Manteca High’s small gym could be converted into the new campus administration complex.
It is just one of the options being considered to stretch the $40 million Manteca Unified has available to modernize the 99-year-old campus and situate it to handle enrollment growth.
“The structure is extremely solid,” noted Manteca Unified Director of Facilities & Operations Aaron Bowers of the small gym.
Bowers noted the size of the structure would allow for “an impressive” administration complex.
Whether that happens all depends upon how two options for re-orientating the campus toward Moffat Boulevard works out and what the final cost will be for those options when they go to bid.
As it stands now, the softball field to the west of the small gym will be relocated elsewhere on campus this summer. The school swimming pool will also be demolished. District Superintendent Clark Burke said arrangements will be made with Sierra and/or East Union so Manteca can continue to have a swimming program until such time a new pool is built. A swimming pool is not included in the scope of work for $40 million.
Where the pool currently is located a gym large enough to accommodate an ultimate enrollment of 2,200 students will be built. It will go right up to the curb line of the section of Garfield Avenue the city is abandoning so the Manteca High campus will no longer be cut in two and to allow the entire campus to be better secured.
A two-story classroom building — a first for Manteca Unified — will be built in the general area of the existing softball field.
The plan calls for reworking the parking lot and creating a plaza to the east of the new gym that will run from where Garfield and Miksell avenues meet north of the current big gym and near the southern edge of the swimming pool.
A roundabout will be put in place at the southern end of the plaza for student drop off by parents using Garfield Avenue via Moffat Boulevard. It would be positioned to also work as a drop off for football games as well as sporting events and other activities in the new gym.
Buses will unload in front of the new office. They would enter on Garfield Avenue and exit on Sherman Avenue.
The school district is working with the city to explore ways to make sure safety issues are addressed along Moffat at Sherman and Garfield avenues. When the city resurfaces Yosemite Avenue between Main Street and Cottage Avenue later this year, overhead yellow flashing lights activated by pedestrians will be placed at the Garfield and Sherman intersections with Yosemite Avenue.
Work targeted for the $40 million will also include modernization of existing buildings including restrooms.
There also will be placement of wrought iron fencing to secure areas currently that allow wide open access to the campus. It would also include new locker rooms for both the boys and girls physical education and sports programs.
Burke said one of the major points brought up by the community during input was the fact many people not familiar with the campus have difficulty determining where the school’s front is located. The switch also is allowing the district to secure the school better and to improve campus flow.
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.
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 addressed in updating campus bathrooms. There are more than 40 on the campus and all have issues. Included are a number of smaller restrooms including for 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.
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. Manteca High currently has around 1,700 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
