Bonsall's growing student population needs more room

My name is Eric Ortega and I am on the Bonsall Unified School District Board of Trustees and a member of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. I want to introduce myself and speak about our Bonsall/Fallbrook/Pala community.

I was born on Camp Pendleton and grew up in Pala. Growing up, I played basketball and baseball at the Boys Club in Fallbrook. I attended Fallbrook High School and was a member of the wrestling and football teams. Go Warriors!

I put all of my kids and now my grandkids through Bonsall Unified School District. I wanted to give you a perspective of how I’ve experienced the Bonsall school district, from both a member of the community and as a Trustee.

Over the years, I have seen our community grow and become large towns with many resources, more than we ever had when I was a kid. However, I have also seen our cultural communities grow apart from each other.

Then an unexpected event occurred. The Bonsall Unified School District was created. BUSD is centrally located in North County. The district started out slow while trying to start a quality educational program for all of the students, it also emphasized trying to develop an identity that includes all of our communities.

In the four years that I have been a School Board Trustee, our board has grown into a group that represents all of our District. Our teachers and staff have worked together to create an environment that allows our students to have a sense of belonging in our program.

All of our schools have received Purple Star Awards for supporting our military students and families. We have Folklorico programs at all our schools to teach and support Hispanic culture in our district. We have made great strides in developing an incredible relationship with the Pala Band of Mission Indians, who have become an incredible resource for our district. We have developed many other programs that help our students belong, sports, arts, clubs, internships, etc.

Our early college program has provided many students an opportunity to learn about being a college student and eventually a college graduate. The Bonsall Forward Initiative has encouraged students to enter into the STEM programs and has been very successful. We are instituting more CTE classes for students that want to learn trade skills which will be valuable in their future.

We have an incredible program at Bonsall, but in order to get to the next level, we need to improve and upgrade our current facilities.

We will need additional buildings to accommodate our growing student population. We need to turn to the community to keep Bonsall moving forward so that we can make sure our students are ready to be responsible citizens who are ready to meet the challenges of the future.

North County has certainly come a long way and I am so proud to be a part of that growth. I hope that our community will keep investing in our bright future by continuing to support our students. Thank you,

Eric Ortega