Manteca City Councilman Dave Breitenbucher has been hinting there is another possible site for a homeless center.

Apparently that site is the Calla High School campus.

Breitenbucher the only council member that has made it clear he is far from 100 percent committed to the 8-acre South Main Street as the location for the proposed homeless navigation center.

Mayor Ben Cantu, who wants the South Main Street navigation center up and running yesterday, appointed Breitenbucher and himself to the council subcommittee to work with municipal staff on homeless issues and expedite the navigation center project.

While the subcommittee has no real authority, it is designed to plug the council into the process to address concerns and such to keep things moving.

The playing of the Calla High card will make things more interesting and trigger political waves but it is highly unlikely to alter the course embraced by four-fifths of the council.

That said it could still be morphed into a 2022 election issue. If anyone is savvy enough to play full throttle politics the election of a slate of candidates against the South Main site could stop the project. But by then the city will have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to move forward with the site. And if they happened to buy it before November 2022, the money sunk into the site will be a cool $2 million.

Reversing course then would cost taxpayers dearly with nothing to show for it. At the same time a more targeted and comprehensive effort to address homeless issues would have been delayed 18 months or so. It would force the city to start from scratch a third time.

How Calla High popped up on the homeless navigation center radar is because the Manteca Unified School District was looking for ways to partner with the City of Manteca to enhance community amenities while maximizing the impact of tax dollars spent on both sides.

The school district has a dilemma with Calla High.

The aging campus needs a lot of work. Its classrooms are more conducive to mid-19th century learning. It is located on the outskirts of town with foot access along heavily traveled East Highway 120.

The district is correct in the assumption spending bond money to modernize the campus is not a judicious use of tax dollars.

They could use the same approach they did at Weston Ranch where New Vision High — also a continuation high school — shares the same 40 plus acre site with Weston Ranch High. That could be done on part of the district’s 40 plus acre site they have on Tinnin Road in South Manteca for a possible fourth comprehensive high school within the city limits.

It costs big dollars to build a school from scratch. That is why relocating Calla High to the old Yosemite School campus could make more sense.

Doing so without having an educational use for the Calla High site that would be empty would trigger a forced sale under state law within five years on the high profile site on the corner of Austin Road and East Highway 120. Under state law all proceeds of the forced sale would go to Sacramento and not Manteca Unified.

Meanwhile the district is failing to meet minimum state acreage standards for the Manteca High campus that is being expanded to accommodate 2,250 students.

And because East Union and Sierra high school enrollments will follow suit, the district will be able to accommodate 1,500 more high school students in the coming years to postpone or eliminate the need to spend $180 million plus developing the Tinnin Road site into a high school campus.

The City of Manteca’s Lincoln Park that consists of a lighted baseball field, group picnic area, playground equipment, and Lincoln swimming pool — not to mention a convenient hangout and hideout for the homeless — is wedged between Manteca High and Lincoln School.

Switching Lincoln Park for Calla High would give Manteca High the acreage it needs. It would allow for a direct tie to the Lincoln School campus.

The city would own a prime commercial parcel they could sell and use the money to jumpstart development of another community park or the upgrading of Woodward Park by adding an amphitheater or tennis courts — two things that were  in master plans for the park  but never pursued. Or it could toward adding two baseball fields at the city-owned Big League Dreams sports complex.

To make it work the district would need to enter into a long-term agreement separate from anything they now have with the city to allow summer access to swimming pools at Manteca, Sierra, and East Union high schools.

It would be fairly straight forward. The city would have control of the use of the pools throughout the summer for lessons and open public swim. They also would be responsible for 100 percent of the operating and maintenance costs during that time.

The city could no longer have to worry about long-term capital improvements for a swimming pool. They’d also go from a community swimming pool that was barely adequate when it was built in the 1960s to three swimming pools at decentralized locations where kids could walk or bicycle to during the summer.

The city would have the option of not using all three pools each summer based on demand and pay accordingly.

Community baseball groups would be able to continue to access the lighted baseball field with the school district responsible for upkeep. A mini-park with playground and benches could be developed along Powers Avenue near the Lincoln School entrance with a double gate system.

There are other out-of-the-box ventures the city and school district could proceed including developing a portion of the Tinnin Road site for community park style uses that eventually would blend into a high school campus schematic.

And the district — in need of a warehouse — could acquire the former Qualex building at 555 Industrial Park Drive. As a government agency, it has the first right of refusal to purchase the site for its appraised value before it goes to auction. The last appraisal was at $1.1 million. Given the auction proceed sale split under the law is by the tax rate, Manteca Unified would realize $550,000 from the sale.

Thanks to city studies we know it is cost prohibitive to convert it to non-warehouse use. The size is problematic for most distribution center operations today. And using it as a district warehouse could result in significant upfront savings to taxpayers.

Such a move, should the district opt to pursue it, wouldn’t be connected with any possible deal involving Calla High and Lincoln Park.

And for those who think Calla High is a great spot for a homeless shelter, perhaps the city could put up a big billboard on the site welcoming the thousands of travelers to Manteca who use East Highway 120.

It definitely would make a first impression people will remember.

 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