The City of Manteca will not be entering into any licensing agreement with the Manteca Unified School District over the possible lease of Lindbergh School.

Superintendent Jason Messer announced to the Board of Trustees at their regular meeting Tuesday night that city staff has reviewed the financial mechanism involved and talked with possible sub-leases and came to the conclusion that they can’t pencil it out and be able to recoup their money. Among the possible sub-lessees that the city was having talks with was the California State University, Stanislaus which was looking at possibly having a satellite campus at the facility located on the northeast corner of East North Street and Lincoln Avenue.

The discussion was for the city to lease the Manteca Adult School-Lindbergh School facility in return for future School Resource Officer funding for the district. The superintendent emphasized that while the deal is off, the SRO program whereby the city provides police presence and assistance at the district’s various campuses is not affected whatsoever.

“At this point, we can’t say anything more,” said Messer who made the update report on the fate of Lindbergh School during staff reports at the end of the board meeting.

The ongoing hemorrhage of school funding with no immediate end in sight prompted school district officials to partially close Lindbergh School which is also being used as the Manteca Adult School. To reduce budgetary expenditures, the old main building was closed and, along with it, the discontinuation of some of the adult classes offered such as quilting, ceramics and guitar lessons. The remaining programs and classes that were being held in the old building were transferred into the portables in the back parking lot, along with Principal Diane Medeiros’ office.

Classes for high school students such as GED, fashion merchandising, and computers were moved to various campuses such as Sierra High and Lathrop High schools.

Still remaining at the Lindbergh School are the automotive and law enforcement classes as well as a preschool program.

By the end of the 2000-2011 school year, Medeiros’ office was transferred to the school district site on West Louise Avenue.

The SRO program of the Manteca Police Department, described as one of the most active in the state, consists of four officers assigned to assist the 24,000-plus students of the school district as well as the district’s staff.

Currently, one officer is assigned at each of the following campuses – Manteca High, East Union, and Sierra High – with the remaining fourth officer assigned to the 11 elementary schools within the city limits. Included in the officers’ assignments are Calla High School, Manteca Day School, and the Community School operated by the San Joaquin Office of Education.

Among the duties performed by the SROs, in addition to law enforcement, are counseling, mentoring and classroom education. Their responsibilities also include issuing citations to parents of students who are truant from school. In addition, they are very active in other school activities including sports, school dances, field trips, graduation and Sober Grad. They also provide law enforcement service at the monthly teen dance held at the Golden West School Gym.

All SROs are full-time police officers of Manteca.