During the school year, 144 of the school’s students were able to participate in a community outreach. If this number is 4/5 of the total students, how many students were not able to participate?

1. Set up the equation for the number of participating students:
\frac{4}{5}x = 144

2. Solve for the total number of students \( x \):
x = 144 \times \frac{5}{4}
x = 180

3. Calculate the number of students who did not participate:
180 - 144 = 36

Final Answer: 36 students did not participate.