By NATALIE MOORE:

At the beginning of the school year, many students did not turn in their lunch applications. Little did they know that this would lead to a major loss in the school’s budget.

Title I funding adds up to about $130,000 a year for Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS) and next year, DPMHS is expected to receive only about $38,000 to help the school.

Due to the loss in the school’s Title I funding, a few positions and programs are at risk.

Title I is a government-run program that awards funding to schools classified as low-income. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 50 percent of the school’s students must be considered low-income in order to be eligible for Title I funding.

“I know enough about (Title I funding) to know we needed that money,” sophomore Meagan Ford said. “We’re a small school. We don’t get large grants and donations like bigger schools.”

A school’s eligibility is decided by the number of reduced or free lunch applications sent in every fall.

In previous years, DPMHS has received the funding, however due to the lack of meal applications filled out and turned in, the money will not be funded.

Out of the 382 students at DPMHS,  nearly one-third of them failed to turn in the lunch applications by the due date.

Of those students, it is estimated that about half would have qualified for reduced or free lunches.

Although the loss of funding won’t affect teachers, the money is used to pay for support staff, such as school librarian Tammie Celi and school psychologist Mirvet Abdelehad.

Counselor Martina Torres’ job was formerly at risk too, but the district decided to save her position. Magnet Coordinator Noreen Castellani states that a high school cannot function without a counselor, making Torres’ position a vital one.

“I believe the school needs their counselor full time,” said DPMHS’s School Site Council vice president Todd Gurvis.

According to Gurvis, it is also presumed school field trips will become sparse, if not completely non-existent, throughout the year and extra curricular activities will see a considerable decline in financial support from the school.

“This will affect our school,” Gurvis said. “And it will affect (the students).”

However, as of now, there is still a little bit of hope for DPMHS. The district is reviewing the loss of Title I funds at several schools, one of them being DPMHS.

“While we are still growing as a school, losing Title I funding is going to hurt us,” said Principal Deborah Smith. “We’re going to have to pull together and work as a team this next school year.”