The Work Group did not select a finite number of recommendations for the School Board to consider. Instead, the Work Group created ten recommendations that they ranked altogether in order of preference.
The Superintendent's Office will present these recommendations to the Board of Education on August 18th. The School Board can decide to implement any one of these recommendations, a combination of them, or can ignore the recommendations in pursuit of other solutions they may have.
The ten recommendations, in the order they were ranked, are:
1.) Reduce the Contingency Fund allocation to 4% instead of 6%.
However, Kentucky State Law only requires Districts to set aside 2% of the General Fund.
This recommendation, if approved by the Board, would add an additional $14 million to the District's General Fund budget. $2 million would need to be cut from other area's at the Board's discretion.
2.) Take $16 million out of the Contingency Fund to cover the projected deficit.
Under this scenario, the Board would essentially be voting to decrease the Contingency Fund by an amount of $16 million rather than by a set percentage.
It's important to note here that the FCPS Contingency Fund is not a fully separated fund like LFUCG or the State Government's Contingency Fund, which gets allocations every year into one account that builds over time. Instead, FCPS's Contingency Fund restarts every year, and any unused money from the Contingency Fund at the end of an Fiscal Year simply rolls over into the next year.
For a simple example, Lexington's City Government and Kentucky's State Government have a Contingency Fund that looks similarly to your savings account. They put money into the Fund every year, and that amount builds over time into a large pool of money they can use in case of emergency.
FCPS's Contingency Fund would be more like if someone gave you $100 and you decided to not spend $10 of it during the next two weeks in case of emergency. But then, once two weeks have passed, you decide to let yourself spend the $10 as you normally would.
Practically speaking, then, this recommendation would not be taking $16 million out of a savings account, but would instead simply be reducing how much General Fund revenue the District refrains from spending by $16 million.
3.) Freeze any spending that is not contractually obligated.
No details were discussed or shared by the group as to what this would look like.
Most staff in FCPS schools – teachers, paraeducators, substitutess, etc. – sign contracts before each school year that lay out the terms of their employment, including their wages.
Under this recommendation, most staff salaries would be protected, but it's unclear what spending would be impacted. Some schools may have already signed contracts with maintenance companies for renovations, for example, while other schools may not have.
The August 18th meeting may include more discussion as to what the impacts of this recommendations would be if it were adopted.
4.) Make further cuts to administrative positions.
The FY26 Budget already includes $1.8 million in cuts to positions and working days of administrative staff at the District level. FCPS is also choosing to close positions through attrition, meaning if an administrative employee resigns, the District will not hire a replacement for that person.
5.) Continue closing administrative positions through attrition.
As stated above, the District has implemented this strategy as a cost-saving measure for the FY25 and FY26 budgets.
6.) Create a sponsorship program for school programs, buildings, and public-private partnerships.
An example would be having a naming agreement with a private business for a school gym. Similar to how the University of Kentucky's football stadium is named "Kroger Field," an FCPS school could earn money by selling the naming rights to a gymnasium or other school area to a private company.
Imagine the Henry Clay High School soccer field being called "Paul Miller Ford Field."
A similar set-up could be used for school programming and curricular activities.
7.) Reduce maintenance costs by $1.7 million.
FCPS currently has $3.5 million budgeted for maintenance.
This solution would likely need to be implemented alongside another recommendation, such as reducing the Contingency Fund.
8.) Sell any excess real estate properties or other assets.
No recommendations were made as to what buildings or properties the school district owns that could or should be sold.
9.) Reduce maintenance costs and increase lunch pricing.
The Board of Education has shown no interest in increasing lunch prices for FCPS students. While the District's fund for school lunches is supposed to be self-sufficient through lunch prices and federal funding for low-income students, the school lunch fund is currently is operating at a $1 million deficit that is filled with the General Fund.
As with recommendation #7, this would need to be implemented alongside another solution that would save more money or raise more revenue.
10.) Raise the occupational license tax.
The Attorney General's ruling that increasing the OLT was unlawful was due the district not providing enough public notice about the vote. If the School Board decided to vote on increasing the OLT again, they could provide at least two weeks notice and legally vote again to increase the OLT.
FCPS plans to create another Budget Work Group that will focus on long-term solutions for the District's finances in future years.
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How can you get involved? • You can give public comment at the August 18th FCPS Board of Education meeting where these recommendations will be presented and discussed.
Kentucky's Attorney General ruled that FCPS's occupational license tax increase was illegal. Now, FCPS will pause the increase and get community input on the budget.
