001[Music] Hey, [Music] behind. [Music] Damn [Music] Okay, good evening everyone. It is 5:30 somewhere, including right here. So, I will call this uh special meeting of the County Board of Education to order for the purpose of a public hearing, and I'll hand the agenda over to Superintendent uh Ligins to uh invite Mr. Jackson to the podium after we do the roll call of board members. And before we do roll call, I will note that board member Christian is currently it's tis the season for college movein and she is currently with family at the moment. So Miss Jackson, with that I'll hand it over to you for roll call and then I'll hand it over to Super Lig. >> Thank you. Good evening. Amanda Ferguson, >> present. >> Amy Green, >> present. >> Tyler Murphy, >>
002present. >> Penny Christian. Monica Mundy, >> present. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Super. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Jackson, if you can proceed, please. >> Thank you, sir. As part of the process for tax hearing, I am here to form you and the board of the following. Department of Revenue and the Kentucky Department of Education certified real estate and personal property tax calculation reports on July 29th, 2025. KRS132.0225 0225 allows 45 days for districts that are not adopting above the 4% rate to establish a final tax rate. Any district that fails to meet this deadline shall be required to use the compensating tax rate for that year's property tax bills. KRS 16470 provides the process for which local board of education annually adopt tax rates as a result of the question about the process
003from the districts. Katie recently conducted a review of the statutory requirements. The review determined that the statute permits a local board of education to adopt a tax rate up to including 4% rate without advertising holding public hearing. There's a chart that talks about tax rates. Below compensating, there's no over no advertising, excuse me, no hearing, no additional advertising. Compensating, there's no for all three of those also. And above compensating, but below 4%, no for all three of those also. In 4% there's no advertising, no hearing and also no additional advertising. Above four 4% there is an advertising, there is a hearing and it is additional. The 2025 rate was 80.9 per $100 for real estate, 83 cents for $100 personal property, and 59.2 cents per $100 of motor vehicles. The following option is recommended to
004the board for approval lowering the tax rate for the 2026 fiscal year. A rate of 79.8 cents for real estate, 83 cents for personal property, and a rate of 59.2 cents for motor vehicles. This option equates to a decrease of 1.1 cents or $11 in tax for real property assess $100,000 and no change in tax for tangible property. There's no proposed change for motor vehicle. The tax rate is 59.2 cents. The following are certified rates that was offered per $100 assessed value which may be levied for 2526 for compensating 76.8 81.8 subsection rate 90.4 90.4 and 4% 79.8 and 83. Thank you. >> Thank you uh Mr. Jackson. And just to clarify first of all there's no action at this uh meeting. This is the purpose of this meeting is for a public hearing and
005again uh the proposed rates which were discussed first at the August 18th uh meeting uh was the 4% rate of real estate at 79.8 and personal property at 83.0. Um so with that uh the only item on the agenda then will be time for public comment. Fate County Board of Education policy 01.45 four five states members of the public may address the board during the period set aside the board without submitting an item for the agenda. No action shall be taken uh on this uh during this meeting on issues raised by employees of the public unless deemed an emergency at the beginning of this meeting which is the only portion of this meeting. Uh those who have signed up prior to speak at the meeting are invited to speak on the matter at hand. uh
006speakers will not be allowed to make any disparaging or critical remarks about individuals or employees of the district. Instead, those issues are processed to the district's complaint procedures which afford the individuals to whom comments or complaints are directed the opportunity for response and due process. Furthermore, members of the public are encouraged to model civil and respectful discourse and conduct. This is not intended to be a time for debate or direct engagement with the board. However, the board will take the public input into consideration when making their final decisions. Uh at this time we do have 11 uh members who have signed up of the public to sign up to speak on this issue. Uh each member of the public will have three minutes uh to speak. A timer will appear on the screen behind me.
007We'll ask them to come up to the podium as their name is called and again keep their remarks to three minutes or less. And our first speaker this evening is Miss Miss Heather Cherry. >> Before we start public comment, can we get the rate proposal put on the screen? I mean, that's awfully hard to follow when it's just red. >> We can I can I have it pulled up right here. It's was on the agenda for August 18th. So, I can certainly send that. >> And I I just have a question because I had several questions about it when you say this matter is I mean, is this supposed to be only for public comment about the tax rate? Because today it was quoted in the media that this was we welcome public comment on
008the budget and the tax rate. The public the public is welcome to comment on any matter for the board's consideration and as >> I just want to make that clear. I want cut off when >> Yes. So again the proposed 4% rate is 79.8 and the personal property is 83.0 could work. Okay, Mr. Hello. Um, couple items I wanted to bring up was about the budget. Um, the conversations that's gone on for a little bit. Um my first comment would be um I guess over the last three years the back and forth about the budget and how much this costs, how much it don't cost, and all the questions that's been arised and there's always a 3 to2 vote which dismisses the two that want more questions and the three there there's no more questions.
009But this has been going on even before the other two board members came this year. There's always just been a disregard for more questions, more understanding, and more transparency. And now with all this unfolding, it just seems like the arrogance and the pushing that was done for the last three years is just kind of swept under the table. And I just feel like that somehow there has to be a reckoning with this. You can't just go from extremes and pushy and not answering people and somebody that's under investigation for supposedly the problem. You can't just sweep all this under the rug without answers. You know, we do deserve answers. And even though we tried to get them before or the board members would ask, there was nothing that was given for us to go by.
010It just depends on the 3 to2 vote, which I think is unfair. The second thing is every time you all talk about the budget, you say, "Well, we're going to cut this or cut that." As long as it doesn't affect the school level, which is what I'm not really sure what programs being addressed at the school level. I mean, everybody sees the scores and ever since the legislators made the scores have to be on the website, Fat County Public School now says we're more than just a number. There's no such thing. Everything with facts with this level is always numbers. So, you do have to address numbers. You can't just dismiss it like it doesn't exist. Well, I'd like to really know what are these programs that you're you're wanting to protect at a school
011level versus this building employees. I'm not really sure what that means. And if you all could be more clear on what programs you don't want to cut that affect the school level versus just making that statement every single time would be helpful because I don't really see what's helping. I think that you're trying to close the gap. But the only gap that I've seen closed when I look at every school on that website is everybody's numbers are low. So either everybody's slowing down and nobody's really increasing or I'm not sure. But I just think there should be more clarity what you're saying programs that are helping and we should see how that's helping through numbers since that is what we need to go by. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Cherry. Our next speaker this
012evening is Deborah Girth and following Miss Girth will be U. Carla Bllandon. Hi, my name is Deborah Girth. I am a self-confessed tax and spend liberal. I am happy to pay taxes, especially to support public schools. I am glad to take on the duties of a citizen by paying my taxes. I am also a retired educator. I have experienced public schools from inside as a student including my higher education in public universities. as a teacher from outside as a parent and as a member of site councils and hiring committees. It's important that you know this about me so you can hear me deeply when I tell you that you have lost my support and when you lose support from people like me you are in trouble. I am glad the administration properly read the room
013and withdrew the planned occupational license tax increase. I appreciate what seems to be a growing awareness by the board that without public trust, you cannot defend a tax increase. To better understand the budget issues the district is facing, I turn to the budget transparency page of the district's website. From the budget snapshot that is presented there, I conclude that we are currently spending in excess of $78,724,000 on salaries and benefits for non-instructional non-transportation staff. I am struggling to understand why with a non-instructional personnel budget that high, no one seems to understand the financial position of the district clearly. The administration, the district administration personnel budget is over $23 million and the recent budget confusion suggests that we are not getting full value for that spending. I do not know whether the confusion is from carelessness
014or malfeasants, but as a fan of public education, I find it disturbing and disappointing. Here's the conclusion I have drawn from what I have learned so far. This mess looks to me like what you get when you manage for PR instead of for mission. Members of the board, I ask you to go back to the drawing board with the budget process. It is burdensome for you to understand a large budget of a big bureaucracy, but it is essential that you do so. If you do not understand every line of this new budget fully and clearly, I hope you will persist in questioning and digging until you do. We taxpaying citizens are counting on you to do that on our behalf. We want what you want, excellent opportunities for all our children to thrive in school.
015When you get this house in order, then come back to the citizens for more tax support. I would like nothing more than to be defending a tax increase for our students and teachers. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Carla Blandon. [Applause] Following Miss Blandon, we'll have uh Dr. Mark Russell. >> Good evening. I'm Carla Blandon. I'm chair of the board of Commerce Lexington. Commerce Lexington has a long history of partnerships with Fyet County Public Schools. Um it's in the community's best interest, the business community's best interest that we have a highly educated workforce and citizenry. We've been involved in such things as themies of Lexington and helping with that. We have even supported uh some previous tax increases such as the school safety tax and then a previous tax before that nickel tax
016uh for facilities. However, we disagreed with the board's initial decision to raise occupational license tax and believe there was a better way to approach that. So, we really appreciate you all taking a second look at that, listening to the the community members who made up the budget workg group, and we appreciate that tremendously. We look forward to working with you. We know that this is just really the first step in the process that we need to address together the structural imbalance of the budget and ways that we can work to keep that in line and also make sure that the student success continues. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Blandon. Our next speaker is Dr. Mark Russell and following Mr. Russell will be Larry Moore. Thank you. As a retired teacher and former employee, I
017believe in American education, public education and view uh our system, our school system as one of the last guardians of American democracy. For some time, though, increasing members of the public have been losing have begun to lose trust in our public schools. Most specifically, they've lost trust in Faget County public schools. Some would like nothing better than to see a system like Faget County public schools dismantled or replaced by charters. Sadly, the doings in the Price Building are giving opponents of public education the ammunition they need. First, there was the Ron Clark affair, followed by the cancellation of arts programs. There was the imposition of eminent domain on a handful of hardworking Fat County Public Schools families and unwanted tax increase declared illegal by Attorney General Coleman in questions regarding the extremely high administrative salaries
018that allow our superintendent to earn more than Kucky's governor. Professional development trips to Las Vegas and Texas for central office staff, not teachers, along with huge catering bills for central office have further eroded public trust. Then there are the condescending, petty, petty lectures given by Mr. Murphy to those who question district policies and spending. These have even begun to annoy diehard public school supporters like Linda Blackford, who's mentioned it in her columns. Added to all this is the missing money from the contingency fund and finally allegations made by a district whistleblower who has mysteriously been placed on leave. Let me be clear here. It is the Faget County Public School Administration, not the schools themselves, that is losing the public's trust. But we the people still have the potential to move forward. The public wants
019and deserves fresh air in central office, just as teachers and staff are pleading for collective bargaining to offset the increasing demands placed on them year after year by men like Demetrius Ligins. As I see it, there is only one way to restore trust during the budget crisis. The June resignation of Dr. Demetrius Ligins and the immediate vacation of the board chair position by Dr. Ligan's biggest supporter and enabler, Chairman Murphy, will allow us to heal, to take stock of what we have, and to re-engage with a public that no longer trusts its chair or its superintendent. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Russell. Our next speaker this evening is Larry Moore. Following uh Mr. Moore, we'll have Matthew Vid. First of all, let me thank you all for having this meeting. I know you'd rather
020be someplace else tonight. Uh it's it's not my intent to inflame or belittle any member of the board for an 800 plus million dollar enterprise. County Public School board and leadership need to function like a board of a midsize corporation. They have strong financial perception, policy governance, risk oversight, community engagement, and datadriven decision makingaking. Board member Ferguson has asked for the well what are the conting how much is in the contingency reserve fund? While I cannot state exactly what that number is, I do know that through open records, I was informed that that's in the unassigned fund balance category of the audited financial statements. And going back to fiscal 2020, and I'll refer them to them as 2021, that type of thing, that number in 20, fiscal 20 was 61,989,000. And 21 physical 21 is
02178,807. 22 is 91,592. 23 is 79202. 24 was 41871. 26 is we have a tenative figure of 263 and the bud budget for next year is 41,973. Now, my question is, could the board share how many positions and programs were originally funded through Ursa dollars that have been carried forward to the 26 budget and whether or not those positions or programs are in instructional or administrative roles. In addition, since fiscal 22, how many new central office positions have been added and what are their functions do they support? Finally, according to the KDE report card, the district's overall rating comparing fiscal 2019 to physical 24 for elementary, middle, and high school is level three for both fiscal years. So with given all this additional federal funding and staffing growth, how does a board evaluate these investment
022have translated into measurable improvement for students? I would appreciate updates to these projects, these questions on the 9225 board meeting. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Moore. Our next speaker is Matthew Vid. Following Mr. will have normal justice. >> I've got a couple that want to yield. >> I just need their names. >> Thank you. So that will that total of nine minutes. I don't think I have nine minutes in me on a Friday night, but we'll see. So, I mean, what what what do you guys expect me to say that that hasn't already been said? I mean, what what kind of daycare are you running around here? I mean, it's I mean, it's it's unbelievable to me. We have a a contingency fund that has been plundered to the tune of $16
023million. and and and the board, the chairman of the board, you you haven't even you haven't even so much as push back just any you haven't given him any sort of ultimatum. You haven't said, "I need to know by X date where the money went, who spent it." Guys, the I don't I I just I don't think that you guys understand the gravity of the situation that we are in. You you you are the chairman of the board. Miss Green is the co-chair, vice chair of the board. Do you understand the gravity of this situation? The school board spent the emergency fund without getting your approval and they still can't tell you what they spent it on. But here here's the thing about what they spend it on. It's not it's not there. They're not
024whatever investigation they're doing, which is silly in and of itself, but whatever investigation they're doing, they're not going to find one rogue expense. They're not going to find two or three big things that they did. What happened is is that they they over spent their budget in every single expense beyond the the the the threshold that whenever the $42 million started, we we passed the $42 million threshold. Every expense after that was in violation of policy. every check that was written, every expense that was that was done at this school district after it went below $42 million was in violation of policy. So the investigation it's I don't believe it'll turn up some big one big malfeasants. What? It's every every expense, every single one of them after we go below 42, every one is
025in violation because they can't touch the contingency fund without getting your approval. And and we had we've had several meetings on this. We had a meeting a Zoom call a week ago and and it's the the gravity of that is not coming through. I mean this is a huge deal and it's it's also it's not a huge deal just for this year like ma making the budget work making the 2526 budget balance that's not the only budget that has to be balanced we have to have a sustainable budget that can be balanced next year the year after the year after and and I'm not seeing how we're getting there and what and what I'm also not seeing is a sense of urgency from the board from three members of the board. I feel a sense
026of urgency from two of them, but the other three there is there is no sense of urgency. And here here's another example of a lack of sense of urgency. We're we're having a special called board meeting to discuss the budget, right? That's what we're here for, to discuss the budget. We don't even have a budget. We haven't even seen it. Do do have you seen a budget? a 25 a 25 26 budget. It doesn't exist. Where is the budget? And so, I mean, if if if if there were any other board chair, it feels to me like last week when this meeting was finalized and scheduled, there would have been a direction to the district. Guys, if we're going to have a meeting on Friday about the budget, I want to have a copy of
027the budget. You guys are supposed to approve the budget on on the 22nd. Usually the calendar looks like what you get tenative budgets like in February, March at least by May, right? You get a tenative budget in May and you guys look at it every month until September and then you vote on it, right? And the ten the tenative budget doesn't change much between May and September. But now we have a huge change to the budget. We have a we have a beginning balance that has dropped by $16 million, a contingency fund that was touched without approval. And it's it's what is it September 5th and we we're having a special called budget meeting and there there is no budget to review like what what do you want what what should the citizens say about
028what kind of feedback can we give you about a budget? We haven't seen the budget. Where is it? So ju here I'm gonna go back. I mean I've given you guys I've just I've given you guys so many budget facts. I'm just I'm starting to get tired of myself talking about the budget, but I'm going to I'm going to look I'm going to look at three years. We're going to look at how the district over spent the working budget for for fiscal years 23, 24, and 25. Okay. So in 23 and that and and these numbers are coming from your your budget documents. Okay. Okay. So, in these budget documents, you have every budget document has an actual budget from a couple years prior, a tenative budget, a working budget, right? We have there's basically
029three budgets on each file, right? So, if you have if you have multiple years, you can you can play out to see, okay, this is what they said they were going to do. And then next year, we get the actual and we can compare it to what they said they were going to do. Okay? So, that's what I'm going to do. So in 23 223 fiscal year they said they were going to spend $847 million. What they actually spent was $849. So a small discrepancy but you over spent your budget by $1.7 million. In 24 they said they were going to spend $836 million but they actually spent $856. So they overspent their budget by $20 million. And in 25 what we're trending towards is you they said that the the working budget had a
030total expenses of of all five funds $89 million but it's coming in at what $868. So that's an overspending of the budget by $ 58 million. $58 million. And so I mean I've I've been in a lot of these meetings. I come I come to too many of these meetings and I don't think I've ever heard the budget heard the board ask, "Okay, let's let's compare what you said you were going to do to what you actually did. You're always comparing tentative to working and how we changing between tentative and working." Guys, this is not how you manage an $800 million budget. People, it's it's starting to get comical at this point, but people ask me, "What do you what do you do for a living?" to me and I'm I I work for I
031work for a hundreds of million dollar manufacturing company. I'm in the sales department and so we do budgets. I'm always doing budgets. I'm doing budgets right now for 2026. We go line by line by line by line and say what did that what did that customer do last year? What are they trending towards this year and what are we going to project that we do next year? Line by line by line. And you, this, this is an $850 million public agency using public tax dollars and the board of education must have better control of the spending of those that are in your charge. And so the la the last thing that I'll say because whenever we see this budget, this mystery budget, I sure hope there's a bunch of people in this building, a bunch
032of expenses getting cut in this building. Go here. So, here's here's the last piece of budget data I'll share with you. So, I took all of business support services and district admin support services and added them up and we're going to call those admin. And I compared that to instructional spend. So, all of admin spend and all of instructional spend. Over the last five years, instructional spending has increased 5.6% year-over-year. That's a compound annual growth rate for instructional spending. admin expenses, all business support plus district admin support. You know what they've increased the last five years annually? 20.7%. So 5.6 versus 20.7. You know what the difference is in dollars? If admin spending had increased at the same rate as instruction, you would have spent $75 million less on district admin and business support services.
033>> Thank you, Mr. Reed. Your time is expired. Our next speaker this evening is Norma Justice. Uh following Miss Justice will be Crystal Harbor. We're in a budget crisis not of our making but in but of the making of inadequate leadership. Dr. Ligan sits here making five times what the average teacher makes after his contract was railroaded through months before it was required to be. As it stands today, I don't think it would have been renewed this summer. Um, and if recent lawsuit brought against Fyet County is to be believed, I think Faget County believes the same thing. And now here we are with questions continuing to mount about the budget. What is the budget? How did it get this bad? How was the contingency spent without board approval? Why are students overwhelmingly bearing the
034burden of your bad decision-making when there are adults in the price building far better suited to take on that burden? Um, and those students, the vulnerable students are taking the biggest hit. per Faget County themselves back in July at in the budget committee solutions saying that vulnerable students will be disproportionately impacted to the point of being out of compliance and open to legal issues. And we're seeing this in schools today with lacks of pair educators in classrooms with shortened contract hours, a lack of MTSS interventionist, discussions of raising uh lunch prices and increased class sizes. The bottom line is moving forward with this budget, when schools need things, cuts have to come from above. When we don't have basic arts education available to students, we don't need admen getting monogrammed robes in personalized luggage. When
035we don't have subs, we don't need multiple administrators traveling to networking conferences. When teachers are buying needed items for their classrooms, we should have zero catering in this building. And frankly, even when we have a balanced budget, much of this frivolous and egregious luxuries have got to end. Funds should be pulled away from upper management and and all of these luxuries and put back into our schools and our classrooms. give the SDB SBDM's more budget to work with and be able to better fit the needs of our communities as they change and grow. At this point, I and most others have no trust or faith in the existing board and admin with these perks and and we want our students put first. Dr. Dr. Lianigan sent out a GDP strong email assuring everybody in this
