Fast growing South Manteca will be getting a new school.

And in doing so it will:
*ultimately increase the capacity of three neighborhood schools — Woodward, Nile Garden, and Veritas.

*allow the creation of a campus uniquely designed for transitional kindergarten (TK) and kindergarten.

*create an opportunity to eventually develop a unique multi-faceted educational campus for Manteca Unified.

The Manteca Unified school board on Tuesday decided to create the district’s first early education center on the 56-acre school site on Tinnin Road purchased more than a decade ago for $3.7 million.

The Tinnin Road site south of Woodward Avenue is roughly midway between Union Road and Main Street. As such it is in the center of the area south of the 120 Bypass that planning consultants for the city over the years have indicated could be home to 40 percent of Manteca’s population by 2040.

The goal is to have the first phase of the early education center up and running within three years to meet a state mandate for TK programming. That is timed to take advantage of state funding committed to help districts build TK facilities that are not housed in portable classrooms.

The center is being designed to also accommodate what is expected to eventually be a state mandate to have kindergarten students go to school for a full day instead of half day.

That means Manteca Unified would be able to develop an optimum early education experience given the classroom needs for TK and kindergarten mirror each other.

They require classrooms of 1,350 square feet as opposed to 960 square feet for a standard classroom.

Kindergarten classrooms also must have fenced in playground areas with age-specific playground equipment as well as their own restrooms.

That means the space will be interchangeable between the two programs to account for shifts in enrollment that typically occurs over the years.

It also means the entire campus can be designed for the TK and kindergarten experience.

By shifting kindergarten classes ultimately from Woodward, Veritas and Nile Garden schools to the TInnin Road location, it will avoid the need to add on to those campuses to accommodate TK as well as when the state eventually mandates full-day kindergarten that will require the doubling of existing kindergarten classrooms space.

It also means that the capacity of the three schools for first through eighth grade could be increased by 90 plus students each by reconfiguring the existing kindergarten spaces.

That would be the equivalent of building a third of an elementary school — typically the size of an annex campus – in south Manteca.

The board liked the proposal given it maximizes limited financial resources while optimizing educational program opportunities.

It is more expensive to add a handful of classrooms spread out over existing campuses than it is to develop a new campus.

At the same time, a full TK-8 campus would cost in excess of $40 million.

The 56-acre site originally was bought with the idea of possibly building a fourth in-city high school campus.

Since that time, school funding and development patterns have changed.

The advent of the 200-year flood rule means development much farther south into the rural area will be limited.

The site is within the area being protected from 200-year flooding with the $240 million levee enhancement project moving toward breaking ground before 2030.

Depending upon how development unfolds to the north of the 120 Bypass — particularly north of Lathrop Road and even east of Highway 99 — it may one day make still make sense to build a high school campus at the Tinnin Road site.

That would mean the attendance boundaries for existing high schools — Manteca and Sierra – would be shifted farther north.

Going forward, district officials have indicated two-story high school campuses will likely be the norm.

That means at a future date if a fourth high school was built at the Tinnin site, it could still accommodate 2,250 students and have space needed for the  early education center — and its possible future expansion — as well as an elementary school at the site.

Another option could be a specialized technical high school focused around STEAM or vocational programs.

The district also has looked at the site for a replacement campus for Calla High that has aging facilities in need of excess of $12 million  worth of work at on the southeast corner of the heavily traveled intersection of East Highway 120 and Austin Road.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com