LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — On Tuesday, Ann Sampson-Grimes, the Fayette County Public Schools executive director of budgeting and financial planning and her attorney, Brandon Voelker, filed a lawsuit for alleged employee discrimination against the FCPS superintendent, the board and the district.
It comes nearly a month after Sampson-Grimes was placed on administrative leave by the district.
"I think it's the person who was there by board policy was charged with telling you, 'Hey, you're revenue is not what you think it's going to be," Voelker said. "Or you're spending more than you can spend and basically because I think that the leadership did not like those answers and wanted to keep spending. That they basically silenced her."
The lawsuit comes weeks after multiple FCPS budget meetings were held to discuss the school board's significant shortfall of $16 million that emerged in May. To date, the district has yet to finalize a budget.
"I mean right now by their own admission, they're going to be below their board policy of 6%," Voelker said. "That happened without the board ever saying, 'We've decided to go below our 6%.' So it begs the question, why are internal person's violating board policy? That's just not the way our system is suppose to work."
In the lawsuit, Sampson-Grimes claims she advised Deputy Superintendent Dr. Houston Barber on August 26, 2024 that budget cuts of 10% of more were necessary.
She goes on to say that she made several attempts to warn both Barber and Superintendent Demetrus Liggins of the budget issues, which were ignored.
On April 17, the lawsuit says that Sampson-Grimes emailed Liggins to inform him significant budget reductions would be required. By August 7, she said she advised the board to consider lowering the district's 6% contingency to the state minimum of 2%.
"The tools were all there for the board to be on top of this situation," Voelker said. "To sit there and act like they have no idea of these issues that this just came to light recently. If the press reports were right, they've been spending more than their budget."
The district is required by state law to have a budget finalized by September 30.
