UVSC buys school, 12 acres

OREM — The Utah Valley State College land beast is about to swallow up 700 schoolchildren in Orem and spit them out in Vineyard.

For years, UVSC has been buying land around Vineyard Elementary School, slowly engulfing it in the college's northern expansion. The Utah Board of Regents recently authorized the use of $6.6 million to purchase the school and some additional land and buildings on July 1.

It's not the end of the line for students, though. Vineyard Elementary will remain open for one more school year, then the children, the teachers and equipment will move together to a new school a little more than a mile away in Vineyard, said Gary Seastrand, an assistant superintendent in the Alpine School District.

The sale, which includes the school, nearly 12 acres of land and other district buildings at 950 W. 800 South will pay for construction of the new school on 400 South. The new school will be built across the street from eight soccer fields and five softball fields that make up Orem's new Lakeside Sports Complex at about 1580 West.

The deal is a no-brainer for UVSC.

"For us to be able to buy 12 acres connected to our campus is something we couldn't pass up," UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said. "We own all the land to the south and the west of the school and it's a facility we can use with minor remodeling. But mostly it's a great addition to our land bank."

Purchase of the land was UVSC's top priority this year and was ranked in the top five needs in the Utah System of Higher Education. The land was critical — "It's not easy to find 11 acres in Orem anymore," Seastrand said — but the elementary school and the other buildings, which have served as Alpine's alternative high school, have nearly 100,000 square feet of space that came at a cheap price.

Hall said UVSC pays about $150 per square foot when it constructs a new building. It is paying about $85 a square foot for the school and buildings.

UVSC officials haven't finalized uses for the buildings, but they come complete with classrooms suitable for teacher training and other programs. "We're looking at what we could move into the buildings and use them for with the least amount of remodeling," Hall said.

As for the new elementary school, it will be modeled after the new Forbes Elementary School the district built in American Fork. It will be an improvement over what the students have now, though Seastrand said little was wrong with the school, which was built in 1978.

"Everything was working well," Seastrand said. "It's just surrounded by a college."

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