Alpine School District had a special meeting early today. Here are my notes as the meeting proceeded:
District administrative staff predictably recommended staying together. This is not surprising. The district will never support a split.
Board member Lincoln expressed excellent thoughts about how ASD has not been able to keep up with growth over the years, as she reminisced over her career on both sides of the district.
Although the MGT study was flawed, Wilson and Clements continued to rely on it to make their points. Wilson also claimed that Orem would be "isolated" in Option 4, which is not true - they would be joined by PG, Lindon, and Vineyard. When Orem's prop 2 was on the table, many individuals in all of these 4 communities expressed support for exactly that kind of district.
King expressed how important it is that 9 city councils (dozens of elected officials that are more closely elected by the public) unanimously recommended what is basically Option 4. She also noted how the central area would be the 6th largest, the east would be the 9th largest, and the west would be 11th largest (but fast growing) districts in Utah - they would not be small districts. She expressed concerns with the MGT financial data. There were differences that King said make it look like the district is changing the numbers to look worse for a split.
Hacken said Option 4 is already on the ballot, which is not technically true. Thankfully, Bateman clarified later that the cities are only studying it at this point.
We are grateful that members Hacken, Lincoln, King, and Bateman asked for Option 4 to continue to be studied.
It's obvious that Wilson and Clement are unwilling to split the district. It will be up to the other board members to pursue this in good faith.
Bateman brought up how unequal representation has been for the west side. Overall, each community should have multiple representatives, not one or two.
In conclusion, both Options 3 and 4 will continue to be studied by the school board. See also this article from the Daily Herald on the meeting.
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