MSSD14, along with other schools across Colorado, has been suffering from a decline in enrollment. Colorado has also been going through a birth rate decline, which explains the overall decline in enrollment. According to Principal Anna Conrad, Manitou’s additional problem is the high cost of property west of I-25, which impacts the amount of students that can come to Manitou.
Anna Conrad, the Manitou Springs High School principal, “Especially after the pandemic, more families are pursuing online education, and right now, that is a very real competitor for us. That we are a small traditional public high school, and that is a lot of the value that we bring to the table but it also is not what every single person is looking for,” she said.
In order to come to Manitou from anywhere outside of Manitou, students have to go through a sort of waiting list which goes through CORA, which stands for Colorado Open Records Act. If families go to the MSSD website and click on enrollment, it will give some information about the process and how the whole choice program works. When it comes to school choice enrollment, the process, the notification, the waitlist is all on the MSSD 14 website, you can also see enrollment availability. That’ll give you an idea of what space there is across all of the different schools and grade levels.
Manitou is currently trying to counteract this as best as possible by posting all over town, whether that be social media, street and yard signs, or school busses side pieces. Conrad also mentioned that they are trying to show Manitou for the things that matter to Manitou and why that really matters.
“We are really reflective and thoughtful about what the programming is so we can be competitive, and really, not only competitive but distinguish ourselves from other schools through our offerings,” Conrad said.
Kolleen Johnson, one of Manitou’s district office building staff, loves that Manitou is small. She thinks that Manitou is unique for its ability to let children be or do anything academically, meaning that someone can be a three sport athlete and still take multiple AP classes and succeed in a lot of other school districts it is very hard for people to do such things.
As for the choice process, Manitou’s choice window opened up on Jan.1, and all of it is done online and all of it goes through the district office. Families fill out the choice application that’s the first step in the process.
“The next step in the process is based upon availability so class size, program size, school capacity, students are either what’s called conditionally accepted, kids are either conditionally accepted, or they’re waitlisted,” Johnson said. “Then after, if they’re waitlisted they get an email. They get an email saying their waitlisted.’’
Johnson believes that our teachers at MSSD14 should be incredibly proud. One of the greatest things about Manitou is that teachers make a safe place for students to learn and share their feelings.
“They are the people that make kids feel safe and appreciated and able to thrive are the people who who impact and influence our kids every day, whether that’s our preschool teachers or our AP teachers at the high school and everybody in between, that they’re doing the hard work and the reputation of our district is because of that hard work,” Johnson said.
