East Pennyroyal News

There were 1,795 students enrolled in Somerset Independent School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 0.3% less than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2022-23 school year, 54% of them were boys, and 46% were girls.

Data also shows that most of the students were white, representing 81.6% of the district's total enrollment.

Somerset Independent School District roughly covers three schools within Pulaski County and has a main office in Somerset.

Among the three schools in Somerset Independent School District, Hopkins Elementary School recorded the highest enrollment of 718 students in the 2022-23 school year.

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.

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 2021-22	Total Enrollment in 2022-23	% change
Hopkins Elementary School	673	718	6.7%
Somerset High School	597	575	-3.8%
Meece Middle School	531	502	-5.8%