The Stables saved me. Don’t let FCPS officials punish us for their mismanagement | Opinion

I am a graduating senior at The Stables High School, and I am writing this today because I am fearful that my school will be shut down.

The Stables High School is not just a building. It is a lifeline, a haven, and the only reason I am graduating this year with a 4.0 GPA and a future I can believe in. And yet, this life-changing institution is now facing a potential loss of funding — a calculated threat that would destroy its unique and successful educational model — all because of the gross mismanagement of the school district budget by Superintendent Liggins and FCPS Board Chair Tyler Murphy.

For students like me, the traditional, larger classroom setting didn’t work. When I started at The Stables four years ago, I needed a different environment. I needed a school where the philosophy of “No child left behind” was not a motto on a poster, but a daily, lived practice. I found that here.

Every staff member, from teachers to administrators, creates a culture of support. They don’t just teach the curriculum; they prioritize student well-being, fostering a genuinely inclusive environment where every student is treated with respect and fairness.

The tangible results of this model speak for themselves. I would not have succeeded as well, or perhaps at all, in a larger, traditional school. The Stables is an essential lifeline for students who, like me, need a focused, smaller environment to achieve their full potential.

We are being told that the school district’s budget is strained. We are being asked to sacrifice the very structure that makes this school successful. But the truth is, the fault does not lie with The Stables or its staff; it lies with the office of Superintendent Liggins and the board.

For too long, the board and the Superintendent have presided over a budget that has become a black hole of misallocated and poorly managed funds. Irresponsible oversight and failed leadership at the top has allowed for frivolous and overspending of taxpayer dollars. Now, Liggins and Murphy are attempting to plug the holes created by their own mismanagement by draining the resources from the schools that need them most and are actually working.

Closing The Stables is not a cost-saving measure; it is an act of educational sabotage that punishes students for the failures of the elites.

I will be graduating soon, but I feel an immense obligation to the future students who deserve the life-changing opportunities I received. We must preserve the funding and, crucially, the small class structure that defines our school.

To the parents, community members, and taxpayers: Superintendent Liggins’s financial failures should not come at the expense of student’s futures. I ask you to stand with us. Demand accountability from Superintendent Liggins and the Board. Call your representatives, write letters, and make it clear that you will not accept the closure of The Stables High School.

This is more than a school; it is a promise to every child that they will not be left behind. Do not let mismanagement take that promise away.

Katherine Nicole is a senior at the Stables High School program in Fayette County.

This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 5:30 AM.