LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — As the 2025-26 academic year ends and the district prepares for the upcoming year, Fayette County Schools announced Wednesday that more than 115 district support positions have been cut.
The announcement comes just weeks after a financial officer revealed that district's records were misstated for nearly two decades, prompting financial cuts district wide.
"As part of our ongoing commitment to provide our staff, families, and community with accurate information, we are sharing additional details regarding the district-level reductions taken in order to ensure a stronger, more sustainable future for Fayette County Public Schools," the district said in a release. "While these decisions are incredibly difficult, they are necessary steps."
Employees with 12-month salaried, 12-month hourly, and 10.5-month hourly calendars, as well as those with 190-day hourly work calendars, are facing reductions in their calendars ranging from two to seven days.
The district estimates that this will result in $1.9 million in savings. FCPS also said in Wednesday's release that during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years, operational costs at the district level have decreased by $6.9 million.
"While the number of district office positions and work days will be lower, our commitment to supporting our schools remains high," FCPS said. "We are currently navigating these challenges to ensure that essential supports and services to our school campuses continue."
Among those losing their jobs is Instructional Resource Technician Holly Brooks, whose entire team is being eliminated.
"We're a small team, we don't make a lot of money, but I think we have a big impact on the district," Brooks said.
"It's something that I think isn't well understood, so I think it can be an easy thing to cut because they don't realize maybe what they're cutting," Brooks explained.
Brooks' team manages nearly 800,000 library materials across the district's 63 libraries.
"So now a lot of this work that we've been doing, the ordering, the processing, all of that of the books is going to probably fall on the librarians, and their days were just cut as well, so they will have less pay and less time to do this work, and then now more work to do," Brooks said.
The team also manages the Teacher Resource Center, where educators can access free materials and services.
"They can print posters, they can laminate them. They can print on card stock and all of that is going away," Brooks said.
While district leadership emphasized that teachers and paraeducators won't be directly impacted, Brooks disagrees.
"I don't really feel like it's true because they're losing access to a service that was free for them to use," Brooks said.
Kentucky lawmakers released the following statement regarding the cuts:
