On April 23, Fayette County Public Schools announced that district leaders discovered misreported finances going back to at least 2008, which is as far back as digital financial records were kept for the school district. Superintendent Demetrus Liggins has received criticism for his management of the finances and said he plans to be more involved in decisions.
At Monday night’s board meeting, Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch gave a financial update to the board. She said though she’s worked with FCPS before, this time she’s been given more information and had deeper access to files.
“We have gotten closer in nine months to discovering, addressing and correcting longstanding problems than we have ever been before,” Koch said.
She said issues have been found in the four processes she’s reviewing: how the district takes in taxes and other revenue, how the district pays bills, how the district keeps records and how the district shares the information.
Koch identified that as a problem because a lot of district money is for dedicated purposes.
Revenue has also been lost due to missed deadlines for federal grant reimbursements. She said she did not have confidence in the February and March reports board members were receiving that night and her goal was for the April report to be accurate.
FCPS is expected to need a loan to address cashflow for the next school year. Koch called it a tax revenue anticipation note and said other school districts have used these loans before.
All these financial issues culminate in FCPS announcing reductions in work days and district staff.
Leave a Reply