East Pennyroyal News

There were 3,468 students enrolled in Wayne County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 2.9% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Boys made up 52.8% of the county student body, while the other 47.2% were girls.

Data also showed that white students made up 83.5% of the student body, the largest percentage in Wayne County schools, followed by 10.8% of Hispanic students, 2.9% of Black students and 2.5% of multiracial students.

Wayne County High School had the highest enrollment among Wayne County’s eight schools in the 2022-23 cycle, welcoming 984 students.

Despite escaping some of the pandemic's educational disruptions, Kentucky's achievement gaps have remained an issue since 2019. In the eighth-grade reading assessments, for example, Hispanic students scored eight points lower than their white peers, and the gap reached 15 points in math. Black students fared even worse, falling more than 20 points behind and facing a failure rate nearly double that of their white counterparts.

Kentucky is in the midst of a statewide teacher shortage as turnover rates spiked to 10.9% in 2023, up from an 8.9% nine-year average. This issue is more prominent in schools with more low-income and minority students.

Data also shows that between 2019 and 2023, there was an increase of 260% in the number of available teaching posts in Kentucky schools. This often leads to larger class sizes, combining programs, and retaining staff despite potential negative impacts on teacher working conditions.

School Name	Total Enrollment in 2022	Total Enrollment in 2023	% change
Wayne County High School	997	984	-1.3%
Wayne County Middle School	716	707	-1.3%
Monticello Elementary School	694	658	-5.5%
Bell Elementary School	458	505	10.3%
Walker Early Learning Center	408	432	5.9%
Lake Cumberland Youth Development Center	52	71	36.5%
Wayne County Learning Academy	61	61	0%
Otter Creek Academy	52	50	-4%