The effort to secure adequate space to effectively serve a future Manteca High enrollment of 2,200 students is continuing.
Tonight the Manteca Unified is expected to approve a purchase of a home and accompanying property at 524 Mikesell Street for $340,000 along with $8,000 in relocation costs. The board meets at 7 p.m. at the district office complex at Louise Avenue and Airport Way.
The acquisition will allow for the future expansion of the school’s career & technical education classroom space expansion the district to further secure the campus.
The district has been slowly buying up the south side of the 500 block of Mikesell. Recent and future acquisitions along Mikesell when combined with land the district already owns that has aging school structures dating back to the 1940s eventually will accommodate more parking for the stadium in addition to CTE classrooms.
Manteca Unified has been targeting land along Moffat Boulevard with the latest property they are seeking to buy being the Pacific Motel to accommodate expansion of the student parking lot. The parcel in question will be able to accommodate 60 cars.
The district previously purchased an adjoining property at Sherman and Moffat. As part of the modernization and expansion of the campus, the school’s trash compactor and garbage bins are being relocated to that parcel
Manteca High has a current enrollment of 1,847. The existing campus has a design capacity for 1,737. The school board’s goal is to create a campus with an optimum education program capacity of 2,200 students with facilities accommodating robust programs to serve all students whether they are college bound, to prepare them for further technical training, or to directly enter the workforce.
The California Department of Education requires a high school campus of 2,200 students to have 46.8 acres. The Manteca Hugh campus has only 34.82 acres.
The initial options the district looked at a few years back was to relocate to an entirely new campus. The cost of doing so — well in excess of $140 million to replicate the needed facilities at the 101-year-old campus even before added additional space for 463 more students — was determined to be cost prohibitive.
It is why the board opted to modernize and expand the existing campus.
A $41 million plus project is now underway to partially accomplish the goal. It includes building a gym for 2,200 students — almost three times the capacity of the existing main gym — as well as a swimming pool that meets today’s competitive high school standards.
To address traffic flow, safety, and security issues the front of the campus is being re-orientated to Moffat.
A student drop off zone will be created in front of the new swimming pool, gym, and promenade accessing the football, softball, and baseball fields. It will come off of the southern portion of Garfield Avenue the Manteca City Council voted to rename Buffalo Way in honor of the school’s centennial last year.
The district is now looking at $260 million in Measure A bonds voters approved last year to roll out more upgrades at the district’s oldest high school campus.
The buildings on the Manteca High campus have an average composite age of 52 years with the largest amount of modernization needs in the district. It will require another $62 million to bring all classrooms and infrastructure up to grade due to wear and tear and functionality in addition to work now underway.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
