The Alpine School District is exploring breaking up into two, or maybe even three, new districts.
The district hired a Florida-based consulting company, MGT, to study the issue and come up with options. MGT held the first of three community meetings on March 12 at Timpanogos High School.
While the conversation about splitting the state’s largest school district has been going on for at least two decades, the issue is particularly raw in Orem.
In 2022, residents voted on a ballot initiative to break off from Alpine and create their own district. It was a contentious issue, and even though the proposal was strongly and publicly supported by some city leaders, the initiative failed.
Most of the attendees at the meeting were from Orem.
MGT explained the six options which include keeping the district as it is, splitting it in half or turning it into three districts. The two options that split the district would create an east and west district, but the plans differ based on where Lehi is placed. Three other options would divide the district into thirds with an east, central and west district. One of those options would create a Lehi-only district.
After the presentation, MGT consultants conducted a live poll. Attendees responded on their phones and their answers were shown on a large screen.
One question asked, “If you had one wish for the district what would it be?” The one-word answers were put into a word cloud. Certain words would get bigger if multiple people submitted the same one.
The words “split” and “stay” battled one another to be the biggest and were close in size.
In another question, 50% of the audience said they “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the district should stay as one. About 39% “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed,” and the rest of the audience was neutral.
Alyssa May, a parent who works in the district as an aide for students with disabilities, wants Alpine to stay intact so students who need accommodations don’t lose services or resources.
“If we split, kids are going to fall through the cracks and they don’t deserve that,” May said.
Whatever happens, Lance Richards with MGT said one of the most important things is that students with special needs have the same level of services going forward. He said Alpine already has a “deep well of resources” for students who need accommodations. When he worked in a small, rural school district, he “would’ve killed for some of those resources to help and assist students.”
Kira Ludwig also thinks students at her kids’ school benefit from being in a larger district and that they have more resources. She is against splitting. When Ludwig saw the financial and enrollment projections for each of the options, “it felt like somebody lost out in every scenario.”
“Even if that meant that things look good for us [in Orem], when something looks bad for another area, that costs me because it’s my community. Those are still the people who are going to grow up in my community, who are going to benefit my community in one way or another,” Ludwig said.
However, not all parents see being in such a large district as a benefit.
Katie Hurd is on the PTA at Windsor Elementary in Orem. The district almost closed the school last year before hitting the “pause button.”
Within the district, Hurd said there are two different populations with different needs. On the east side, where Orem is, she said it's more “settled” and has older schools. But the west side has lots of new growth.
“So every house that is built in Saratoga Springs, I'm paying for their elementary school,” Hurd questioned. “Even though my elementary school [will likely be] closed because it's not seismically sound. And it really needs to be upgraded because it's a great place for a school.”
By splitting up the east and west sides, she said, it would create two districts with towns that have similar needs.
During the 2022 debate about creating an Orem-only school district, some proponents said they were frustrated because they felt their tax dollars were helping other communities in the district more than their own.
Another parent in favor, Valery Jackson, said her kids are in overcrowded classes at Orchard Elementary School and thinks the teachers there are overworked.
“I feel like the district isn’t taking care of those students or those employees.”
Jackson feels like the district is focusing more on the growth in the west because they see it as an immediate need, and she thinks the district is neglecting some of the needs of the east side.
What are the options?
In option one, the district would stay the same.
Option two splits things in half. The east district would include Orem, Cedar Hills, Vineyard, Highland, Lindon, Draper, Pleasant Grove, American Fork and Alpine. The west district would be made up of Cedar Fort, Saratoga Springs, Fairfield, Lehi and Eagle Mountain.
The only difference in option three is Lehi would be in the east district instead of the west.
In option four, the district is split into thirds. The east district would have Orem, Lindon, Vineyard and Pleasant Grove. The west district would include Cedar Fort, Eagle Mountain, Fairfield and Saratoga Springs. The central district would have Lehi, Alpine, Draper, American Fork, Highland and Cedar Hills.
In option five, the east district would have Orem, Vineyard and Lindon. The west would have Cedar Fort, Fairfield, Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. And the central one would have Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Draper, Alpine, Cedar Hills and Highland.
In option six, Lehi would stand alone as the central district. The east district would have Alpine, Highland, Draper, American Fork, Cedar Hills, Orem, Vineyard, Lindon and Pleasant Grove. The west would have Cedar Fort, Fairfield, Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs.
What happens next
MGT will hold two more community engagement sessions on March 13 at Vista Heights Middle School and March 14 at American Fork Junior High School. Both will be at 7 p.m.
In April, data from the community engagement sessions will be reviewed by the school board. In May, the board could potentially vote on choosing a specific reconfiguration option that the public could comment on. If that happens, there would be 45 days for public comment and then the board could vote in July on whether to put that option on the November ballot for voters to have the final say.
