Alpine District won't split

PROVO — Utah County commissioners have decided Utah Valley is not ready for another school district — at least not in the very near future.

For that reason, the County Commission voted 2-1 Tuesday to follow the recommendation of a study committee and not put on the November ballot the issue of creating a new district by carving out a section of the Alpine School District.

The district is nearing 60,000 students and is experiencing continued growth as houses continue to pop up across the open fields of northern Utah County. That growth, commissioners say, makes it likely that the district may indeed need to be divided someday.

Had commissioners opted to put the matter on the ballot, the split would have had to win a majority of votes from within the entire district, not just the area — essentially Lehi and all the northwest county areas that currently feed students into Lehi High School — that would have become the new district.

"There is going to come a time when the district needs to be split, but it's not now," said Commissioner Gary Herbert, who made the motion to deny putting the matter on the ballot, which was supported by Commissioner Steve White.

Herbert said there are better ways to attempt a division.

"In the 14 years I've been here (on the commission), this has been for me the most emotional issue we've addressed," Herbert said. "Everybody has been interested, probably because there are children involved and I think you can argue both sides of the issue. I don't believe a split is an absolute panacea for the foibles of a local school district and I don't think life will stop with a split. Both extreme views are wrong."

Herbert said the divisiveness is not healthy, the legislation that allows for splitting districts is flawed, the transition would be messy and the commission would be ill-advised to override the recommendation of the feasibility study committee which voted 5-1 against the idea.

Ann Davies, a major opponent of the split, said she was worried about Herbert and where he would come down on the issue.

"Hallelujah," she said following the vote as she gave a thumbs up to the commission.

Davies said people in her area were not for the split because they believed from the beginning the area being targeted was too small to support a new district.

"We were not divided. We were 98 percent against it," she said.

Rep. David Cox, R-Lehi, who sponsored the bill that allowed for splitting of districts and who also served on the feasibility study committee, said there was a good deal of misinformation circulated about the impacts of a split, much of it designed to inflame and scare people away from the potential.