The Palace of Amusement hall has recently undergone a thorough job of overhauling and has been put in splendid condition for the American Legion Forty-nine celebration and costume dance for September 14. The building, both inside and out, has been repainted. The underpinning of the floor has been re-braced, the dance floor sanded and waxed.

Statistics related to expenditures made during the school year 1937-38 for high school purposes in the 30 districts of California having an average daily attendance between 300 and 500, prepared by the assistant superintendent of public instruction, lists the Manteca High School as one of the lowest in the group in operating costs. Only four districts in the state have lower operating costs. The local high school has an expenditure per unit of average daily attendance of $154.

A low bid of $46,950 was received from Moore and Moore of Stockton for construction of the high school swimming pool at the opening of bids Tuesday night by the high school board of trustees. An additional bid of $1,782.15 was submmitted for the construction of the wading pool. This latter item is being financed by the Manteca Lions Club with proceeds netted from the Lions Frolic.

Approximately 1,300 students will flock back to Manteca Union High School Monday morning.  Fifty-four teachers will guide the students. Sixteen of those teachers will be new to Manteca this fall. New, too, this year will be 15 additional classrooms above those in use last year, plus gymnasium additions and a shop and general shop.

The school district is continuing every effort to open the cafeteria at Lincoln School for the opening of school. The recent teamsters’ strike in San Francisco delayed the arrival of much of the heavy equipment, such as stoves, mixers and freezers. The price of childrens’ lunches is set at 25 cents daily. Teachers who plan to eat in the cafeteria will be charged 45 cents.

Manteca City Councilmen adopted a tax rate of $2.42 Wednesday night, just under the September 1 deadline. While the new rate is an arbitrary figure, it is an increase of 36 cents over the current $2.06, and falls way short of the $3.12 total tax rate City Manager Donald Weidner said would be required to meet the council’s tentative budget.

A 10-cent rise in the price of school lunches will be one of the items under consideration at the Manteca Unified School District Board meeting tomorrow night at the District office. The district is proposing a 10-cent rise in the cost of lunches for elementary and high school students and a 35-cent increase in the cost of lunches purchased by adults. The last increase was two years ago. If accepted, lunches in the Manteca district would cost 50 cents this year for elementary school children, 60 cents for high school students and $1.25 for adults.

Manteca Unified School District officials breathed a sigh of relief Monday, the opening day of school. First day totals indicate that MUSD saw 12,333 students, a 686-student increase. Newly opened Brock Elliott School saw 477 kindergarten through seventh grade students on its first day. “We’re definitely seeing a lot of growth in our district,” said MUSD Superintendent Harold Hughes.

The school district has grown to more than 17,000 students and much of the increase came in the first week of school. “There were really no surprises with enrollment,” said Kathleen Boomer, assistant superintendent of personnel services. “We thought we would have a high number of children but they came sooner than we thought. We thought enrollment would gradually build over the fall.” As expected, much of the impact was felt in Stockton’s Weston Ranch area that has seen a huge boom in home building.