OREM — The city of Orem has held two public meetings since a feasibility study made public last week found that Orem splitting from Alpine School District to form its own school district would be viable in key areas, which piqued public interest.

The first meeting saw Discovery Education Consultants, the firm hired by the Orem City Council to conduct the feasibility study, present the results and answer questions from the public.

Among the major components of their presentation were four scenarios created by the consultants:

• If Orem does not create a new school district and the $595 million bond proposed by Alpine School District passes, all taxpayers within Alpine School District would experience a 12.8% increase in property taxes. The Orem taxpayers would be responsible for approximately $116 million (19.44%) of the related debt but have no guarantee as to the amount of reinvestment that would be made into Orem schools (historically 13.3% of the bond allocations were directed to Orem from 2002 to 2021).
• If Orem creates a new school district and Alpine School District does not pass the $595 million bond, Orem residents would see a forecasted 3.5% increase in property taxes. Residents of the remaining district boundaries would experience a 5.3% decrease in their property taxes.
• If Orem creates a new district and Alpine School District passes the $595 million bond, Orem residents would realize a forecasted 3.5% increase in property taxes. Residents of the remaining district boundaries would experience a 10.6% increase in property taxes, as they would be obligated to pay for the $595 million bond. All of the proceeds would stay with the remaining district but the Orem residents would have no debt obligation as to the $595 million bond.
• If Orem splits from Alpine School District and Alpine School District bonds for $595 million and the new Orem School District bonds for $125 million — the approximate amount Orem would need to remediate seismic issues — Orem property taxes would increase approximately 17.3%, and the remaining district would increase 10.6%. In this scenario, the proceeds from the $125 million bond would remain 100% in Orem.

The presentation of these scenarios at last week's meeting led to questions from citizens.

"The public feedback on the study has been tremendously helpful," Orem Mayor Dave Young said. "This is such an important decision that we need to really look into the numbers."

With this in mind, the Orem City Council on Tuesday night hosted the second of three public meetings, in which representatives from Discovery Education Consultants presented two new scenarios.

"We had several questions that warranted a deeper look. That's why we asked our independent consultants to dive into the data more and present these two new scenarios," Young said.

The two new scenarios are:

• If Orem splits from Alpine School District, Alpine School District bonds for $595 million and the new Orem School District bonds for $25 million to address seismic issues at schools, Orem property taxes would increase by 6.5% and the remaining Alpine School District areas would realize a property tax increase of 15.9%.
• If Orem splits from Alpine School District, the new Orem School District issues a $25 million bond and raises taxes by 12.8% — the amount the tax increase would have been if Orem hadn't split from Alpine School District and the $595 million bond passed — the new district could address seismic issues in addition to adding $4 million annually to its general fund.

"In addition to remediating seismic risks that Alpine School District has known about for 16 years, $4 million annually could be used to hire more teachers to decrease class size and to increase compensation," Young said.

Related:

Timeline: Orem explores split from Alpine School District, forming new district

The city of Orem has been exploring options to separate schools within their city limit from the Alpine School District since 2006. Here's a rundown of how discussions of a potential split from Utah's largest school district got to this point and what's next.

A 2022 Federal Emergency Management Agency study found that 12 schools within Orem city limits aren't safe and need significant seismic upgrades.

"Despite several of these issues having been identified in studies over the past 16 years, Alpine School District has only remediated a handful of facilities in Orem, including demolishing Hillcrest and Geneva elementary schools," the feasibility study said.

Although none of the meetings have had a public comment period, citizens were encouraged to submit questions via Orem's website to be asked to Discovery Education Consultants team members during the public meetings.

Through hours of questions Tuesday night, the prevailing theme had to do with the notion that the consultant team hired to conduct the study used old data to come up with their scenarios.

One person called into question the tax data used in the comprehensive study.

"The sources that we've used are state WPU (weighted pupil unit) allocations historically, federal allocations historically and historical property tax information," said Michael Wankier, lead financial analyst in the study. "Using the historical data, we've created a forecast based on assumptions and growth rates that are reasonable based on what we've seen from a historical standpoint."

Another question was concern over the use of data from 2006 studies.

"So, you used data from 2006; but you're also using data from 2022 and everywhere in between? Do I understand right?" Young asked.

"Correct," Wankier said.

"As we reviewed the literature, we looked at all the studies within the last 20 years. Some of the studies were landmark studies that definitely influenced others," said Paul McCarty, with Discover Education Consultants. "In research, there's a replication of research and we've tried to follow, as best we can, what the original research had and what current research is showing, also."

The public will have the opportunity to have its questions answered at the next public meeting, to be held on July 28 at Library Hall in the Orem City Center.

It is anticipated the Orem City Council will vote on Aug. 2 on whether to put the issue on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election and let voters decide whether to create an Orem school district.

If the city council votes to leave Alpine School District, the study said that the district would target the 2024-25 school year as the inaugural year for the new district.

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