As of October 29, 2025, Fayette County Public Schools has decided to stop the use of Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) days until further notice. The school board made this decision after careful deliberation as a way to save money and help with the district’s struggling budget. But what will this look like for students? How was the decision made? Are there any other changes that students, parents, and FCPS staff can expect?

Penny Christian, a member of the school board, stated, “NTI is on hold. After the budget work group met, after several sessions, and they made recommendations, that was one of the recommendations they made.” The removal of NTI days has been under consideration for a few months, but an official decision was not made until recently.

This decision was made to save money for the district, as there have been many issues with funding in recent months. The district’s budget was $16 million short, and the cause of this is under investigation.

There were also academic reasons for the removal of NTI. “It’s not just about the budget,” said Christian, “There’s always this expectation that if it’s going to be done, it’s going to be done right.” On NTI days, students are often doing busy work and not making academic progress to the same extent that they would on a regular school day. Teachers were instructed not to give any new material on NTI days, only review material, except for AP or Dual Credit courses.

Stopping the use of NTI days means that days that would have been NTI in past years will now be snow days. If we surpass the four snow days planned in the schedule, those excess days will be added to the end of the year, rather than using NTI days as in past years. AP and Dual-Credit classes with specific deadlines could struggle to keep students on pace with the course and ready for tests in May if too many snow days are used.

Many snow days are expected for this year. The upcoming winter is expected to be severe, possibly worse than last year. According to this year’s Farmer’s Almanac, we can expect “dramatic swings and widespread wintry weather.” This could mean many snow days for FCPS, as well as additional days added to the end of the year.

Christian stated that other budget-related changes are likely to affect students less directly than this. “The goal is, academically, to not touch you (students) at all,” Christian said. While students can expect the removal of NTI, there will likely be very few other changes that have a strong direct effect on students in the classroom.

The recent removal of NTI days, though it will help with the budget, and students may be looking forward to less work on these days, could make the school year longer than usual. We won’t know what the end of NTI days will look like yet, but we can expect some changes for students, teachers, parents, and everyone. We’ll just have to see what the winter brings.

Edited 12/5/25: The Fayette County School Board has decided to utilize traditional snow days and NTI days for the 25-26 school year. This decision comes after the first snow day was called on December 2, 2025.