No gold star for Bonsall school district

The Gird Road site lost 3 out of 3 times at the ballot box for school bond funding, twice under ownership of Fallbrook School District and once under Bonsall School District's (Measure DD, 2016). At the same time, the school’s size has grown from a few hundred students to a monstrous 100,000 sq. ft. building for 1500+ students plus staff, admin, faculty, making the site very unpopular. Native oaks dot the hilly Gird Road site; 16 acres are federally designated arroyo toad critical habitat. Only 25 acres out of 50 are useable, far too small for a 1500-student school per CA Dept of Ed: www.cde.ca.gov/ls/fa/sf/guideschoolsite.asp#Table1. None of these facts slowed down the contractor (who also heavily funded DD). Only a legal challenge led by CALTAN did. And now we read that the contractor who keeps winning jobs at the Bonsall School District (via extremely expensive and controversial lease-leaseback funding arrangements where contractors both build AND fund projects) has embedded one of their own long-time employees, David Metcalf, as a $90,000/year Bonsall School District employee! (transparentcalifornia dot com)! Gird Road runs through one of FALLBROOK’s (not Bonsall's) most picturesque valleys where residents succeeded in protecting 116 acres from residential development. A vineyard with olive trees and an Old World Italian-style winery are build created on land protected forever by conservation easements (see SaveFallbrookGolfCourse dot com). Gird Valley residents reject a huge school on the Gird Road site at the southern end of the valley, would prefer a staging area for walking/riding/running trails from the San Luis Rey River Park all the way to Live Oak Park to the North. That, not a huge school, would really give value to Gird Valley and to the Fallbrook community. Gird Valley in Fallbrook does not want traffic, noise or light pollution which is why bond measures to fund a bigger and bigger BONSALL school keep failing at the ballot box. Fallbrook already supports a large high school on the west side of town and passed a $45-million bond (Measure AA) last fall. With this lousy LLB contract off its back, the Bonsall School Board is now free to finish the environmental assessment at the Gird Road site (which has value for other uses) and seriously consider other sites, recognizing that the Gird Road site has never succeeded, and never will, at securing the voter's commitment to fund it. Never mind the damage to Gird Valley, attempting to build on the Gird Road site without a strong financial commitment from the community will surely bankrupt the Bonsall School District. Anyone out there with at least 35 to 45 primarily flat acres near a four-lane road and/or major interchange? This is your chance to contribute to the future of education in North San Diego County! The residents of Fallbrook and its lovely Gird Valley thank you!
— February 17, 2017 11:13 a.m.