Attendance boundary adjustments involving Sierra High and East Union High are being explored by the Manteca Unified School District for the start of the 2026-2027 school year.

The need to do so is being triggered by continued strong residential growth in southwest Manteca.

The area likely to be impacted are neighborhoods north of the 120 Bypass currently within the Sierra High attendance boundaries.

Before any specific change is recommended to the school board, a series of community meetings will be conducted.

The numbers all point to a need to shrink the Sierra High attendance area.

Districtwide, Manteca is projected to have nearly 4,000 more students by 2030.

The current enrollment is 25,502 students.

Based on current home building and projects likely to add homes, districtwide Manteca Unified will have an additional 2,204 single family homes and 1,420 more multiple family units by 2030.

That translates into an overall projected enrollment of 29,359 students in 2030.

The lion’s share of the new students will come from new housing units within the City of Manteca.

East Union has a program capacity for 2,098 students. Sierra’s program capacity is 2,034 students.

East Union’s 2024 enrollment was 1,328 (64% of capacity) while its projected  2027 enrollment is 1,492 (71% of capacity) and its projected 2030 enrollment is 1,555 (74 percent of capacity).

Sierra’s 2024 enrollment was 1,512 (74% of capacity) while its projected 2027 enrollment is 1,705 (84% of capacity) and its projected 2030 enrollment is 2,409 enrollment (122% of capacity).

With proposed student boundary adjustment, East Union would have 1,676 students in 2027 (80% of capacity) and 1,756 students in 2030 (84% of capacity).

Sierra, with the attendance area adjustment, would have 1,839 students (90% capacity) and 2,302 students (113% capacity).

The coming steps

The district will be conducting a community input process on proposed attendance boundary adjustments.

The process entails:

*Impacted families receiving multiple forms of communication — a letter in the mail, phone calls, and texts.

*A dedicated webpage will be established complete with an active form for digital input.

*Families will be given an option to “grandfather.”

Boundary changes will not go into effect until the 2026-27 year for current students.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com