AMERICAN FORK — A new elementary school scheduled to open this fall could have 200 fewer students if a proposed charter school gets the go-ahead to start classes this fall.

Alpine District administrators and members of the state and Alpine school board met recently with several Utah County legislators to talk about issues facing the district — and charter schools was high on the list of topics.

Roughly one in 10 students in Alpine's boundaries is enrolled in charter schools, publicly funded schools that operate independently of school districts. They are governed mostly by parents who make decisions about the school, from curriculum to uniforms to the hiring and firing of teachers.

In Alpine, a major problem with charter schools is that they trip up plans for the future, school board members told legislators. After all, the district must draw up plans to educate all children living in its boundaries — and there isn't any way to know how many of those children will go to a charter school.

Ridgeline Elementary School is the most recent example.

The Highland school, which will open in the fall, will hold 864 students.

Ridgeline was built with money from the sale of voter-approved bonds that were issued growth projections said a new school was needed.

When it planned to build the school, Alpine's school board did not have a way to know how many children would enroll at a charter instead of a district school. There still is no way to know — so the board must continue to plan to educate all children living within the district's boundaries.

But some 200 students district officials thought would go to Ridgeline may go to the proposed charter school in the Traverse Mountain housing development if the Utah State School Board gives it approval to open.

Would-be builders hope to finish the school, an extension of the American Preparatory Academy in Draper, in three months — the same time Ridgeline opens. That means Alpine would have to scurry. District bosses would have to figure out what to do about the extra teachers who would no longer be needed at Ridgeline.

"I could have one facility that could be so adversely impacted" by charter schools that it would have to be closed, Smith said.

"It will be a lovely school," Alpine school board president JoDee Sundberg said about the proposed charter school. "But nobody told us two years ago (when the district was planning for Ridgeline Elementary) that there was going to be a charter school."

Legislators acknowledged that charter schools do not have to plan according to a community's needs.

"In traditional (public) schools, you have a five-year plan, a needs analysis," said Rep. Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem. "You anticipate what's coming, what's going. . . . It does sound like there needs to be some coordination" with charter schools.

The state school board makes the final approval on whether ground can be broken on the new charter school. State Board of Education member Mark Cluff, who represents Alpine and Wasatch school districts on the state school board, said he doesn't think he'll vote for the school to open so soon.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com