You, or least a majority of your neighbors, voluntarily agreed to write a check once or twice a year to Manteca Unified School District plus toss a healthy chunk of household change to the City of Manteca.

It is in the form of two things:

Property taxes to repay three school bonds — M, G & A — with a gross principal of $485 million.

An additional 3/4 of a cent city sales that over the course of its 20-year life is projected to generate $260 million in constant 2024 dollars.

By the time interest on the bonds are tossed into the equation, it will come to right around a cool $1 billion.

That is on top of what both jurisdictions are collecting from the same Manteca taxpayers for day-to-day operations.

Both the school board and City Council wax eloquently about being good stewards of the public’s money.

And in all fairness, they are for the most part.

But that isn’t good enough.

Far from it.

You’ve also likely heard the Team Manteca line espoused by city officials.

Taking them at their word and the inference there is no “i” in team, one needs to ask them how much of a team player are they when it becomes to Manteca beyond their realm.

It sounds a bit like one is talking fiefdom when the word realm is used.

And that is precisely correct.

Despite all of the talk of team play when it comes to Manteca, not much more than the bare minimum is taking place when it comes to teaming up with the Manteca Unified School District.

Yes, there are city supplied school resource officers and “joint use” of facilities when it comes to basic recreation program and prep sports program needs.

The city is also attuned to safety needs as it impacts their young city constituency going to and from school.

But beyond that, the teamwork is underwhelming at best.

But in terms of pursuing do-able partnerships in areas that can truly benefit the entire community nothing gets done.

As such, it not only robs the entire community of the best possible outcome but it also can lead to duplicate and under-utilized facilities that Manteca taxpayers are paying for instead of the city and schools finding ways to maximum the money taken from the same households by both entities.

This might sound a bit harsh and tilted toward the city.

That’s because the city is the one with the history of trying to undermine an explicit promise to voters they made in exchange for their approval of the 2006 public safety tax.

Part of the reason the half cent tax passed was because language in the ballot measure explicitly stated funds generated would pay for school resource officers.

Less than a decade later, then City Manager Tim Ogden led the charge to make the school district pay for the on-campus officers.

Eventually, a lawyer on the city’s payroll that read the ballot language indicated the school SROs were clearly a required public safety tax expenditure.

Until that happened the council at the time didn’t bat an eye at Ogden’s attempt to undermine the will of Manteca voters.

There was also a general feeling by city that the school district wasn’t making it easy to use school facilities.

Whether there is lingering animosity on either side doesn’t matter.

If you’re wrapping yourself in the Team Manteca banner then you’ve made the case that you are game to make the first move to strengthen the team.

That is, of course, if Team Manteca is more than just about 400 city workers and five elected leaders.

The school district has three major community centers and 12 smaller ones within the City of Manteca in the form of three high schools and 12 elementary schools

Why not maximize their use given the same taxpayers pay for them and the same community uses them?

There  is one way to get the ball rolling.

The city wants to build a performing arts center.

And so does the school district.

The city, if you take them at their word in the nexus study for growth fees, wants to build a performing arts center in the family entertainment zone near the Great Wolf Resort. They want it to serve as both a community and regional center.

Less than three miles away the district would like to build a performing arts center at the district campus at Airport Way and Louise Avenue. They want it to serve Manteca schools as well as the whole district plus make it available for community use when it is not programmed for school use.

Between the two, there’s a combined $40 million plus to build them in addition to maintaining them.

Why not combine forces and build one performing arts center?

The odds are you’d build one better and bigger than two separate ones and even save money.

Given the locations are not tied to the central city or a school campus and are basically on top of each other, it makes sense for a joint venture.

As it stands, the city has said it won’t seriously start pursuing a performing arts center for eight years while the district has lined up endeavors they are addressing first in terms of facilities for the next 8 to 10 years.

Now for the important part.

There is a way the city and school could start working toward a joint use facility now and step up programming available to the community and even the schools as well.

The 240-seat Manteca High performing arts center is rarely used outside of school hours and especially outside of the school year.

It is an ideal start-up venue for the city working with the community to plant the seeds, if you will, to grow cultural activities as the city grows.

There is an existing venue that taxpayer provided bond money has already helped upgrade. Lighting upgrades are next.

Community theatre, low-key concerts, lectures, and such can work using the facility accessed from Yosemite Avenue in downtown Manteca.

That’s not conjecture. It worked before.

The city recreation department as late as the mid-1990s working with a community-based organization offered acting classes that included staging four plays throughout the year working around school productions.

The city also used it for recreational concerts and more.

Recreation is not just sports and physical activities.

And community use also involves students who can also benefit from cultural endeavors the city might be able to spur by using the venue.

It is also a way to build community support for cultural endeavors.

The best part is the city could literally set the stage now to help enrich the quality of life in Manteca now instead of starting on it eight or more years down the road.

The real question is whether things have really changed at city hall.

Or is Team Manteca a mere feel good branding effort that doesn’t mean working with all that Manteca has in a team effort to grow even better.

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