Manual Career & Technical Center

Manual Career & Technical Center, Manual, or Vo-Tech is a career and technical center in the same building with Southeast High School, located at 1215 East Truman Road, which is the Main Campus. The East Campus is located at 1924 Van Brunt Boulevard, at East High School. They are both in Kansas City, Missouri, and are a part of the Kansas City, Missouri School District.

School background

Manual Career & Technical Center offers 15 career and technical programs at two sites. Main Campus offers 11 programs and East Campus offers four. With successful completion of a designated program, an MCTC student might be eligible for articulated or dual college credit and access employment placement services. MCTC programs are designed for 12th-grade focused students who have demonstrated interests in career paths that include skill development in MCTC offerings.

Manual High School was a vocational high school which opened in the late 1800s. The original Manual High School was located at the current address.

After the Brown vs Board of Education decision to end segregation in schools, Manual Vocational High School was one of the first high schools in the KCSD to desegregate. After desegregation, Manual Vocational High School rapidly resegregated from an all-white student body to mostly African-American within a few years.

Manual served neighborhoods north of downtown, such as Guinotte Manor and Chateou Homes, and neighborhoods nearby, such as T.B Watkins Homes, Wayne Minor Homes, Parade Park, and Parker Square Homes.

The original building closed after the 1968-1969 school year. Manual High School was then relocated to the former Kansas City Junior College building, located across the street from Westport High School, while the original building was torn down and was replaced with the current building.

Manual High School was closed after the 1977-1978 school year. Many of its former students were sent to Northeast High School, Southwest High School, Lincoln High School, and other high schools in the KCSD.

Programs

• Automotive Collision Repair
• Automotive Technology
• Basic Broadcast Production (offered at Paseo)
• Construction Technology
• Cosmetology (11th grade entrance)
• Culinary Arts
• Early Education & Care
• Fabric Care
• Fashion & Costume Design (offered at Paseo)
• Food Science & Technology *
• Greenhouse Operations & Management* **
• Health Care Services - Certified Nursing Assistant
• IT Essentials (offered at Westport, Northeast, and East)
• Landscaping* **
• Small Animal Science*

* Located at the east campus of Manual Career & Technical Center at 1924 Van Brunt Boulevard
** Each student will be trained as a private pesticide applicator.

References

• Manual Career & Technical Center homepage