East Pennyroyal News

There were 245 first grade students enrolled in McCreary County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 8.4% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Pine Knot Intermediate School welcomed most of the first grade students in the county, registering 154 students.

Within McCreary County schools, the highest student population was found in first grade, with the smallest class sizes seen in 12th grade.

Statewide, McCreary County ranked 66th in enrollment numbers. It was also ranked 66th the year before.

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.

School	# of 1st Grade Students Enrolled	% of Student Body	Total Enrollment
Pine Knot Intermediate School	154	17.1%	902
Whitley City Elementary School	91	15%	605