Red Cross to use Bonsall Community Center and elementary school as an emergency shelter

The agreement for the American Red Cross to use Sullivan Middle School as a temporary shelter for emergency or disaster situations has been replaced by an agreement in which the Red Cross will use the Bonsall Community Center and Bonsall Elementary School.

The BUSD board voted 5-0, May 14, to approve the agreement which allows the Red Cross to use the BUSD facilities as a temporary emergency public shelter during and following a disaster. The formal agreement has no expiration date but would end 30 days after either the school district or the Red Cross provides written notice to terminate the agreement.

“I’m pleased that it’s right here not only for our students and our parents. It makes sense to have a safe, secure location here,” BUSD superintendent David Jones said.

The Red Cross and the school district reviewed several qualifying factors including accessibility and determined that the community center and the adjacent elementary school would be a more suitable and practical location for disaster refuge and relief purposes. The Bonsall Community Center land is owned by the Bonsall Unified School District.

“I think it’s a really great facility for emergency reasons,” Jones said. “It’s a really nice facility. There’s a lot of space.”

The Red Cross will have the primary responsibility for operating the shelter and will designate a Red Cross official as the shelter manager to manage the activities, while the school district will designate a facility coordinator for organizing the facilities with the shelter manager. The facility manager will identify and secure all equipment the Red Cross should not use while operating the facility.

If the Red Cross requests food services or custodial services, the school district will make such resources available to the Red Cross. The facility coordinator will designate a food service manager to coordinate meals to shelter occupants. In addition to supervising meal planning and preparation, the food service manager will establish a feeding schedule and determine food service inventory and needs. The facility coordinator will designate a facility custodian to coordinate the cleaning and sanitation of the facilities.

The Red Cross will reimburse the school district for the costs of private security, custodial and food service personnel the school district otherwise would not have incurred. The reimbursement will be at the straight time rate for wages actually incurred but will not include overtime or the costs of salaried staff. The Red Cross will also reimburse the school district for utility costs which otherwise would not have been incurred. If any facility damage occurs due to the Red Cross operation the school district will also be reimbursed, although the Red Cross is not responsible for damage from storms or from the disaster itself. The Red Cross will indemnify the school district for any liability for bodily injury, death or property damage from the Red Cross using the facility, and the Red Cross will have a minimum of $1,000,000 of liability insurance coverage.

The Red Cross shelter manager and the school district facility coordinator will coordinate with law enforcement regarding any public safety issues at the shelter. The school district will refer all media questions about the shelter to the shelter manager. The school district will not issue press releases or provide other publicity about the use of the shelter without the written consent of the shelter manager. The Red Cross can post signs identifying the site as a Red Cross shelter in locations approved by the facility coordinator, and those signs will be removed after the shelter is closed.