Try as he might, he couldn’t do it.

The friends Aaron Bowers hung around with near the 60 and 70 wings between classes his freshmen year were able to succeed to varying degrees at completing what was a challenge among a number of Manteca High students over the years — jumping up and grabbing ceiling tiles that had popped loose and were hanging over the enclosed main hallway.

“I wasn’t tall enough,” said the 5-foot-8 Bowers who was a linebacker and fullback wearing No. 44 for the Buffaloes as well as a wrestler.

Come Monday, the 1999 Manteca High graduate will have no trouble grabbing a ceiling tile from the main hallway.

All he’ll have to do is bend down and shift through the rubble.

The aging classroom wings and connected hallway dating back as far as 1947 are coming down.

Demolition crews will be removing all traces of  classrooms where tens of thousands of Manteca High students over almost eight decades learned about English, math, science, and more and couldn’t wait for the dismissal bell.

“It’s a little nostalgic, to tell you the truth,” Bowers said Friday.

Bowers, as the Manteca Unified Director of Facilities and Operations, has been shepherding what ultimately could be more than $650 million in campus upgrades districtwide and the construction of three new elementary schools over the course of 15 years when the dust finally settles.

It includes the $260 million in Measure A bond work that is now underway with the two biggest benefitting campuses being Manteca High and East Union High.

Bowers walked through the classrooms awaiting the bulldozers and backhoes. Walls have been stripped bare and furniture removed.

“You can see the wear and tear and how tired the buildings are,” Bowers said,

The demise of the classrooms will make way for a 2-story building with 32 classrooms along Sherman Avenue, learning stairs, and a media center.

There will also be a new quad complete with outdoor stage.

And, as an added touch, the design includes an element dubbed “Footsteps in Time” that is dedicated to honoring the school’s 107-year traditions.

The nod to tradition includes the design of new classroom structures to accommodate more murals intentionally instead of just an after-thought in places that can be converted for them.

Murals are an integral part of Manteca High’s tradition. In February of 2020, the 232 murals that existed on campus at the time garnered national attention through the American Profile magazine.

“The murals are part of Manteca High,” Bowers said.

A few days earlier, retired principal and graduate Steve Winter, was among those who walked one last time down the hallway that connects them with memories  and friends of their younger days.

Winter, who happened to teach Bowers driving safety his freshman year, noted he walked the land where the hallway and classrooms stood before they were built and then walked down the hallway as a student, teacher, and principal.

Winter also was struck by the nostalgia that flowed through his memory with every step of his final walk down the hallway.

“The time has come for it to come down,” Winter said of the classrooms so they could be replaced with even better facilities to educate future generations that will become part of the Manteca High legacy.

And when it comes to the district-wide redo that is addressing safety, infrastructure  and learn facility deficiencies, words about inspiring future success of students aren’t simply hollow platitudes.

Making every campus facility

part of the learning process

Bowers said it was important to those involved with the upfront planning process — teachers, board members, administrations, students, and community members — to make sure the design of facilities would answer the question “can I learn here” with a resounding “yes.”

Bowers pointed out that Manteca High School already has the staff that allowed it to secure coveted California Distinguished School honors from the State of Department of Education. 

The Measure A work will give students and staff the facilities to match educational excellence now taking place and help set the stage for even more success.

Ditto for East Union High.

“We wanted students (with the remodel design) to get a sense the community cares about them and has invested in their education for them to be successful,” Bowers said.

It’s a far cry from the metal shop back in his high school years where Bowers and others were assigned to spend a then state-mandated 30-minute period each school day engaged in silent reading. The metal shop clearly wasn’t designed for reading nor was it heated in the winter.

The input from students for the campus redo also stressed the need for more outdoor learning opportunity.

Manteca Unified is addressing that districtwide with outdoor classrooms under shade structures, charging outlets built into concrete benches, substantially more trees for shade, outdoor stages, and similar measures.

The remodel designs incorporate the entire campus to offer learning opportunities and not just the classrooms.

That said, at the end of the day, the bottom line is 30 percent of the dollar investment you don’t see.

It includes aging wiring that is often insufficient for today’s classroom filled with electronic devices and wear behind the walls.

Brass water lines dating

back to World War 1 era

The work done already and about to be tackled also addresses a lot of issues in the ground down.

*Inadequate previous grading that led to standing water.

*Unsupported natural gas lines.

*Brass water lines dating back to World War I.

*14 separate electric meters.

*Numerous failing clay sewer lines severely damaged by tree roots.

*Power lines to classrooms as well as HVAC systems added as an after though because there was no other option.

Perhaps the prime example of aging infrastructure that is nearing the end of its life or decades behind current technology is a transformer tucked in a maintain room at the end of a classroom wing coming down next week.

It’s from the 1940s.

Bowers said the electrical engineer who worked on construction drawings was amazed that the transformer was working and still in service.

“He said that he’s only seen a transformer like that in textbooks,” Bowers said.

The replacement classrooms are targeted for completion in two years.

When all planned work is done that includes additional phases yet to break ground, Manteca will have 53 new classrooms.

“It will basically be a whole new high school.” Bowers said of the makeover that will accommodate educational programming for 2,200 students.

And at today’s construction costs, it’ll be done with less than half the investment than if the district had built a new campus elsewhere.

Working in the field of architecture was already Bower’s goal when he took drafting and other subjects in the very classrooms that are being torn down.

“It is something I’ve always known I wanted to do,” said Bowers, who has worked for Manteca Unified since 2012.

The only thing connected per se with the building that are being salvaged are some lockers from the hallway.

Bowers said the idea was kicked around to sell them as a fundraiser but that didn’t get any tractions. He is not sure what will happen with them.

But he does remember his locker number — 1163. It was located in the 30 wing.top

As to whether he remembered the combination, he just laughed.

This isn’t the first Manteca Unified school that he attended as a youth that Bowers has helped transform.

The also was a student at Lincoln Elementary school, the campus that adjoins Manteca High.

It was upgraded using proceeds from the $159 million Measure G bond. Classes were update, spaces reconfigured to make additional classrooms, and a new multipurpose room and office complex built.

Bowers will be there Monday to watch as they start tearing down memories.

And while it may be a bittersweet moment nostalgia wise, Bowers is looking forward to facilities that will go up after the rubble is cleared.

“(The classrooms) were getting tired,” Bowers said. “It was time for them to go and (build) for the future.”

  To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com