OREM, Utah — Initial results from the ballot box show more people voting against splitting Orem from the Alpine School District, scratching only the surface of the community's mixed reactions to Proposition 2.
Varden Hadfield has lived in Orem for over two decades and has six kids who went to school locally. He says he was against Proposition 2 to split Orem from the Alpine School District, saying the process felt rushed.
“I had questions unanswered -- they were just left as a long list of things to be negotiated,” said Hadfield. “Like bussing or special education, or advanced learning, like special opportunities. Many of those things are very expensive and complicated and it felt like a split that was really prepared would have all those things planned out."
“Now maybe we have a chance if there needs to be a split, to do some real planning and prepare in the future," he said.
The Orem City Council voted 4-3 to bring the issue of whether Orem should split, to the ballot for voters to decide. This came after an independent feasibility study was presented at a city council meeting in July, concluding that an Orem-only district could be financially viable and sustainable. But the issue has received attention from all over since then.
Evan Cox, who went through Alpine School District himself, says he favored the split.
“Decades of research behind it showing smaller districts are better for the community,” said Cox. “They’re better for teachers, better for students, just better all around. So for me personally, to see Orem even have the gumption to get up and finally put it to a vote to citizens is amazing.”
But, both say that a possible split could happen in the future.
“Even though it did get voted down pretty heavily, that doesn’t mean that citizens don’t want it,” said Cox. “What it means is that they didn’t want Orem only. I know there are several that voted against it that wanted more than just Orem, so there is still support for a district split out there.”
But a common theme from citizens across the board – hopefully, this raises awareness of the issues that need to be addressed, to fix them.
“I hope we’re all nice to each other and can recognize that it’s okay to be on different sides of the issue and try to learn from each other,” said Hadfield. "I hope that the two sides will get together more now and realize there’s more work to be done.”
Another issue in front of voters in the alpine school district was deciding on a $595-million school bond, one of the largest in state history – which results so far show won’t pass either. But, with a lot of ballots left to be counted in Utah county, it’s too soon to be sure.
