Manteca High is on target to mark its centennial year in 2020 with a campus reconfiguration well underway.
The Manteca Unified board earlier this month signed off on a schematic for the re-development of the 45-acre campus that ultimately will take the campus to 2,200 students. The present campus configuration has a design capacity of 1,703 students. There are currently more than 1,600 students at the campus.
Major elements of the plan adopted by the board that may be pursued in the first phase targeted to start next summer depending upon how far the $40 million set aside for initial work that includes modernization and situating the campus for growth are:
*Permanently closing Garfield Avenue between Mikesell Street and the northern most entrance to the current student parking lot. The section that is being closed eventually will be converted into a plaza to allow access, if needed, for city crews to work on sewer, water, and storm water lines that run below the length of Garfield Avenue.
*Re-orientating the front of the campus toward Moffat Boulevard. A new administration office complex will be built to make this happen. This would allow buses as well as student drop-off to take place from Moffat using Garfield Avenue and Sherman Avenue. It would help relieve congestion along Yosemite Avenue.
*Demolish the swimming pool and build a new gym capable of seating the entire eventual student body of 2,200 students. It will be immediately south of the existing big gym. The swimming pool will not be replaced in the first phase. That will happen in a later phase.
*Build new locker rooms for both the boys and girls physical education and sports programs.
*The existing small gym would be demolished.
*The school district’s first two-story classroom will be built west of the new big gym (where the swimming pool is now located) and east of Sherman Avenue.
*The cafeteria will be expanded and a new student quad created. This will involve demolishing existing classrooms.
*A new science quad will be created.
*A new softball field will be created just outside the main entrance to the football field on an existing grassy area. The centerfield fence will bump against the centerfield fence of the baseball field.
There is $15 million in Measure G money set aside for the Manteca High campus earmarked exclusively to address health and safety and modernization needs. In addition the school board has budgeted $4 million in one-time redevelopment agency receipts and $21 million in growth fees collected from new development to go toward expanding the campus to accommodate growth.
Facilities & Operations Director Aaron Bowers noted much of the Measure G money will go for work the public won’t see — asbestos removal, grading to eliminate drainage issues, new wiring and new plumbing.
A lot of money will be used to address updating campus bathrooms. There are more than 40 on the campus and all have issues. Included are a number of smaller restrooms including some with as little as one toilet. Those bathrooms will be eliminated and repurposed as storage space or other such use. Some of the older bathrooms may simply be demolished and replaced with new ones elsewhere if it is determined to be more cost effective.
Measure G money will also address issues in existing classrooms and facilities. The performing arts center, as an example, will have dressing room and storage areas expanded, new seating, new lighting, and other structural issues addressed.
The existing administration building will be repurposed as classrooms.
The use of wrought iron fence will be extended. The homeless in the past have cut through chain like fences to access parts of the campus at night where there are athletic fields. The fencing costs less in the long haul as well.
It is part of campus security upgrades that will take place using Measure G funds.
Bowers noted the district is now moving forward with geo-technical work related to the campus, environmental studies, and a traffic study addressing vehicle flow from Moffat Boulevard, state approval of building plans, and negotiating lease-purchase contracts for specific design as well as construction. The lease-purchase method has proven to be the most nimble and cost effective and has been used on other Measure G projects such as Lincoln School.
“We want to be able to turn dirt next summer,” Bowers said.
Work using the $40 million available is expected to take 20 months to complete once construction starts.
Deputy Superintendent Roger Goatcher noted the district hopes to explore joint use ventures with the City of Manteca. That could include utilizing the performing arts center for civic purposes as well as the new main gym. If the city opts to go beyond just a programming overlay and have some type of investment in the structures to make them more conducive to city uses, the school district is open to that possibility.
A joint use swimming pool is also a possibility where the cost of constructing and operating it is shared. Such a move would essentially cut the burden to taxpayers in half instead of building two separate swimming pools.
Bowers emphasized that securing money to build new facilities beyond Mello-Roos fees and development fees is about to become more difficult. The state next month will no longer accept applications to secure money from the statewide bond to build new schools.
Manteca High first
school to be taken
up to 2,200 students
The school board opted to have the Manteca High campus absorb the initial surge of high school students being generated from new home construction south of the 120 Bypass. The long-range goal is to cap enrollment at the five existing Manteca Unified comprehensive high schools at 2,200 students.
Such a strategy when the three high schools within Manteca’s city limits are grouped together — Manteca, Sierra, and East Union – will yield the rough equivalent of another high school based on the existing design capacity of the three combined campuses.
The 2,200 student enrollment cap was selected as the optimum size to be able to offer more educational opportunities without campuses getting too unwieldy.
The Manteca High campus was rebuilt in 1949 with new structures and modernizations taking play in 1993, 1996, and 2002. There are numerous program deficiencies related to structures including a gym that can only hold a third of the current student body at any given time.
The district owns land on Tinnin Road designated for a new high school. The cost to build a high school campus for 1,500 to 1,800 students is pegged at $140 million plus. The big ticket items are extending infrastructure to serve the campus and support facilities such as a gym, football field, swimming pool, and such. All three existing high school campuses within the city already have support facilities meaning the district can accommodate growth less expensively than building a new high school campus
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabuletin.com
