Better learning retention plus . . .

Maximizing use of facilities plus . . .

More attune to modern lifestyles plus  . .

Less absenteeism equals . . .

Year round education.

The question is does it add up for Manteca Unified?

It is a question that needs to be weighed.

Manteca Unified has already shifted somewhat away from the traditional school year as it was once known in the format of nine months of instruction with minimum holidays and breaks plus a three-month summer vacation.

And like the rest of California, school years are no longer joined at the hip with planting and harvest calendars hence schools ending before Memorial Day and starting the first week of August.

Year round education is an option MUSD weighs annually.

And it does so not in a vacuum per se as many districts do which is as a last resort to double sessions when there is a facilities crunch.

The edict given by the Manteca Unified School District Board is clear.

The district’s goal is to provide the support — that includes effective teaching personnel, robust support, a strong partnership with the community, and needed facilities — to help students maximize their potential.

It is why any thought given to year round education needs to be driven first and foremost by students needs and how effectively Manteca Unified can work to meet them and not as a capacity issue.

When Manteca Unified did year round education more than 40 years ago, they did it wrong.

That is an observation made by district personnel.

And it is supported by the proverbial look in the rear view mirror.

In order to do education right, district leaders need to be realists.

Projections indicate Manteca Unified could be on track for 30,000 students by year 2030.

Today, there are 25,700 students.

That is 4,300 students or the equivalent of almost four new elementary schools holding 1,200 students.

At $60 million a campus, that’s $240 million.

Manteca Unified, with community facilities district bond revenue wedded with what state money there is for new schools, is working to build three new elementary schools.

But there’s a catch. Actually, a lot of catches.

*Construction costs are skyrocketing.

*Location, location, location. Manteca Unified is going to be in growth mode for years, and likely decades.

*At the same time older areas of the district are seeing schools with dropping enrollment.

*The vast majority of the state’s school districts have aging facilities that need upgrades which is more than a pressing need than new schools given they are not growing in enrollment.

*The burden of building new schools — in addition to the pressing need to modernize and repair existing ones — is part of what might be described as the overtaxing of taxpayers.

Results of year round education done right has led to reduced student learning loss, less  chronic absenteeism, and improved student learning.

Year round education with no short cuts can effectively increase facility capacity by 33 percent and increase student success.

In Manteca Unified’s case, it means less and less reliance on portable classrooms that are less than ideal.

Portable classrooms, before passage of Measure A in 2020, accounted for 30.1 percent of all district classrooms. That translated to 450 classrooms.

Today, that number is less than 400.

Portable classrooms are less that optimum spaces for learning.

At the same time, they are bigger financial drains in the long run.

There was a time when a 960 square foot portable classroom was roughly 50 percent of the cost of the proverbial brick and mortar classroom.

Now, due to increased state school construction standards, it is getting closer to 70 percent.

It is much more costly in the long run to maintain a portable classroom that has a rated life of 20 years.

Manteca Unified had portables that were in use for nearly twice as their expected life at East Union High until last school year.

The bottom line is this: Portable classrooms aren’t designed as long term solutions and in the long run they are more expensive than building and maintaining the proverbial standard classroom.

Year round education can:

*Keep neighborhood schools as neighborhood schools.

*Increase campus capacities by as much as 33 percent.

*Are more flexible and, therefore, more conducive to many of today’s households.

*Improve learning retention and ultimately improve student success.

There are a number of year round education models.

They are, in descending order of being employed, 60-20, 45-15, and 90-30.

Simply put, that is 60 days in school and 20 days off, 45 days in school and 15 days off, and 90 days in school and 30 days off.

All three cover 180 instructional days such as “normal” or one-track education.

The knee jerk reaction, of course, is to say no way to year round education.

It’s an aberration, you might say.

Some might call is an abomination.

Let’s address the aberration argument first.

By definition of the 1990s and before, what is in place today is an aberration.

Various breaks throughout the school year and a shortened summer vacation wasn’t the norm too many years ago.

Now let’s talk about abomination.

Not maximizing growth  in education opportunities for students is an abomination.

So is not spending limited tax dollars in the most effective manner.

The Manteca Unified School District might not opt for year round education, districtwide or within specific areas such as south of the 120 Bypass.

But if after careful weighing of the challenges ahead for Manteca Unified it emerges as the best overall option both in terms of educating students and fiscal responsibility when year round education is done the right way and not a knee jerk reaction, the trustees need to have the courage to pursue it.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com