FCPS board approves 2023-24 budget for $681M
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — The Fayette County Public School board on Monday approved the budget for the 2023-24 year at $681 million.
A 43-page working budget breaks down the investments into each fund, like students, staff and programming.
New for this school year includes the following:
Gifted and Talented Servies ($235,923)
- Additional positions for gifted and talented itinerant staffing
- Supplemental duty stipends for content leads in the gifted and talented accelerated program clusters at the school level
- Additional support at SCAPA to serve additional students accepted this year
- Additional positions to support increased GT enrollment at Coventry Oak, James Lane Allen, Liberty, and Southern elementary schools and Rise STEM Academy
- Additional support for visual and performing arts GT services at the secondary level
Multilingual Services ($672,545)
- Additional position to support students, teachers and families
- Additional EL teachers
- Professional learning
- Additional staff to help with student transcripts
Preschool ($624,096)
- Open full-day preschool classrooms at Coventry Oak and Brenda Cowan elementary schools
- Add support positions to serve children, teachers, and families in the preschool program
- Purchase technology equipment for preschool classrooms
School Health ($513,798)
- Additional nurses, which will ensure full-time nurses in every school and half-time nurses in every special program
- Water safety lessons for second graders
- Health room electrical upgrades
- Rescue kits in school cafeterias
Visual and Performing Arts ($1,457,943)
- $829,000 for instrument repair and replacement
- $78,000 for general arts supplies
- Additional pay for music and art teachers to compensate for the time they spend with students outside of the regular school day
- Curriculum specialists to support instruction in visual art, music, theater and dance
- Expansion of world music instruction to provide a diverse, non-traditional music education experience to students at several schools, including a Mariachi professional to offer a Mariachi Ensemble course at Bryan Station High School
- Three district itinerant dance instructors to provide a variety of dance experiences – including African jazz, contemporary, musical theater, and ballet – at multiple schools
Employee Compensation ($28,880,883)
- Historic investments to raise employee salaries for the 2023-24 fiscal year
- Starting teacher salaries above $50,000
- Minimum hourly wage of $16.17 per hour
Human Resources ($1,426,290)
- Additional HR specialists
- Additional investments in employee wellness and HR staffing
Technology ($1,321,274)
- Annual refresh of Chromebooks in 2nd, 6th and 9th grades
- Continued roll-out of laptops or Chromebooks for staff to replace aging desktop computers
- Upgrades to the district’s network hub to allow for increased bandwidth
- Improvements to our Local Area Network (LAN) connections to improve connectivity at our high schools
- Phone system improvements
- Additional tech support specialists to provide professional learning and support for school-level staff
- Additional staff to support media services, textbook and instructional materials for schools.
Transportation ($3,909,954)
- Additional Bus Drivers
- Additional Bus Monitors
- Additional supports for bus repairs, maintenance and fuel
- Annual fleet replacement and air conditioning retrofitting
The total budget — $836,026,245 — consists of special revenue, building, food service, capital outlay and general funds.
That breaks down into the following:
- Special revenue: $63,530,530 (7%)
- Funds account for the proceeds of specific revenue sources that are legally restricted or committed by external entities, legislation or board action for specified purposes other than debt service or capital projects. Project codes are used to distinguish specific revenue sources
- Building: $55,497,117 (6.6%)
- These funds are to be used only for debt service, new facilities, major renovations of existing school facilities, purchase of land if approved by the Commissioner of Education and energy conservation measures
- Food service: $31,977,438 (3.8%)
- This fund is considered a self-sustaining enterprise fund. Revenue is generated from the meals provided to students along with eligible federal reimbursements. Funds are restricted to supporting the school meal program
- Capital outlay: $3,835,378 (.5%)
- Funds are required to be utilized for debt redemption and/or capital improvement. Funding is provided to school districts through the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) formula at $100 per prior year adjusted average daily attendance in accordance with KRS 157.420
- General: $681,185,782 (81.5%)
- Funds are utilized for the day-to-day operations of the school district in accordance with Board policy. It is the primary operating fund of the school district that accounts financial transactions except for those required to be allocated to other fund sources. The salary and benefits of most employees are paid from the General Fund, as well as utilities, materials and instructional supplies for classrooms, and contracted services to support maintenance, safety, insurance, and other costs. Revenue is generated primarily from local property and state revenue sources
The general fund monies come from the following:
- Local sources: $356,881,782 (52.6%)
- Federal reimbursement: $500,000 (.1%)
- Capital lease proceeds: $3,340,000 (.5%)
- State sources: $231,372,000 (34%)
- Beginning fund balance: $83,000,000 (12.2%)
- Interfund transfer: $6,092,000 (.9%)
To see specific breakdowns of expenditures and revenue of each fund, head here:
