The board is navigating how to balance a $16 million shortfall. The state auditor’s office announced a review of the budget earlier this year. The school district is also conducting its own internal investigation.
Board members like Monica Mundy say they want to be sure the external review would cover areas those investigations aren’t already handling.
“I do think that if we're going to go the extra mile and look into other pieces we might not be looking at with the audits that we already have in place, that we go ahead and add this last piece as well,” Mundy said.
Board Chair Tyler Murphy indicated he’d want the district’s audit committee to find the group that would run the audit.
“We want to be efficient with taxpayer dollars such that we're not duplicating – or triplicating, even – reviews and processes that are already happening,” Murphy said. “And so what I'm hearing is that the shared desire is, let's ask the experts on the audit committee.”
FCPS superintendent answers questions from state lawmakers
Earlier Tuesday, FCPS Superintendent Demetrus Liggins was questioned by state lawmakers about the district’s budget during an education committee meeting.
Liggins said during the meeting he intends to take responsibility for the budget, and to rebuild the community’s trust.
“I understand that the buck stops with me, and I accept that, and I want you to know that my goal is straightforward,” he said. “It is to understand exactly what has gone wrong, determine how long it's been occurring, and take decisive action to ensure that we never find ourselves here again.”
Republican State Senator Lindsey Tichenor grilled the superintendent on the district’s credit card spending, which she said a constituent got through an open records request. She said tens of thousands of dollars were spent on travel over six months.
Tichenor also said a significant amount of money was spent on Chick-fil-A, axe-throwing, tickets for the play “Wicked” and ice cream.
“These are our taxpayers' dollars that should be spent first and foremost, to educate the students in Fayette County schools, not for luxury. It's incredibly disappointing,” she said.
Liggins said many of those trips are reviewed and are meant to help FCPS staff learn skills they can bring back to the school district.
“There are many opportunities to really network with other school systems throughout the nation that are similar to us, have similar demographics or urban centers within their own states that we take advantage of,” he said.
Liggins said more people went on those trips than may have been necessary, but the intent was to positively impact students. He also said money for professional learning trips has since been cut from the budget.
Republican State Senator and Education Committee Chair Stephen West also asked Liggins about the culture at FCPS, and if there was a toxic work environment.
Liggins said that wasn’t the case, but did say he’s working to instill more trust within the school district’s community.
“I think there's some trust issues that are occurring in the leadership level of the district as well. And so I think that is something that certainly needs to be addressed, and something that has, unfortunately, been going on for years, and has been a culture that was established, from my understanding, well before my arrival,” Liggins said.
The school board is scheduled to finalize the district’s budget at its next meeting, September 22.
