Re: 'Real Estate Round-Up: Follow up to Props 5 and 10

I read Kim Murphy’s letter published in the Nov. 22 edition with some alarm.

No one denies that “quality schools” are an asset for a community. What Murphy fails to offer is proof of the very quality she describes. Bonsall Unified School District has a long history of ineptitude; academically and financially. This institution has slavishly attempted to toady to every builder, developer, bond writer and politician who promised that a new high school on Gird Road would be the answer to BUSD’s problems.

BUSD has had to borrow money to pay its employees and has slipped dangerously close to insolvency. It graduated just 57 high school students while proposing building a 1,500-student high school. District residents manifested their anger by delivering a resounding rejection of Measure EE, the sixth rejection by voters since 1978 of a proposed site in Fallbrook.

Representatives from the Fallbrook Community Planning Group declared the inadequacy of the site. Jack Wood stated, “I strongly oppose development of a high school on this location.” Chairman Jim Russell objected, stating such development would “totally devastate” Fallbrook’s Gird Valley.

Finally, Murphy decries those who support Monserate Winery. Does she not remember that those who live on and near the vineyard were facing a grim future just a few years ago? As it drifted into foreclosure, Fallbrook Golf Course deteriorated to such an extent that play was no longer possible. Rapacious developers purchased its note and planned to bulldoze the course for high density development.

Residents appreciate Jade Work’s commercial winery venture. The project will generate about the same volume of traffic and noise as the golf course did during its viable years (the 1960s through 2016). The large high school BUSD proposes, however, like any large development, is estimated to generate an unacceptable 73 percent increase in traffic.

The voters wisely and overwhelmingly rejected, once again, a high school in Fallbrook’s Gird Valley. Hopefully, . Murphy will rethink the issue and join her neighbors in supporting development that is suitable for Fallbrook and opposing those that are not.

William Geffeney

Gird Valley