036building that things will continue relatively unchanged. To move forward, we need to remove leadership like Ligins, Murphy, Barber, Jackson, and any other complicit in the manufacturer of this situation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Justice. Our next speaker is Crystal Harper. Miss Harper. And then following Miss Harper will be Rachel abuser. Hello. I want to speak about transparency. On January 27th, 2025, board member Christian berated the public and stated that sometimes transparency is a choice. She said, "When you say you don't know, when you say you're not aware, sometimes transparency is a choice." She stated that in her 20 years of attending these meetings, she can count on two hands who has been there. She implied that the reason people are unaware is because they don't attend meetings, removing accountability from the board and the
037superintendent. She's not wrong to encourage the public to participate more in these discussions. We should all strive to be more involved. But her statement rather condescendingly ignores that some people do not have the luxury of being able to attend these meetings in person. Some people do not have reliable transportation. Some people work two jobs to make ends meet. It's very dismissive to blame your all's lack of transparency on the public. At the special called meeting on August 28th, board member Ferguson as Superintendent Lianigans about the funds move from the contingency fund. He stated there was an ongoing investigation. He also stated that this wasn't discovered until year end. How does this lack of oversight happen? Is it because Superintendent Ligins hasn't been involved? When board member Ferguson asked Dr. Ligins about budget projections and his
038confidence in the current projections compared to previous projections, Dr. Lian said he had been much more involved than he's ever been before. Why wasn't this level of involvement the baseline? Isn't that part of the job? Board members Ferguson and Mundy also asked Superintendent Ligins for the position control document. Apparently, no one has seen this document. Is that transparency? Maybe I missed it by not attending a meeting. I want the best for all of our children. They're our future. So, I want to know exactly where the current money is going. How is it allocated? Why is there a budget shortfall? And why is there so much stonewalling with releasing salary info for the administration office? Finally, I want to thank board members Mundy and Ferguson for your all's continued persistence on this matter. Thank you, Miss
039Harper. Our next speaker is Rachel Abuser. And uh our next speaker after that will be uh Annne Donward. >> Good evening. We're here on a Friday evening to continue to ask for honesty and transparency regarding the hard-earned tax dollars of Fyet County residents and where this money has gone. Over many months, members of the public, including myself, have raised many concerns about this and asked questions and unfortunately oftentimes were met with accusations of weaponizing transparency and attacks to my personal character. Now, here we are in the midst of a full-blown budget crisis where not even those who are their primary job responsibility is to track and manage those funds can answer the question of where did tens of millions of taxpayer dollars go. The only budget available to the public currently still shows a non-existent
040$42 million contingency fund. So, why are we here? To Mr. question. This administration has violated FCPS policy by spending $16 million without board approval and that's being investigated. By whom? Likely the people who violated the pos the policy to begin with. Meanwhile, we've been implementing a hiring freeze, leaving teachers with class sizes that are impractically large, and a plan to reassign teachers from other schools into positions they likely will not fit. And that's more than a month into the school district. You're giving them till September 15th. and then we're going to mix up schools and teachers and classes and just expect our students to go with it. That does not seem like a well-thoughtout plan or a way to provide a world-class education. This is not how to prioritize classrooms. And simply put, this administration
041has put their own agendas ahead of the needs of our children and in doing so has created a financial disaster that is going to take us years to recover from. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Annne Dwmer. >> Hi y'all. For those in the audience that don't know, I'm Ann Donworth. I'm a state representative for the 76th district. Um I've been talking with y'all. have raised concerns um ever since the first news of the possible um tax increase, the occupational license tax increase back on Memorial Day weekend. Um this is something that we have known was coming. Um I'm so grateful that you put together the budget working group. I think you brought together a great group of people who care about doing what's right for our kids. Um, I
042really wish and hope that we can continue to have those conversations with that audience. Um, but to many of the commenters points tonight, you know, the transparency is is a huge problem. Um, and you can put out all of the information you want, but a 30-page document for the budget when your budget is hundreds of millions of dollars doesn't get to the level of detail that we need here. Um, and trust is something that we've got to continue to rebuild. Um, it means things like doing your homework. And by doing your homework, I mean having a survey of a property done before you spend tens of millions of dollars building two new schools where you don't know where the property line is and having to come imminent domain people. You've got to be doing these
043basic things if you want the community to support you. And we need them. We need the whole community to support us. We need them to support our kids. So responsibility also means making sure that you're paying your bills. You we keep hearing about this current budget shortfall. Well, meanwhile, we've got vendors saying that they haven't been paid for work that they provided two years ago. What's going on? It means that you're listening to the experts that you hire on your own staff to say when there are problems with your budget. And I obviously don't know what happened there, but there's something going on and we've got to get to the bottom of it. So what I would ask for you all is that yes we need to do an investigation but I really think it
044needs to be an independent forensic investigation to figure out to figure out how we got here. Who is responsible? Was it a clerical error over time that led to things? Was it mismanagement? Was it an accident? But we've got to have the answers to those and we've got to share them publicly. I will echo again this is not a partisan issue. This is a question of making sure that we are supporting our kids. So one of the things that this district always stood for was it being it was about kids and I think right about the time that the district rebranded is about the time when the community lost trust and started to lose trust. It really didn't happen until recently. But it's got to go back to being about the kids. We can't have
045flooding in our schools. We can't have our schools inabil enable to hire people to clean the toilets. We need toilet paper and things like that. So, please get back to it being about kids. >> Thank you, Mr. [Applause] That con uh that concludes the uh public comments. As a a reminder to tonight was the public hearing that was first announced on August 18th um in a while the board was considering the recommendations and keeping the options open. And then we had the meeting last week uh at which the superintendent informed the board of next steps which include a presentation of the working budget at the planning work session on Monday uh followed by our action meeting on September 22nd. Uh Superintendent Ligins. >> Thank you, Chair Murphy, and thank you all who came up to
046speak today. Um I did want to share just a few things. I I wanted to um first of all say I hear you. Um there are quite a few things I I wish I could say that hopefully I will be able to say at some point. Um but I did want to there were some questions that were asked. My team has been trying to get as many of those answers as we could get through this uh this evening. Some of them, all of the questions that were asked, we will place on the website um eventually once all the answers are there. But some of those that are here now, I wanted to take the time to um to answer uh one particular one once um about how schools have been told to cut positions or
047have schools been told to cut positions. Um, as of day 15, there are four only four total teachers um in the entire district that are impacted by schools not being held harmless this year. Um, of those of those four teachers, there are only three schools that are affected um by not being held harmless. This means that only four teachers are being reallocated to current schools vacancies um to vacant positions as they're needed in the district. Um, and so that's four positions that were overhired that are being um placed elsewhere in order to um fill positions. Um, how many non how many John Dric non-campus positions um were not filled in 2025 due to attrition and uh freezes? Uh there's been 55 positions that are not on campus that are not being filled or have not
048been filled equaling a total of $3.789 million. Um there have um has there been a cancellation of fine arts positions? Fine arts programming has continued to be funded and exemplified at FCPS as evidenced in part by regular board of education showcases, school events, and district-wide community events. In fact, there was a comment made about the um the increase of non-campus positions. Uh one of I think it's three or four of those positions have been in fine arts. Uh there was a fine arts director that was created as well as instructional support for fine arts that did not exist um previously. Um was a nickel tax for facilities. School districts in um Kentucky are required to levy a dedicated 5 cents nickel tax on local local property for capital projects. This money is kept separate from
049the building fund. I'm sorry. From the I lost my Oh, there it goes. This money is kept separate from the um the bill uh the general fund and used for construction, major renovation, site purchases for projects, energy cons um conservation measures and payments owed on bonds sold to pay for those projects which is called the debt service. In Fed County, we are fortunate that our community has supported a property tax investments not only for required facility nickel but also two additional facility nickels um both in 2007 and the second one in 2022. Um we are here to discuss the budget tonight with no budget. Um at the August 8th 20 on the August 28th board meeting in education uh consensus was reached to hold tonight's public hearing even without the release of the budget. Um
