Manteca High’s first ever school day was on Oct, 20, 1920 in three “temporary” classrooms built from wood and tar paper that welcomed 32 students on the opening day at 450 East Yosemite Ave.
The odds are a teacher — or even a student or two — arrived in an old Model T due to the prevalence of the Ford vehicle.
They were gas powered and parked on a lot that was dirt.
Fast forward to today.
Part of the $56 million Measure A school bond work now underway involving the construction of a two-story, 32-classroom building and media center includes parking lot improvements.
And part of those improvements will be the first on-campus electric vehicle chargers in the Manteca Unified School District.
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure at Manteca High School includes three dual chargers and two single chargers in the student parking lot, alongside one single charger, as part of campus facility improvements.
A charger will also be placed in the expanded faculty parking lot on the corner of Yosemite and Sherman avenues where solar arrays will also be installed.
The first elementary campus to have EV chargers will be at the Golden West School when a parking lot expansion takes place to the south of the gym.
That project will help relieve congestion in the student drop off zone as well as along Main Street at the start and end of the school day.
State law now requires EV charging infrastructure to be incorporated into new school construction projects and certain parking lot improvements such as what is happening at Manteca High and will occur at Golden West School.
That means EV chargers will be part of the design for the two elementary school campuses the school district is now advancing toward constructing in Southwest Manteca.
MUSD currently has five charging stations at the Louise Avenue office complex that support district fleet vehicles.
The district is now in the design review process with the city to install solar arrays and 47 chargers for medium duty vehicles to the east of the bus maintenance building at the district office complex along Airport Way.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
