Portable classrooms at Manteca High and East Union High will be history when 2028 rolls around.

That is when all modernization work at the two oldest high school campuses in the Manteca Unified School District is targeted to be completed. 

Sierra, which will see additional permanent classrooms built in the campus basin area along Winters Drive in the near future,  will likely still have a number of portables left when the construction dust settles.

All three high school campuses will end up with a 2,200 student capacity based on education programming.

The high school projects  — coupled with some portables already replaced with permanent classrooms via Measure G and M modernization projects — will likely knock the percentage of portable classrooms within the district down close to 25 percent.

The percentage will go lower once three new elementary schools — two in south Manteca and one in Lathrop — are constructed over the next three to six years.

They won’t allow replacement of existing portables elsewhere in the district, but the three new campuses being built to accommodate growth will dilute the percentage of portables among the district’s overall classroom count.

After passage of the Measure A bond in 2020, the district’s had 1,450 classrooms overall with 30.1 percent — or 450 — being portable classrooms.

Many of the 41 portable classrooms between Manteca and East Union high schools are more than likely to be repurposed elsewhere.

They could be used to house auxiliary programs such as after school tutoring through Give Every Child a Chance or to accommodate growth needs at other campuses.

Aaron Bowers, who oversees Manteca United operations and facilities, noted each portable will be assessed. Those that need significant work beyond modernization that don’t pencil out investing money on rehabilitation will be demolished.

That is what the district did with the portable classroom already at East Union High that for decades served as the weightlifting room for physical education and sports. It is also the anticipated fate of the JROTC classroom at Manteca High.

Portable classrooms with 960 square feet now are costing over $450,000 apiece once the purchase, site work, and delivery costs are added.

 The replacement of a number of the aging portables is being done districtwide using the $260 million bond voters approved in November 2020 is being determined in a methodical manner.

If it is more cost to upgrade portables than replacing them with a traditional “brick and mortar” classroom, a permanent classroom will be built. Virtually all of the 450 portables that accounted for a third of the district’s 1,450 classrooms as of November 2020 have been kept in good enough shape by school maintenance crews over the years that they are currently being effectively utilized although they are showing wear, age, and need for modernization.

But if modernization and repair needs pass a threshold where it makes more sense to replace them with brick and mortar classrooms the district is doing so.

Only a handful of the district’s 450 portables are newer than 20 years old — the average life expectancy of such structures. Many are approaching 40 years including all of the classrooms at the Neil Hafley campus that are all portables.

That said, the district will be bringing in leased portable classrooms to Manteca High on a temporary basis.

It will happen when classroom wings on the westside of the campus along Sherman Avenue will be demolished in the 2026-2027 school year.

That will allow the construction  of the 2-story L-wing (similar to what is now being built along Union Road on the East Union High campus) that includes 31 classrooms and a media center.

The work currently underway — as well as what will break ground over the next six or so years in the district — is a combination of Measure A, community facilities bond receipts, and Proposition 2 statewide school bonds approved last month.

The district would not have been able to access at least $100 million in state money to go toward moderation if voters hadn’t approved series of three bond measures to pick up the local share.

At the same time, the CFD bonds will leverage the majority of the money needed to build new Sierra High classrooms and the three elementary schools  to accommodate growth.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com