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BUSY SUMMER
Schools out but work goes on
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Custodian Brenda Camacho works on summer cleaning at Lincoln School in preparation for the upcoming renovation and the start of the new school year on Aug. 6. - photo by HIME ROMERO/The Bulletin

How did you spend your summer vacation?

If you ask that of the Manteca Unified support staff — from maintenance crews to those that labor at the district office tackling everything from curriculum, budgeting, technology, transportation, and operations to nutritional services — the answer is working to make sure everything is ready for 3,000 employees and 23,500 students to hit the ground running when the new school year starts Aug. 6.

“Operations and business keep busy the entire summer,” noted Superintendent Jason Messer.

The task for those working at the district’s campuses is obvious. It is time for deep cleaning and doing routine maintenance repairs and sprucing up campuses that weathered 23,500 young people for 180 days.

But the effort at the district office may not be as apparent although in many ways their workload increases wrapping up one school year and starting another. It’s much like what teachers and site administrators do but due to the nature of the work it doesn’t stop.

That said the district complex shuts down the first two weeks of July in a bid to reduce energy costs and such.  District level staff switches to a four-day, 10-hour work week during the summer to also cut cooling and other costs.

To give an idea of the summer workload, the following is a partial listing of the tasks various departments are handling this summer:



Maintenance/grounds/custodial

Replacing the heating and air in the large Sierra High gym.

Carpet replacement for 40 classrooms and one administration office at 12 school sites.

Playground replacement at McParland and Brock Elliott schools.

Mossdale playground fall material replacement.

Repairs at seven different school playgrounds.

Roofing projects involving the Sierra High science wing, the East Union science wing, and IMC building.

New Vision High parking lot seal and striping revisions.

Weston Ranch and Lathrop high school pool security system installations.

Installing goat enclosure fencing at the school farm.

Planning for Weston Ranch athletic facility improvements.

Making improvements at Sierra High, Manteca High and Weston Ranch High for the be.tech programs starting in August.

be.tech classroom additions and campus improvements.

Adult transition school relocation.

Sierra High greenhouse construction and improvements.

Deep clean all classrooms including shampooing carpets and striping wax floors.

School site yard work, repairs, and bell schedule changes.

Planning work for first five Measure G projects.

Water conservation projects.

Weeding solar panel areas.

Pruning trees.

Stump grinding.

Removal of three trees at Calla High.

Rekeying classrooms and repairing doors.



Personnel

Interview to fill 73 certificated positions including elementary and high school teachers, counselors, psychologists, speech therapists, program coordinators, administrative coordinators, nurses, and vice principals.

Update new hire packets.

Changes to salary placement.

Preparing for training on evaluations, sexual harassment and child abuse reporting requirements, new administrator training and much more.



Transportation

Service all diesel particulate filters on all buses.

Tear bus routes apart and put them back together for maximum efficiency.

Checking cameras and radios in all buses.

Detailing all buses on the inside.



Nutrition education

Serve 125,000 summer meals.

Implement PCS digital inventory, menu, pricing, and grocery order process.

Network upgrades and expansions for high schools with the goal to speed up service with new bell schedules.

urevise, develop or implement a wide variety of mandated quality control and oversight programs for everything from meal nutrition and food safety to recycling refuse.



Information technology

Do software and hardware maintenance on 23,500 tablets.

Verify that red emergency phones work at every site.

Upgrade servers and Internet speeds.

Upgrade the software of various systems.

Upgrade all data bases.

Install 30 projectors.

Summer rollout of apps for truancy tracking, lockets, contacts, lunch counts, and behavior.