LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Students in Fayette County have already spent weeks in the classroom, but with a still-looming budget shortfall, an approved budget is still not in place.
Friday night, board members held a special called meeting to give the public an opportunity speak regarding budget discussions. The district's proposed budget for the 2025-26 academic yet was previously set at $715 million; since earlier this year, FCPS has been looking for ways to solve a $16 million budget shortfall.
Previous proposals included an occupational license tax, which the district moved to remove from the list of possible options last week, and pulling funds from the district's contingency fund.
Read more about that meeting here:
Covering Kentucky
FCPS board discusses potential solutions to budget shortfall at special meeting
In the original proposed budget, FCPS predicted that the fund would be approximately $42 million; however, figures released by Dr. Demetrus Liggins in August revealed that the fund is projected to be only $26 million.
District policy currently mandates that the contingency fund by no less than 6% of the overall budget.
Friday's meeting provided the public to speak on the discussion at last week's meeting, which consisted only of board members.
"Let me be clear here: it is the Fayette County Public School administration, not the schools themselves, that is losing the public's trust," said Mark Russell. "But we the people still have the potential to move forward."
State Representative Anne Donworth, representing the 76th district, also spoke during the meeting's public comment.
"There is something going on, and we have got to get to the bottom of it," she said. "So what I would ask for you all is that, yes, we need to do an investigation, but I really think it needs to be an independent, forensic investigation to figure out how we got here, who is responsible ... but we've got to have the answers to those, and we've got to share them publicly."
Liggins closed out the meeting, reiterating his dedication to students and passing a balanced budget.
"I want to be very clear that the financial situation we are in, and you've heard me talk about a variety of things when it comes to inflation and all of that, and I really don't want to go there any longer, and it doesn't matter what other districts are doing and what it looks like. I'm truly committed ... to finding out exactly how we ended up here and how we move forward."
