School’s out for the summer.

That means no break for the Manteca Unified support staff — from maintenance crews to those that labor at the district office tackling everything from curriculum, budgeting, technology, transportation, and operations to nutritional services —working to make sure everything is ready for 3,000 employees and 24,500 students to hit the ground running when the new school year starts Aug. 8.

The task for those working at the district’s 30 campuses is obvious. It is time for deep cleaning and doing routine maintenance repairs and sprucing up campuses that weathered 24,500 young people for 180 days.

But the effort at the district office may not be as apparent although in many ways their workload increases wrapping up one school year and starting another. It’s much like what teachers and site administrators do but due to the nature of the work it doesn’t stop.

The personnel department, as an example, needs to process teacher payroll as instructors opt to be paid year round, there are other employees working in the summer, and the district needs to get new hires in place for the opening of school.

The Instructional Media Center is prepping hew history/social science textbook and materials that were adopted by the school board for delivery to elementary schools.

There also are 4,000 Dell devices that Information & Technology staff will need to prep and deliver to campuses for incoming fifth through ninth graders. That is in addition to used devices that are being checked and repaired as needed.

“There’s a lot of maintenance work that can’t really be done when school is in session,” Deputy Superintendent Roger Goatcher noted.

There are roughly 1,500 classrooms and other rooms where deep cleaning — think waxing floors and shampooing carpet — needs to take place.

In addition to deep cleaning and smaller projects, the summer maintenance teams for Manteca are overseeing or conducting:

*Weston Ranch High door hardware replacement.

*Brock Elliott asphalt repairs.

*Stella Brockman asphalt renovation.

*Sierra High track renovation.

*High school field fencing project.

*Weston Ranch High dugout construction.

*Proposition 39 lighting retrofit and heating/air upgrades.

*Carpet and flooring replacement at Manteca Day School, Weston Ranch High, McParland, McParland Annex, Brock Elliott, Veritas, and August Knodt.

*Roofing replacement at Manteca High theatre, East Union High art room, and Nile Garden custodial warehouse.

*Gas system survey for the modernization project.

*Joshua Cowell playground replacement.

*New Vision playground replacement.

*Installing a fitness playground at Brock Elliott.

*Dry rot repairs at various sites.

*Preventative heating and air system maintenance service.

*Painting at various sites.

In addition specific departments such as IT, nutritional services and transportation have a long list of tasks to tackle before school open.

Transportation, for example, needs to upgrade and modify routes for the coming school year. They are also installing Child Check Mate systems that will sound an alarm if a driver doesn’t check the bus for students before exiting the bus. New cameras are also being stalled. In addition new driver training has already taken place since the end of the school year.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com