050why is there an increase uh in admin over instruction? Partly, and that's going to be a much more detailed answer, but partly due to studies that were conducted to an increased a major increase in technology and in human resources to support uh district needs. Um, how many programs from Esser have been carried forward and what are the cost? Um, AVID, dual credit, and grow your own. those costs will still be given. Um, why are SBDM councils receiving more money to meet why are they not receiving more money to meet the needs of the community? SBDM councils are allocate are allocated section six funding at the rate greater than the state minimum. Um why is the average salary for a superintendent of 30,000 students uh for state of Kentucky only two districts over 30 have over
05130,000 students um JCPS and FCPS spending more than 78,000 on non-instructional non-traditional staff $78 million represents total expenditures in three categories 28 million is for operation and support. 27 million is in school administration um and 23 million is in district administration. This is as of August as of May 30th and it's un audited. Uh there why is there a lack of PAR educators MTSS etc in the classrooms? Uh we are currently overstaffed with PAR educators actually um and FTPS based based on enrollment. >> Please please um staffing for schools is based on student enrollment and school staffing needs are currently being reviewed as a result of day 10. Uh every school has an MTSS team. team leads. Um, a link will come that they're listed here um in a future thing. Has has freezes hiring
052freezes have any of them left classrooms empty without teachers? FCPS currently um have hired more teachers than um student enrollment predicted. So, and is the um investigation being led bound outside entity? The investigation is preliminary and we will not make any public comment on that at this time due to the personnel issues. Um that being said, I um so thank you and again we will continue to get those um those updated and put that out there. I I want to be very very clear that um the financial situation that we're in and I've 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 even go there any longer and it doesn't matter um what other districts are doing and what it
053looks like. Um, I I'm truly committed, as I've stated publicly and I will state again, to finding out exactly um how we ended up here, how we um and how we move forward. My focus is certainly on moving forward and making sure that this district is financially sound and um doing what's best for kids. I totally um understand and and respect all the comments out there and people's opinions and everyone's quite entitled to those. Uh but one thing that I can say is that we are working every single day to make sure that our students are getting everything that they need in order to be successful. And um that is something that we will and please refrain from commenting during the meeting. If you speak out one more time, I will ask you to be
054removed. Thank you. And so at this point, what I simply want to state is my commitment to you is to ensure that we get to the bottom of this. Anything that we find that has not been done appropriately will be addressed. And oh, there was one question that was not addressed um in this. It was why was Ligins has stated that he's more involved now than he's been before. The fact of the matter is um I have an organization with 9,000 employees. I have an organization where I am entrusted with trusting individuals that report to me. Uh there's no way I can do everybody's job. That's why I have a full staff. And so I am certainly being a lot more involved. Um, I'm realizing now I possibly could have asked a lot more questions.
055I certainly um wanted to uh possibly could have been told a lot more information, but I will tell you at the end of the day, it is ultimately my responsibility and should I find out that um things were not done in appropriate manner, it is also my responsibility to ensure that that is addressed and that is taken care of moving forward and that indeed will occur. And so, thank you all for your time and that is all I have for now. Chairman Murphy. >> Thank you, Superintendent. And that that will uh conclude the public's hearing. And again, as I said at the beginning of this meeting, the board the board's work, the district's work, the community's work, and as members of the public have shared this evening, the community's work continues. Obviously, um it is
056a challenge that the district is facing, and we have to be committed to moving forward and working together and addressing that challenge in a collective way uh that is clear, that is concise, and that communicates uh the relevant information to the community. and the next steps follows from here. As I said, on Monday, September 8th, the board will see uh presentation of the working budget. Some of those uh areas of proposals were recommended at the last week's special called COD meeting. And uh again, that is not a meeting where a final decision will be made on the budget. Uh the board will continue to engage, continue to ask questions, continue to engage the public in any way and format that we can. uh recognizing both uh the voices that we've heard from this evening and
057the voices we have yet uh to hear from and continue to ask questions uh and do the work that's required of us at this time and all year long. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting and wish all of our football teams much success tonight unless they're playing each other and then good luck to both sides. Motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Motion by Borman Green. Is there a second? >> Second by War Bor Mundy. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 30. Thank you.