Bourbon Central Elementary School

Bourbon Central Elementary School is a primary school of mid-tier scale in Paris, Kentucky, run under Bourbon County, enrolling 459 students in grades K through 5.

Bourbon County comprises 6 schools with combined enrollment of 2,557 students; Bourbon Central Elementary School is among them.

On the student-mix side, Bourbon Central Elementary School reports that 73% of the student body identifies as White; the rest looks like 17% Hispanic, 5% Black, 5% multiracial. By comparison, Bourbon County as a whole is about 85% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.5:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.4:1 average. An estimated 68% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Bourbon Central Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 39.8%; this one delivers 32.1%.

Across the wider county, census data for Bourbon County shows the typical household earns roughly $61,354 per year, about 26% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. In all, Bourbon County runs 10 public schools (combined enrollment of about 3,416 students), of which Bourbon Central Elementary School is one.

Nearest neighbor: Bourbon County Preschool Headstart, around 0.1 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Bourbon Central Elementary School comes 3rd of 7 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 29.4%.

The campus sits in a town-center setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Bourbon Central Elementary School has shrank 19%, going from 568 students in 2018 to 459 in 2025. The White share of enrollment rose from 69% to 73% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio narrowed from 16.2:1 in 2018 to 14.5:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. The community welcomes input from current and former families.