Re: Passing Measure EE is the right thing to do [Village News letter, 8/30/18]

Last week, the treasurer of the proponents for passage of bond Measure EE concluded that high math scores in third grade are a result of homes which encourage curiosity in science. He touches on neighborhood educational options which leads him to push for another Bonsall High School, this one to be built for 1,500 students on land located in Fallbrook.

The Fleet Science Center established a science, technology, math and engineering (STEM) program for elementary schools, says the treasurer, who then concludes that taxpayers need to tax themselves for 30 years to pay for a new high school for the Bonsall Unified School District (BUSD). Bonsall High School taxpayers built a brand new high school which just opened its doors in 2016!

BUSD established its high school as a high-tech academy style school and noted that it recognized many students would choose other schools with other programs. The rural community supported a small school and BUSD promised the public it could support 500 to 600 high school students on its campus without building anything. It quickly forgot that promise and borrowed and built a high school with 10 classrooms and two labs. It said it was a “state-of-the-art high school” when it opened its doors. That was just two years ago in the Fall of 2016.

Public records show that school construction companies and Lilac Hills Ranch contributed to ballot measures for BUSD expansion and failed a fifth attempt to pass a similar bond in 2016 (Measure DD). We wonder where the Measure EE money trail will lead?

The State of California predicts declining school enrollment starting in 2021. And yet, BUSD wants to build yet another high school, this time to accommodate 1,500 students in a Very High Wildfire zone in Fallbrook, on land that has been rejected as a high school site by the voters five times, going all the way back to 1978. Why won’t BUSD listen?

Neill Ketchum