West Pennyroyal News

There were 3,426 students enrolled in Simpson County schools in the 2022-23 school year, 5.1% more than the previous year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

Boys made up 52.7% of the county student body, while the other 47.3% were girls.

Data also showed that white students made up 76.2% of the student body, the largest percentage in Simpson County schools, followed by 9.1% of Black students, 7.1% of multiracial students and 6.6% of Hispanic students.

Franklin-Simpson High School had the highest enrollment among Simpson County’s six schools in the 2022-23 cycle, welcoming 870 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
Franklin-Simpson High School	840	870	3.6%
Simpson Elementary School	776	781	0.6%
Franklin-Simpson Middle School	743	748	0.7%
Lincoln Elementary School	462	482	4.3%
Franklin Elementary School	382	387	1.3%
Franklin-Simpson High School West Campus	157	158	0.6%