By DENNIS WYATT
The Bulletin
Lathrop Elementary School safety — both on campus as well as during drop-off and pick-up times along Fifth Street — will be significantly improved with an envisioned $14.6 million modernization project made possible by Measure G bond proceeds.
“The design will clean up traffic safety issues at the campus,” Manteca Unified Deputy Superintendent Clark Burke said.
Neighbors and parents alike have complained for years about the hodge podge situation regarding before and after school traffic.
The bond project will clean up the traffic issues, add sidewalks, provide a bus drop off and create one main entrance to the campus.
Reconstruction will include building a new office at the main entrance and securing the campus in a manner that it is defensible if an incident occurs.
And if by chance there is a lockdown or some other emergency in 2018 at Lathrop Elementary School, teachers will immediately know exactly what is going on.
That’s because the Measure G modernization effort includes installing digital wall clocks that can be converted to message mode to post information from the office so teachers can take immediate steps to secure student safety based on the incident that is occurring.
“As things are right know there is a lot of confusion when an alert is sent out,” Clarke said
It is just one feature that the five elementary schools being modernized in the initial wave of school bond projects expected to cost $56.4 million will have in common.
Other school modernization projects in the first wave are Sequoia School, Lincoln, Shasta, and Golden West. The Sequoia project will also use $981,792 in unspent Measure M bond money. Some $60 million in Measure G bonds are scheduled to be sold this summer to finance the initial projects
Classrooms will be modernized at Lathrop with space maximized. New working will be put in place and computer labs will be removed.
Access gates that aren’t at the main entrance will be designed to automatically close once a faculty member using a key passes through them.
The school board in the coming months is expected to decide whether to approve the modernization projects.
Work could start later this year.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
