On June 25th, Fayette County Public Schools’ (FCPS) Budget Solutions Work Group held the first of its three summer meetings.
The Work Group was created to review the FY26 FCPS Budget, recommend strategies to close a projected $16 million deficit, and offer ideas for ensuring the district’s long-term financial health.
This first meeting served mostly as an introduction, allowing members to get to know one another and learn the basics of the FCPS budgeting process. Deputy Superintendent Houston Barber gave a presentation covering the timeline for budget development, sources of district revenue, and key financial pressures.
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Look at the meeting materials: You can find all of the meeting's materials - including Barber's presentation on the FCPS Budget - on the Work Group's website.
A few of the financial challenges highlighted include:
Rising personnel costs. In recent years, FCPS has implemented staff raises and hired more experienced teachers. These educators tend to earn higher salaries, increasing overall personnel costs compared to pre-COVID years.
Increased food service costs. The Board has chosen not to raise meal prices for students, contributing to a projected $1 million deficit in the food services budget.
Contingency fund requirements. District policy mandates that 6% of the General Fund be set aside for contingency, which can only be used for one-time emergency expenses. For FY26, this would equal about $42 million.
Work Group members raised questions and surfaced a few early ideas for addressing the deficit, including:
Adjusting the contingency fund policy. Kentucky law only requires a 2% contingency reserve. The group may explore recommending a temporary reduction in the FCPS policy to help close the FY26 gap.
Redistricting and school consolidation. As enrollment is expected to plateau, redrawing boundaries or consolidating schools may help reduce costs.
Revisiting the Occupational License Tax increase.
The Work Group discussed some questions they had about the Budget, as well as some potential solutions to come back to for further discussion. Some of those include:
Revising the Contingency Fund policy. State law only requires school districts to allocate 2% of their General Fund to Contingency. The Work Group could recommend lowering the 6% allocation for FY26 to cover some or all of the $16 million deficit.
Redistricting. FCPS could redistrict the school district boundaries and consolidate schools, especially as student populations are expected to plateau in the coming years.
At its next meeting, the Work Group will dig deeper into the numbers. FCPS will provide:
A more detailed draft of the FY26 Budget
Historical comparisons to highlight rising costs
Information on staff benefits and other major expense areas
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How can you get involved? You can submit comments to the Work Group here. You can also attend the next meeting on Tuesday, July 15 at 5:30pm at The Hill. The meeting is open to the public.
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.
