Nile Garden School’s before and after school traffic congestion could be substantially reduced by the end of 2024.

Manteca Unified is going ahead with plans to extend the driveway accessing the student drop off area from Nile Road that was added several years ago on the east side of the campus to Union Road.

The driveway extension is possible after the district purchased eight acres adjacent to the elementary campus.

It is part of a project that will replace the portable classrooms in use with “brick and mortar classrooms” as well as expand playing fields.

Several of the portables will be repurposed for the after-school community-based Give Every Child a Chance tutoring and related programs.

The eight acres could eventually become an annex campus.

While that likely won’t happen for years, it will allow the district the ability to add elementary student capacity as additional housing projects are built in the areas south of the 120 Bypass.

The district also still has  the Rustic School suite near Airport Way for a possible future elementary campus.

Manteca Unified is going forward with constructing  two new elementary schools on property it acquired more nearly two decades ago on Tinnin Road and northwest of Woodward Avenue and McKinley Avenue. Neither of those two school sites have been officially named.

The annex, if and when it is built, would have 400 students.

It would be supported by Nile Garden campus per se that is designed to accommodate 1,200 students and has a current enrollment of 1,147.

Nile Garden, thanks to the $159 million Measure G bond passed in 2014 along with state matching funds, is essentially an all new campus.

In recent years a dedicated transitional kindergarten/kindergarten complex was added, a new multipurpose room built, a new administrative office constructed, paging and fire alarm systems modernized, the campus secured, playground issues addressed, a dedicated parking lot created, and a school bus drop zone installed plus more.

 Aaron Bowers, who oversees facilities for the district, would like to see the driveway extension completed this summer.

If not, it should be in place by the end of the year.

The goal is to increase safety as well as eliminate congestion on Nile Road given vehicles are entering and existing the narrow county road at the same time before and after school.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email, dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com