Another project will soon be underway at Orestimba High after Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District Board of Trustees approved the purchase of a 2.05 acres property during a Board of Education on Monday.

The property, adjacent to the school’s baseball and football field, was previously owned by the City of Newman. This prevented the district from making changes such as changing the field’s light poles or building a parking lot in the unpaved area north of the field. With the purchase finalized, renovations to the area include a curb, a gutter, and sidewalk west of Park Avenue, which would alleviate attendees from standing in the roadway when viewing tennis matches.

Newman City Council approved a sale agreement of the land portion on April 14 for $143,500. Superintendent Justin Pruett said the purchase will be made through funds from bond Measures S and T, which passed in November 2024.

“Now that both boards have approved it, we’ll sign it, get together, use the bond funds to write a check for the property, and then it’ll be ours,” Pruett said.

However, construction for the area won’t start anytime soon. That’s largely due to the construction of an all-weather track project inside of Orestimba’s stadium and approval from the Division of the State Architect (DSA). On April 8, NCLUSD Board members approved a bid for Merced-based TBS Contractors to work on the project. The more than $2 million renovation, funded through Measure X, is expected to be completed by the start of the next school year.

The district would rather wait until one project is completed instead allow the construction of both projects happen simultaneously, Pruett said. He added the project’s paperwork could be submitted during this summer. However, the start of construction will depend on when DSA will approve the documentation.

NCLUSD is awaiting approval from DSA of the second phase of the Von Renner Elementary project, which had its paperwork submitted back in January. The project’s renovations includes the demolition of nine classrooms and turning into portable classrooms, replacing the site’s asphalt and relocating the site’s climbing wall.

The first phase, completed in October 2024, built a new cafeteria and office building.

The idea of the upcoming project came during a February 2025 special board meeting where the idea of replacing the field’s lights with LED lights was brought up. Last year, LED lighting was implemented across all district campuses.

During the February meeting, Jonathan Gish, an architect from Modesto-based TPH Architect, said an underground infrastructure has to be built to bring electricity from the switchgear at Orestimba’s pool house and the wooden poles have to be replaced with metal poles if NCLUSD wanted to change its lighting. Construction for the change was estimated to cost more than $1 million.

Now in addition to a parking lot and other amenities within the area, Pruett estimates that construction could cost around $2.5 million.

Pruett previously told the Westside Connect that the field’s inadequate lighting has led the varsity baseball program to not host an Easter Tournament, a tradition that he hopes can come back.

“I would love to see that happen. I just think that was a tradition that our community had, and we had teams come from many places to come to our tournament, and I would like to see that happen again,” Pruett said.

With multiple projects awaiting across NCLUSD, Pruett said it’s his goal to provide students with the best facilities because they “deserve the best.”