The overwhelming  majority of the 2,573 new home starts in Manteca since January 2020 have been south of the 120 Bypass.

And it is reflected in the rising enrollment at both Manteca High and Sierra High as well as the elementary schools that feed into the two secondary education campuses.

Housing growth is expected to prompt the Manteca Unified School District board when they meet Thursday at 6 p.m. at the district office, 2271 West Lousie Avenue, to approve a series of attendance boundary shifts for the start of the next school year in August 2024.

The proposal vetted during community meetings that the MUSD board will consider involves:

*Shifting Diamond Oaks neighborhood east of Highway 99 and north of Louise Avenue from the Manteca High attendance area to the East Union High attendance area.

*Shifting the Mayors Park neighborhood in the triangle bounded by Louise Avenue, Union Road, and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks from the Sierra High attendance area to the East Union High attendance area.

*Moving the 760-home Villa Ticino neighborhood under construction on the southwest corner of Airport Way and Louise Avenue just south of the district office from the Sierra High attendance area to East Union High.

The board also will make attendance boundaries involving:

*Stella Brockman and Golden West schools.

*Joshua Cowell and Lincoln schools.

*Nile Garden, Stella Brockman, and Veritas schools.

*Joshua Cowell and New Haven schools.

*Nile Garden and Brock Elliott schools.

The impact of the ultimate attendance shift will be minimalized by a number of factors.

*A number of Diamond Oaks students are already attending East Union High via the open enrollment process.

*There are no students currently living in the Villa Ticino project.

*District policy allows eighth graders and up to be grandfathered to attend their current schools if attendance boundaries are switched.

*Open enrollment could allow students seventh grade and below to attend the school they would go to now if they were in high school thanks to modernization efforts at East Union and Manteca coupled with community facilities district funds that allowed for additional classroom space.

Last May, Manteca High had 1,864 students, Sierra High 1,630, and East Union 1,641.

Both Manteca and Sierra are up in enrollment this school year while East Union is down in student numbers.

The fastest growing area now in the city is the southwest quadrant where more than 2,000 homes in various subdivisions in the Sierra High attendance are either under construction or site work is  in the process of moving forward.

All of those homes won’t be built in a year and sold. That said, developers have been positioning themselves to meet market demand.

Griffin Park, a 1,301-home neighborhood, is underway along South Main Street in the Manteca High attendance area. There are more than 1,100 homes left to be built.

East Union, by contrast, in its attendance area has only one active neighborhood project being built — the North Main Commons — that is winding down to its final homes.

Shifting attendance boundaries allows the district to make use of underutilized space at some campuses and avoid overflowing at others.

In doing so, it assures the best overall educational programming in all schools districtwide as well as making  efficient use of facility dollars.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin