Bonsall High School officially formed - New high school will be on same site as Sullivan

A public vote in the November 2012 election approved the unification of Bonsall’s school district, transforming the K-8 Bonsall Union School District to a K-12 Bonsall Unified School District while removing that territory from the Fallbrook Union High School District. The action did not legally create the actual high school for Bonsall, but on March 13, 2014, the Bonsall Unified School District board voted 5-0 to create Bonsall High School.

“It’s one of the bureaucratic things we had to do,” said BUSD superintendent Justin Cunningham.

Initially Bonsall High School will be located on the same West Lilac Road site as Norman L. Sullivan Middle School, although the high school will have a separate entrance along with separate facilities and administration. The high school’s first day of class will be August 25, 2014. Bonsall High School will have ninth-graders only for 2014-15 and will expand by a grade a year through 2017-18.

Both the new Bonsall High School and Sullivan Middle School will utilize the New Technology Network model in which students interact with local industry and serve internships in order to develop a network in their desired career fields. The New Tech curriculum also utilizes interdisciplinary fields. “This high school will be all about project-based learning,” Cunningham said.

The action did not create a nickname for the high school. The initial Bonsall High School students will have the input in the new school’s mascot and colors. “Our students will be able to say: ‘Well, I started a high school. I was part of starting a brand new high school’,” Cunningham said.