BUSD Board Meeting Agenda includes “foot in the door” money: $38M for Attempt #6 to build a huge high school in Fallbrook’s Gird Valley 

APR 24, 2018 BUSD Board Meeting Agenda includes “foot in the door” money: $38M for Attempt #6 to build a huge high school in Fallbrook’s Gird Valley 

The Agenda for Bonsall Unified School District’s (BUSD) April 26 Board Meeting includes one item on which the board members (Timothy Coen, Dick Olson, Eric Ortega, Lou Riddle and Sylvia Tucker) will be voting on a Resolution for a bond measure to be placed on the November 2018 ballot:

EXHIBIT A: “To improve the quality of education; improve safety and security on all campuses; construct a new high school to reduce student overcrowding; renovate/replace track and field structures and facilities; shall Bonsall Unified School District issue $38,000,000 of bonds at legal rates, levy approximately 3.75 cents/$100 assessed value, generating approximately $2,300,000 annually while bonds are outstanding, with annual audits, independent citizens’ oversight, NO money for administrative salaries and all money staying local?”

Developers are circling North County, hoping taxpayers will commit to picking up the tab for building new schools before the County forces them to pay for them directly as part of the required development mitigation. There is no mention in the the Resolution that BUSD desires a huge new high school for 1,500 to be built in Fallbrook but currently has only 328 high school kids housed in an 18,000 building in Bonsall’s core area that was just completed in 2016. No detail on budget for each purpose listed. No mention that it’s simply impossible to build a high school for 1,500 students for $38 million or less. No mention that this is just for Phase I of III for the high school so BUSD will be back for more bond money, more tax money. The actual cost, financing fees included, is about double so budget paying $76 million for Phase I. No mention of Gird Valley but BUSD “affirmed” Gird Valley was the best site for the proposed high school earlier this month and that’s where it has been pushing to build, at the northern edge of the district next door to a golf course/wedding venue, down the street from Monserate Winery, Myrtle Creek Botanical Garden and Live Oak Park. All in Fallbrook. Estimate a 73% increase in traffic from this one Walmart-sized development. Fallbrook Community Planning: Group said the project “would totally devastate Gird Valley” and “…a major egregious error … is the fact that the property is not centrally located where a high school should be so folks can feed in from all around. This is the very extreme edge of the school district, …on the very extreme edge, the northern edge, of the district and .. is not an appropriate place for a high school.”

Take a drive out to Fallbrook’s Gird Valley and see the proposed location soon! If you live to the south, east or west within the Bonsall School District, would you vote to tax yourself $76 million for 30 years to build a third of a high school you’ll never use?  Probably not.