It’s time for elected leaders on the Manteca Unified School Board and the Manteca City Council to understand they rely on the same taxpayers — and serve the same households — within the Manteca city limits.

And in doing so, they might be able to do things that they couldn’t do separately.

The rules governing what the city and what the school district can do are different.

There is no question about that.

But they also share mutual concerns.

Manteca Unified’s administration astutely notes each of their campuses are de facto community centers.

That said, their priority needs to put what needs to be done during the school day first.

The City of Manteca has demonstrated a willingness to think out of the box.

How the city secured Great Wolf, Big League Dreams, pulled off the transformation of a shuttered sugar plant into an economic juggernaut, harnessed wastewater treatment byproducts to fuel solid waste collection trucks, and are now advancing the family entertainment zone are just a few of the examples.

This brings us to the 56 acres Manteca Unified owns on Tinnin Road.

First and foremost, the seven people elected to oversee the school district need to instruct their staff to send a letter to the five individuals elected to oversee the city.

The board needs to request that the school district be allowed to connect with municipal water and sewer service with the promise they will allow the 56 acres on Tinnin to be annexed to the city without requiring the school district to lead such an annexation effort.

It would be a policy maker to policy maker request. No middle men involved.

It will do one of two things.

It would assure an elementary school can be built without the need for a septic system or water well.

Or it would make it clear elected city leaders are basically willing to delay or kill an elementary school needed to serve new homes that they are approving knowing full well the other property owners along Tinnin Road to annex will not agree to such a move any time soon.

Assuming no one wants to be blamed for derailing a needed new school or creating a delay that could ultimately add millions to build the campus until such time as hell freezes over for those opposed to annexing their rural properties, it will then queue up potential another win-win situation.

Why not pursue a joint city-school district venture, no matter how blasphemous that may sound to those that harbor empire building tendencies, when it comes to the Tinnin Road site?

The site needs improved streets to access it, which the school district doesn’t want to pay for. It also needs perimeter sidewalks.

The city needs additional recreational playing fields now instead of 20 years from now.

The school district, if and when they build a fourth comprehensive high school within the city limits on the Tinnin site in addition to an elementary school, will need a stadium and other sports and recreation fields.

Why not explore whether some type of swap could occur such as transferring the land needed for such facilities in a trade for the city bankrolling infrastructure including street work, sidewalks, and possible extending water and storm mains?

The city would then develop the sports fields and devise a working arrangement like River Islands did with Banta Unified to allow the future high school use of the facilities just as River High does with non-school district facilities in River Islands.

That way the city can program community sports and recreation programs on the same fields.

The city could also build an aquatics center or second community pool on the site with a design that meets both city and school district needs and avoids needing two separate and expensive swimming complexes.

If River Islands and Banta Unified can do it, surely the City of Manteca and Manteca Unified can find a way to pull off such an arrangement.

Who knows, maybe even a shared library such as is in place at the Weston Ranch High campus to serve both a future high school and the community could be built.

It would provide a community library south of the 120 Bypass and reduce the cost of a future high school.

None of the aforementioned is exactly blazing new trails.

It’s been done elsewhere in California including next door to Manteca in the Lathrop portion of River Islands as well as next door to Manteca in the Weston Ranch neighborhood portion of South Stockton.

There is so much the community and school district needs when it comes to facilities now, and in the future, and not enough money to pay for all of it.

Manteca Unified and the City of Manteca, working in tandem as partners from the ground up at the Tinnin site, can help meet some of those needs.