Ripon’s small town character could be in jeopardy.That’s because the bulk of the growth in its schools over the next 10 to 15 years could likely be driven by its neighbor to the north — Manteca — and not growth in Ripon per se.The largest residential development ever envisioned in Manteca has been approved on 1,050 acres with a large chunk of that within the Ripon Unified School District.At build-out the residential phase of the Austin Road Business Park will generate an estimated 10,200 residents including 1,983 students in K-12. Planners indicate 58 percent of the number of students anticipated or just fewer than 1,200 kids would live within Ripon Unified.That’s a significant number given there currently are a little more than 3,000 students in the Ripon Unified district.It would take two kindergarten through eighth grade schools to ultimately house the students as well as 16 new high school classrooms.Ripon Unified is a somewhat different animal than Manteca Unified. Some of it has to do with the size of the district and its schools.