Manteca Unified trustees have instructed district staff to include year round education as a possible option for the 2025-2026 school year.
The directive came during Thursday’s annual board workshop regarding enrollment trends.
State law requires schools to notify the public by Nov. 1, which the district did, if year round education is being considered for the upcoming school year.
The board has given such direction in previous years as part of an effort to make sure the district provides optimum learning environments as the district grows.
Student enrollment growth has increased as a concern in recent years.
Manteca Unified opened the current school year with a record 25,561 students in August
That included 17,469 in TK through eighth grade classes and 8,092 high school students.
And given peak enrollment each year isn’t normally reached until October, MUSD will inch closer to the 26,000 student mark as the year unfolds
It also means Manteca Unified is likely to exceed its projected high point enrollment of 25,797 for this school year.
The first day enrollment of 25,561 students represented a 16.7 percent growth in student enrollment in four years.
MUSD ended the 2020-2021 school year with 21,901 students.
The district has grown an average of 915 students annually in the last four years.
Projections indicate the district, if the current growth pace continues, could exceed 30,000 students by 2030.
Design work has started on three new elementary schools targeted for completion in the next three to four years depending on how quickly issues with various possible campus sites are addressed.
Issues involving the two sites proposed for elementary schools in the rapidly growing southwest portion of Manteca include lack of available storm drainage retention capacity in nearby developments for one location as well as the second site south of the 120 Bypass hitting a snag in efforts to annex it to the city.
The third elementary school is being pursued in Lathrop.
The district does have a back up plan to possibly build a 600 student annex to Nile Garden School.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
