MANTECA – East Union High is using major Measure A bond work that will significantly alter the look and feel of the 57 year-old-campus to re-energize the Lancers’ mission to strive for excellence.
The most high-profile component of the modernization is a two-story 26 classroom building.
It is anchored with a modern and expansive media center that will dominate the view of the campus from the busy Union Road thoroughfare.
The classrooms are being built with the ability to make as much of the space as possible a learning tool such as walls that double as white boards to walls that can be collapsed to combine classroom spaces.
The classrooms will be designed from the start to enable the most efficient use and deployment of audio visual equipment and electronic devices.
“It will have a college feel,” East Union High Principal Eric Simoni shared with Manteca Rotarians during their Thursday meeting at Ernie’s Rendezvous Room.
Simoni said the new look combined with an uptick in enthusiasm that newer, well-designed facilities can provide is being used by the faculty, students, and parents to re-energize the overall school community with everything from a new logo to other touches that are designed to set a tone for excellence whether it is academic, athletics, the arts, vocational education, or other endeavors.
The current Measure A work — part of an overall $65 million undertaking at East Union and Manteca high schools — will also include building a new small gym at the North Union Road campus as well as a new weight room and indoor PE facility that will also accommodate aerobics and wrestling.
For roughly three years, East Union will have three gyms before the district is ready to demolish the existing small gym.
Upgrades to the football and track stadium — a modernization project separate from Measure A — will be on display at a soft opening being planned on Wednesday, Oct. 18, for alumni and boosters.
It features hybrid Bermuda grass similar to that used on golf courses and new areas for high jump, shot put, discus, and such that will allow the Lancers to hoist complete track meets.
It is what you don’t “see” — drainage and grading issues that were corrected — that will make the biggest difference in the first phase of the stadium work.
The Lancers will celebrate the grand re-opening of Dino Curial Stadium on Friday, Oct. 20, during the halftime of the junior varsity game against Sierra High. It will also serve as the Lancers’ homecoming.
The modernization, undertaken at the direction of the Manteca Unified school District board, was done in a fashion that can allow the adding of additional classrooms to take the campus to an “education program” capacity of 2,250 students.
That is also the ideal maximum enrollment level the district is working toward for Sierra, Lathrop, and Manteca high schools as the district works toward accommodating growth in both communities.