On April 10, 2024, the JCPS Board of Education voted to cut transportation to magnet and traditional schools in the district. Manual’s busing was removed, and in turn, only 15 students did not return for the 24-25 school year. However, Manual saw a decline in applications for the coming year.
“We did see a slight drop in applications; we actually have seen a small decline from post COVID in general,” Principal Dr. Michael Newman said. “Normally we see somewhere around 1,700 applications. At one point in the last four years it had dropped down to around 1,500 and going into this year, we were really close to that 1,500 mark.”
Newman cites the lack of transportation as a big factor in the application drop. If enrollment continues to drop—which Newman doesn’t think it will—it will impact the staff of Manual, as well as the funds our school receives. Manual is given $147 per student for operational funds during the 2024-25 school year.
“If we were to drop in enrollment,” Newman said, “Then we not only lose operational funds, but we could also lose our allocation of teachers. So that’s the first concern with the lower enrollment.”
To account for the possibility of losing a teacher, Newman “deliberately allocated funds in [the school’s] budget” to be able to retain a teacher if too many students left that year. Manual is a Tier I school, which is part of a system created by JCPS, and it means that they have the least relative need and their student-teacher ratio is 26:1.
“I know how horrible it is to be at a school that you love to be in and then have it be overstaffed, and then you then have to try to go out and find another school to work in or eventually be placed at,” Dr. Newman said. “So my goal is to try not to do that and maintain where we are.”
Theoretically, when looking at which teachers to let go, the school will identify which teachers have the smallest rosters, and whether or not those rosters can be absorbed into the rest of the department—but problems arise when teachers who teach certain advanced classes, or have specific electives are considered as well, as their class size might be smaller.
“We would have to make the decision based on a real thorough analysis,” Newman said, discussing whether or not specific magnets would feel repercussions more than others. “So that way it doesn’t just look like, Oh, we’re going to pick on a magnet and release a teacher. That’s not it. Then that way it’s very transparent.”
