There are now 11,540 housing units in the planning process between the cities of Lathrop and Manteca.

That means Manteca Unified will need to come up with adequate classroom space to accommodate an estimated 5,500 more students in the coming years.

There are Mello-Roos districts in place for over half or 5,944 of the housing units being planned. As such, the future owners of the homes will be paying toward the cost of providing additional facilities. Keep in mind what they pay will roughly cover about a third or so of the actual costs incurred.

Another 5,596 units are not mitigated meaning they are not participating in a community facilities district.

Those homes will generate the need to house 2,951 more students — 1,558 in kindergarten thru sixth grade, 455 in the seventh and eighth grade and 809 in high school.

Altogether when all units mitigated and non-mitigated are built and occupied, they are expected to take the district’s current enrollment of 25,000 students to 30,500 students.

Based on program capacity, the district can house 24,718 students with another 669 they have the capacity to fund classroom space via community facilities district fees already collected.

The district is in the process of building resource centers to relocate “pull out” programs such as reading recovery and English as Second Language programs  that often have 10 or less students to repurpose classrooms for additional student space. Those projects are being funded with CFD fees.

They are also wedding new classroom space with modernization efforts being paid with bond money to replace or upgrade existing classrooms that need modernization.

An example are plans to add additional classrooms at Sierra High using CFD fees to accommodate growth.

To make sure the non-mitigated housing contributes to the cost of space needs for students that will occupy them, the Manteca Unified School District board Tuesday approved a $4.79 per square foot charge for homes that aren’t in a CFD.

That means a 2,000-square-foot home that isn’t in a CFD will need to pay $9,580 in school fees when they are issued a building permit.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com