East Pennyroyal News

There were 3,051 students enrolled in Rockcastle County School District schools in the 2022-23 school year, 0.2% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2022-23 school year, 50.6% were girls, and 49.4% of them were boys.

Data also shows that most of the students were white, representing 94.8% of the district's total enrollment.

Rockcastle County School District roughly covers six schools within Rockcastle County and has a main office in Mount Vernon.

Among the six schools in Rockcastle County School District, Rockcastle County High School recorded the highest enrollment of 868 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
Rockcastle County High School	867	868	0.1%
Mt. Vernon Elementary School	672	691	2.8%
Rockcastle County Middle School	677	618	-9.5%
Brodhead Elementary School	473	534	12.9%
Roundstone Elementary School	284	273	-4%
Rockcastle Academy for Academic Achievement	71	67	-6%