The Tower — the dominate structure that symbolized  Manteca High for 43 years that the school’s yearbook is named after — was the only two-story building on campus until it was torn down on Oct. 3, 1969.

Although it did not house a bell, the second floor did provide classroom space for such endeavors as the school newspaper as well as the yearbook.

Some 54 years after the beloved bell tower was torn down due to it no longer meeting state seismic safety standards for school structures, there will again by a two story-building on the Manteca high campus. Actually, there will be two.

The Manteca Unified school board on Tuesday approved the final agreement to purchase residential property at 500 Mikesell Avenue just north of the existing agricultural education building.

That home, along with others on the south side of Mikesell the district has bought or is in the process of doing so, will be torn down and replaced with a two-story classroom building.

It will be built near the 10 classrooms funded with Measure G bond proceeds that were completed last September adjacent to where the new bus drop-off zone was constructed on Mikesell Avenue where it turns into Garfield Avenue near the Winter Gym.

The two-story structure will have roughly 20 classrooms.

It will be built prior to work on a second two-story building with 32 classrooms and a new media center that will back up against Sherman Avenue.

Once the first huddling is completed, it will allow the demolition of older classrooms needed to make way for the Sherman Avenue structure.

The Sherman Avenue classroom building will be similar to a two-story structure classroom and media center being built on the East Union High campus along Union Road.

Work on constructing the two-story classroom buildings is expected to start in late 2023 or early 2023.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dyatt@mantecabulletin.com