The 56 acres Manteca Unified secured for a possible high school site on Tinnin Road over two decades ago is in the running for one of the next two school campuses to be built in the district.
So is land purchased originally for a possible elementary campus near Airport Way and Fig Avenue known as the Rustic School site.
The district intends by the 2025-2026 school year to have two new “early education center” campuses dedicated to kindergarten, transitional kindergarten and Early Childhood Education to serve MUSD’s two fastest growing areas — Manteca south of the 120 Bypass as well as Lathrop.
The potential Lathrop locations are the Lathrop Annex across the street from the Lathrop Elementary school and the Ethel Allen School site.
Space needs for the TK program that the state is mandated by the 2025-2026 school year is larger and has more specific needs than a standard 960 square foot classroom for first through 12th grade students.
Larger space needs and age-specific facilities such as in-classroom restrooms is also a requirement for kindergarten and well as ECE.
By building the two new “early education centers” for the three specific programs it will avoid eating into enrollment space at existing schools south of the 120 Bypass and in Lathrop.
Early education centers will also be housed at the existing Stella Brockman, Great Valley and McParland campuses and/or Golden West School.
If the south of the 120 Bypass the district zeros in on the Tinnin Road site it will not necessarily preclude the use of the site for a future high school.
Currently, the district is in the process of building support facilities and — in the case of East Union High and Manteca High — adding two-story classroom structures — to accommodate space for program enrollments of 2,250 students at each campus.
That has further delayed the need for a fourth high school within Manteca city limits that in today’s construction costs for a campus of 1,800 students is approaching $200 million. A new elementary school for 1,080 students now carries a price tag of $60 million.
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 for needed support facilities even with the early education center taking up part of the 56 acres.
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 is in 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.
In the past the district has even toyed with the thought of a partnership with the City of Manteca to develop a sports park of sorts — baseball, softball, football, and soccer fields — that could be used by the community and a future high school.
The district currently has 315 students enrolled in TK programs. The district expects to have 634 TK students when the program is fully implemented during the 2025-2026 school year.
At the same time, the district is working to keep space options open should state mandate full-day kindergarten sessions that they backed off on in the last state budget.
That would essentially mean doubling the amount of kindergarten classroom space districtwide.
The district currently has 17 TK teachers and six para-professional aides assisting them.
MUSD is projecting a need to hire 13 additional TK teaches and 24 more para-professionals by the 2025-2026 school year.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
