CIF application for Bonsall High School given first reading

On April 22, the CIF Board of Managers is expected to vote on approving CIF San Diego Section membership for Bonsall High School.

The first reading for the Bonsall High School application occurred Jan. 21; no vote was taken and no Board of Managers members voiced any concerns.

“We’re going to do a visit and study it and go from there,” said CIF commissioner Jerry Schniepp.

The Bonsall Unified School District application lists Joseph Gora as the athletic director of Bonsall High School, which opened in August 2014 and currently only has ninth-grade students. The high school will expand by one grade a year until it has students of all four high school grades starting in 2017-18. The application listed a current enrollment of 64 students and expected enrollments of 164 students in 2015-16, 400 students in 2017-18, and 600 students in 2019-20.

The application includes the CIF athletic programs expected to be offered during the first year. According to the application Bonsall High School plans to field boys and girls cross-country, girls and boys golf, girls and boys tennis, girls volleyball, and boys and girls soccer during 2015-16, when the school would have ninth-grade and tenth-grade students. The CIF requires that the athletic program be gender-balanced for co-ed schools and that sports be offered during the fall, winter, and spring seasons. Golf, tennis, and volleyball are fall sports for girls and spring sports for boys, cross-country is a fall sport, and soccer is a winter sport.

Bonsall High School is registered with the State Department of Education and regulated or licensed by a state association for the quality of instructors. Bonsall High School is too new to be accredited (meaning that four-year colleges will accept Bonsall High School course results to meet college admission requirements) and, while accreditation is among the checklist items on the application, the CIF will not deny a new school solely because it has not been accredited.

The application is expected to be discussed during the March 11 meeting of the CIF Coordinating Council and the April 8 meeting of the CIF Executive Committee before being heard by the Board of Managers on April 22.