Whitley City Elementary School

Whitley City Elementary School is one of the average-sized K-5 schools in Whitley City, Kentucky, operated by McCreary County, with 547 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 30% above the state mean of about 421.

Whitley City Elementary School is one of 5 schools operated by McCreary County, a district that serves 2,668 students overall.

On demographics, Whitley City Elementary School records that 97% of students identify as White, making the school strongly White-majority.

On the income-and-resources front, On paper, Whitley City Elementary School has 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.2:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 85% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Whitley City Elementary School ranks in the top 10% of Kentucky public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 33.4%; Whitley City Elementary School posts 54.2%, +20.7 points above that line.

In the area at large, ACS estimates for McCreary County put the typical household earns roughly $33,750 per year, roughly 9% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 33%. In all, McCreary County runs 5 public schools (combined enrollment of about 2,668 students), of which Whitley City Elementary School is one.

McCreary Central High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 3.7 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 2 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Whitley City Elementary School comes 2nd of 6 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 43.1%.

Geographically, the school is in an outlying area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 8%: 594 students in 2018 compared to 547 in 2025.

On this page, members of the Whitley City Elementary School community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.