BUSD extends lease for Vivian Banks Charter School

Joe Naiman

Village News Correspondent

The Bonsall Unified School District leases part of the Mission San Antonio de Pala church on the Pala Indian Reservation for Vivian Banks Charter School, and the June 15 BUSD board meeting included approving an extension of the lease.

The board voted 5-0 to approve a lease from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2025. The school district will pay monthly rent of $1,500 during the 2022-23 academic year, $1,545 in 2023-24, and $1,591.35 during 2024-25 which equates to a 3% annual increase.

“We’re very grateful for the partnership we have with the Catholic diocese,” said BUSD Superintendent Joseph Clevenger. “We’re very excited to renew that and continue to partner together.”

The Bonsall Unified School District was the Bonsall Union School District in 1999 when the initial lease for Vivian Banks Charter School was approved. That lease was for a 64-month term from March 1, 1999, to June 30, 2004, but included a clause that the lease could be renewed by mutual consent of the parties.

Bonsall Union School District became the Bonsall Unified School District in 2014. The lease had been on a year-to-year basis until 2016, when the April 2016 BUSD board meeting included approval of a three-year lease. That lease expired in 2019, and the subsequent three-year lease had a June 30, 2022, expiration date.

Vivian Banks was a Pala tribal member who served on the Bonsall school board.