River Islands Academies is by far the fastest growing school district in San Joaquin County.
The charter school system serving the planned development that ultimately will have 15,001 living units operates under the umbrella of Banta Unified.
River Islands’ first month enrollment is up 600 students to reach 3,039. That’s a 24 percent increase in year-to year-numbers.
Manteca Unified wasn’t far behind adding 509 students for the same time period. The 2.1 percent increase sent MUSD past the 25,000 enrollment mark for the first time with 25,242 students.
By comparison, Ripon Unified is now at 3,306 students.
River Islands opened in 2013 with 350 students.
There are now 3,500 housing units occupied in River Islands at Lathrop. Another 500 homes that have been sold so far this year are under construction
The overall development will come close to last year’s numbers of 640 home sales by the end of December.
That means River Islands Academies is likely to add almost another 600 students by this time next year.
River Islands Academies is in the middle of three major initiatives to house students.
*River Islands High— initially designed to accommodate 800 students — is targeted to be completed by August 2024. There are already 350 high school students in classes at an elementary campus.
*That campus, once the high school students are moved off, will be expanded to accommodate elementary students.
*A third elementary school is now in the planning process to break ground in the near future.
Manteca Unified has three major initiatives in play to accommodate growth.
*The decision to build an early education center for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten on Tinnin Road in south Manteca as well as a site to be determined in Lathrop will free up space at six neighborhood elementary schools to be reconfigured for more K-8 students.
*Redesigns of the Manteca High and East Union High campuses through a modernization process will allow additional classroom space to be added to accommodate enrollments of 2,250 students based on programming.
*Other elementary campuses have been modernized with footprints that will allow the fairly quick addition of classroom clusters.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
