OREM, Utah — Two elementary schools in Utah County will be closing before the start of the next school year.
The Alpine School District announced Friday in a board meeting that Sharon Elementary in Orem and Valley View Elementary in Pleasant Grove will not re-open for the 2023-24 school year. The board voted unanimously on the decision.
It has been a controversial time surrounding these closures.
“They’ve been acting as if they made this decision long ago, so there really wasn’t much hope,” said Chad Hunsaker, whose sons go to Valley View Elementary.
Sharon and Valley View were among a group of elementary schools that would possibly be closed as part of a "study" that also involves boundary changes. Their potential closure was announced in February. Friday's decision makes it official.
“With the failure of the bond, this is not just a make-do, but a good option for these children because really the bottom line is academic performance,” Alpine School Board member Ada Wilson said at the meeting.
But parents argue that they were never informed that the bond failing in the November 2022 election would lead to schools having to close.
The issue that parents had with this closure was how fast it happened. In December, the school district announced that they would be looking into boundary changes for schools, without specifics. On Feb. 28, the board announced five elementary schools that could close by the end of the year: Lindon, Lehi, Windsor, Sharon and Valley View.
The district's board members say moving the kids to a different school will help.
“It’s time now for these students to move to Central Elementary where they’ll have many more resources and a larger group of parents to make their PTA stronger,” said school board member Mark Clement.
The closures have caused frustration among parents, who have filed a lawsuit attempting to prevent them from closing. The Utah State Legislature even got involved, expressing concern at a recent meeting where lawmakers said this may result in new legislation in the future to have a more transparent process when districts are exploring possible school closures.
“We’re part of a club we didn’t want to be members of, of people that were coming together trying to defend our kids,” said Hunsaker.
"These decisions are very difficult,” said Sara Hacken, the president of the school board. “We know that there are families whose children go there, and their parents went there and their grandparents went there, and for them, it's hard to say goodbye to that school.”
Lehi, Lindon and Windsor elementary schools are still potentially on the chopping block as well, but the decision for those schools was extended to at least the end of next school year.
