Education/ Fayette County Public Schools/ Lexington Family

FCPS Leads Way in Academic Excellence

By: Emmanuel Caulk
Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent

Graduates from the Fayette County Public Schools receive more than just a high school diploma. When you choose our schools, you choose an experience for your child designed to equip them to excel in whatever future they can imagine for themselves.

Our students have unlimited potential. We are committed to helping them develop the attributes they’ll need to succeed not only in college and career, but in life.

FCPS students rate among the best in the state and nation, routinely earning awards and honors in a variety of academic, civic, artistic, leadership, career and athletic pursuits.

In September, 45 FCPS seniors were named semifinalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program based on their performance on the PSAT. This distinction places them the running for a share of $31 million in scholarships.

With 45 students selected for this honor, FCPS is proud to be the school district with the highest number of National Merit Semifinalists in the Commonwealth of Kentucky! Although 6% of the students in Kentucky attend Fayette County Public Schools, we produced 22% of the National Merit Semifinalists!

During the development of our Strategic Plan, we asked families about their dreams for their children and used that vision to develop our portrait of a FCPS graduate – one who is Academically Prepared, College and Career Ready, Civically Engaged, Culturally Competent and Equipped for the Future.

These students are stellar examples of how we prepare our students academically for success:

  • From Bryan Station: Madeline Farrar
  • From Henry Clay: August Colby, Eli Flomenhoft, Natalie Hayslip, Paul Kamer, Megan Kauffman, Eesh Kulshrestha, Bhoomi Shah, Briana Thompson and Helen Yong
  • From Paul Laurence Dunbar: John Adkins, Niklas Balk, Henry Blyth, Catheryne Cunningham, William Ding, Abigail Fister, Reka Gal, Grace Goff, Amal Gondal, Alan Luo, David Manche, Graeme Marshall, Megan Mattingly, Nasim Mohammadzadeh, Rohan Rauch, Kylie Schmidt, Syed Shah, Brian She, Jeffrey Shen, Parker Smith, Ashley Su, David Vulakh, Eddy Wan, Jason Wang, Elizabeth Weaver, Nicole Wong, Angie Xiao, Evan Yang and Stephen Yin
  • From Lafayette: Benjamin Adair, John Harris, Anya Hartman, Isaac Martin, Caden Pearson and Katrina Wrede.

Just after our semifinalists were named, I visited each of their schools to congratulate them personally. I thought that being called down to the office would make them think they were in trouble, but none of them even broke a sweat. As one student said, “I’m a good kid and I can’t think of anything I did wrong.”

I presented each school with a banner listing the names of all of their National Merit Semi-Finalists, and gave each student a pin for their lanyard in recognition of being Academically Prepared.

I hope you’ll check out my Twitter feed @FCPSManny to see videos and pictures from that day and to see other great things happening in our FCPS.