East Union High is getting a new weight room — sort of.
The aging welding shop is being repurposed as a weight room. It will replace a portable classroom used as a weight room for physical education and Lancer sports teams.
The move is made possible by the new agricultural education complex. The finishing touches are now being put on the 7,500-quare-foot structure funded with a $1.1 million Career and Technical Education state grant. The complex includes classrooms and a new shop.
Work continues on the $14 million modernization at the 55 year-old campus using Measure G bond receipts. The bulk of the work entails classroom and restroom upgrades essentially gutting and upgrading the interior of solid building shells — the EU campus employed re-enforced concrete construction — for everything from flooring, ceilings, HVAC replacement, wiring, and plumbing to replacing non-complying interior walls.
“When we’re done these classrooms will have another solid 50 years of useful life,” Manteca Unified Director of Operations and Facilities Aaron Bowers said of the classroom wing work being done within the solid concrete shell structure.
The “new” weight room would never pass muster as a private sector gym. It has nothing to do with the equipment used. But instead it will be in an old metal-style building with no air conditioning but thanks to a number of large shop doors that can be opened there will be plenty of cross ventilation.
It is representative of how the district has spent much of the $159 million Measure G bond and is diligently finding ways to repurpose structures for changing educational needs. Aside from addressing significant deficiencies with new multipurpose rooms at several campuses, the rest of the money has been funneled into “the bones” — critical infrastructure that is hidden behind walls and underground that often after 50 plus years in use and are showing serious wear from aging — as well as modernizing classrooms so they can met educational needs for the next half century.
The same is true of the $260 million Measure A bond measure on the Nov. 3 ballot. It is designed to address a large chunk of the remaining $409.6 million in significant critical components you cannot see that are underground, behind walls, or on roofs. Overall there are $302.4 million in facility needs defined by age and conditions at the 21 campuses in Manteca, $69.6 million at the six campuses in Weston Ranch, $31.1 million at the four Lathrop campuses and $6.3 million at French Campo School.
The first priority will be given to the two campuses with the most pressing needs — Manteca High and East Union High.
Both campuses have buildings in excess of 50 years of age.
After the current work at the two high schools using what Measure G funds could be committed to them, there will still be $62 million in modernization needs left at Manteca High and $49 million at East Union High. That doesn’t include more than $80 million in education needs at both campuses such as a theater at East Union.
The district is not abandoning use of any structure than can be repurposed for other uses. The converting of the ag shop at East Union into weight room is a perfect example. So is the plan to use the woodshop at Manteca High for a weight room when a new agricultural complex is ultimately built on that campus.
The goal is to maximize bond money to provide safe, healthy and functioning educational spaces and not to go for glitzy new modern replacement facilities. If it is more cost to upgrade portables than replacing them with a traditional “brick and mortar” classroom it is done. Virtually all of the 450 portables that account for a third of the district’s 1,450 classrooms have been kept in good enough shape by the school crews over the years that they are being modernized.
Only a handful of the district’s 450 portables are newer than 20 years old — the average life expectancy of such structures. Many are approaching 40 years including all of the classrooms at the Neil Hafley campus that are all portables.
Having modern weight rooms such as at Sierra, Lathrop, and Weston Ranch high schools aren’t in the cards for Manteca or East Union because of how the district is spending bond money to maximize modernization efforts as well as address pressing health and safety issues.
Voters authorized Measure G in November 2014 for $159 million. The last bonds have been sold and will be spent within the next year addressing the most pressing needs at a group of elementary school.
Passage of Measure A would allow about half of the remaining identified modernization and safety needs to be addressed. If passed by 55 percent of the voters, would generate $260 million to go toward those identified needs.
The school bond caps the cost to property taxpayers to $45 per $100 per assessed value. That’s a far cry from March when the bond failed to reach the 55 percent threshold needed for approval. The cap was $60 per $100 at the time.
The difference is the more favorable bond market due to the pandemic as well as the district’s financial rating being considered extremely appealing when compared to most other school districts and government agencies such as cities and counties.
And given the last series of the Measure M bonds ended up costing property owners $37 instead of $60 per $100,000 in assessed evaluation, the chances are good if the bonds are approved the actual cost to homeowners and other property owners will be less than $45 per $100,000 evaluation.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
