursday, Superintendent Demetrus Liggins admitted, the district is at a budgetary “crisis point.”
The reasons, Liggins shared on Thursday, range from $2 million in Pre-K transportation costs to $2 million in charges for retired teachers who come back to substitute teach to delays in tax collection due to weather disasters that make projected budgets more difficult to predict.
It’s happening to other school districts around the nation, true, including Louisville’s Jefferson County district, which is facing a $100 million shortfall.
The FCPS budget issues are neither nefarious nor due to incompetence, Liggins said on Thursday. Instead, it’s due to a hostile climate for school districts facing inflation in nearly everything and uncertain federal funding.
But why do we keep getting such nasty surprises all the time?
It’s not competence that’s gotten us here, and these strange budgetary mistakes give everyone from mild critics to full-on conspiracy theorists plenty of material. When people see their property tax assessments continuing to rise, which leads to more property taxes to the schools, they wonder how the district can be losing so much money.
For example, the city and schools collect their share of payroll taxes and the sheriff collects property taxes, the main sources of funding for schools. LFUCG spokeswoman Susan Straub and Sheriff Kathy Witt both said they don’t expect any delays in tax collection.
When I asked FCPS spokeswoman Miranda Scully about the discrepancy, she said: “What we are talking about here is the result of required accounting practices that may result in a lower beginning fund balance because actual funds will not be collected or credited until the fall. It is a matter of projection versus actual receipts.”
Once again, it’s unclear why this process seems so much more difficult and complicated for the school district than, say, the city of Lexington.
A terrible summer for FCPS
It all started on May 14, when the district announced an unforeseen $16 million budget shortfall due to a variety of reasons, from the end of pandemic funding to inflationary costs.
By Memorial Day weekend, district officials had slipped a payroll tax increase on to the school board meeting agenda, a move later found illegal by Attorney General Russell Coleman. This triggered a special investigation by State Auditor Allison Ball.
Under public pressure, district officials announced they would appoint a public work group to come with budget ideas. They stacked the committee with higher-ups from Commerce Lex, UK and Keeneland. Those experts said it was clear the contingency fund was an obvious source of funds, rather than an increase in the payroll tax.
But apparently, they felt their advice was not getting through so they actually wrote an op-ed column to make their advice crystal clear.
Now we know that advice was pointless because the contingency fund isn’t there. These countless budgetary surprises — none of them good — are making the public lose confidence in Liggins and his team.
They take time and attention away from classrooms and are clearly leading to cuts that could hurt the crucial mission of educating our children.
Liggins says he is committed to better communication, with board members, with his team, with the public. We shall see.
Let’s hope this news will spur Auditor Ball to speed up her financial audit to make sure everything is above board.
The very uncertain number of bucks stop with Liggins. Two of his bosses on the school board have raised the alarm. The other three seem blind and mute to the serious problems here. They just gave him a glowing recommendation and a raise.
I have said previously I don’t think it’s time to look for a new superintendent because of the forward momentum going on with student achievement. He needs to come up with a logical, consistent way to cut costs, just as many superintendents have had to do in the past.
But we are at a crossroads because if the district can’t manage the budget in a more transparent, competent matter then the district needs a new team of leaders.
This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 1:53 PM.
