The plan to replace the turf at Weston Ranch High School with an artificial surface and a state-of-the-art track has been abandoned.
The Manteca Unified Board of Education voted unanimously — including trustee Sam Fant who championed the proposal — on Tuesday night to formally acknowledge that they are no longer looking at plans for replacing the gopher-ravaged playing surface at the South Stockton school with a multi-million dollar option that would drastically cut the down on the maintenance that crews would have to perform in order to keep the field playable.
But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a new field there – or everywhere else in Manteca Unified – before it’s all said and done.
While Weston Ranch lost the majority of the funding that would have made the project possible when the board voted to put the money from their Mello-Roos tax account towards the prepaying of outstanding bonds – thus saving homeowners money – the board decided on Tuesday to bring the matter of fields at the five high schools back for discussion after the election in December or January.
The core of what will be discussed at that point will be the overall condition of each of the five fields and whether they qualify for a full replacement that could run between $80,000 to $120,000 depending on a variety of conditions. Trustee Stephen Schluer said he wanted to see a report that both details the conditions of the district’s fields and lays out a plan for rehabbing the ones that aren’t necessarily up to the level they need to be at before agreeing to spend that kind of money to replace them.
It was the playable condition of the stadium at Weston Ranch High School, which has a large gopher problem because it’s rural location right near the San Joaquin River, that got the discussion started with the board more than a year ago. Coaches and residents raised the gopher issue as a legitimate safety concern for players while trustee Fant made a push to recommit the district to an earlier discussion about replacing the playing surface with an artificial offering that would cut down on maintenance costs. Initially the project, which was sent out for bids and a precursory plan approval by the Department of the State Architect, was to be paid for with the surplus Mello-Roos taxes that Weston Ranch had in its community facilities district, but after former trustee Dale Fritchen discovered that the money was being used for something other than what it was intended, the board opted to go a different way.
Because Manteca Unified has already spent money on consultants and preparatory work to submit something to the DSA, that project will be temporarily suspended so that if the decision later this year to replace the field with new turf and additional improvements at the cost of the district is made, an amendment to the existing project submission can be executed so as to not lose the investment that has already been made.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.