River Islands High will no longer be a charter school after July 1.

But for all practical purposes nothing will change — not the teaching staff, not the administration, not the curriculum, and not the standards.

What is changing is it will no longer be run by River Islands Academies under the purview of the Banta Unified School District.

Instead, it will be run by the Banta Unified School District.

The change is the result of a deadline in the California Education Code that a requires a district within five years of being unified to establish schools to serve all K-12 grades.

Banta School District was a one-campus elementary school with 100 students when voters approved unification five years ago. In order to stay unified, Banta must have a comprehensive high school within five years.

The three elementary schools at River Islands— and a fourth on the way — will still he operated by River Islands Academies with its charter through Banta Unified.

It should be noted all Banta School students that are of high school age have been — and will continue — going to River Islands.

“We’re real comfortable that things will remain the same,” notes Susan Dell’Osso who serves on the charter school board.

It also helps that four of the five Banta Unified board trustees are elected from River Islands.

River Islands explored other options including going with Manteca Unified or Tracy Unified and even building another high school campus.

The bottom line was the academies have a strong working relationship with Banta Unified with their goals and philosophies for River Islands aligned with the charter schools.

River Islands Academies started the current school year with 3,297 students.

The incoming freshman class at River Islands High had 300 students.

Work is continuing on the first phase of the high school campus to accommodate 900 students.

The campus’ ultimate buildout design is for 1,800 students.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com