Alpine School Board willing to 'massage' controversial consolidation proposal -...

[massage]

Some of the biggest concerns parents have about a proposal to consolidate several Orem elementary schools center around splitting up students from the same school and increasing class sizes, according to information presented to the Alpine School District Board of Education during a work session Tuesday.

After extensive public comment at the board meeting Tuesday, school board members indicated they are willing to make changes to the controversial proposal.

The Alpine School District revealed a proposal earlier this month to tear down four schools and build two larger schools, in response to dropping school enrollment.

The board of education was presented information Tuesday during a work session breaking down feedback received about that proposal.

In total, 38 percent of the approximately 500 comments received were in favor of the proposed plan, with 35 percent against. The rest of the respondents either had mixed feelings or were neutral.

The proposal in its current form would have Geneva Elementary School students split up and go to Suncrest and Bonneville Elementary Schools beginning in the 2018-19 school year.

Many parents of students from Hillcrest and Geneva spoke during the public comment session and expressed concerns that the district was targeting low-income schools and threatening the identity of those neighborhoods. Others wondered why the two old schools could not simply be seismically upgraded to address safety concerns.

When broken down further, the data presented to the board indicated that those affiliated with Geneva Elementary School were particularly concerned about the prospect of the students from that school being split up as the plan outlined.

Under the current version of the proposal, Cascade Elementary School students would use the Geneva Elementary School building while Cascade Elementary School is demolished and rebuilt during the 2018-19 school year.

The proposal would also close Hillcrest Elementary School and have its projected 335 students go to the nearby Scera Park Elementary School. For the 2019-20 school year, Scera Park Elementary School students would use the Geneva Elementary School building while Scera Park Elementary School is rebuilt.

In August 2020, both Scera Park and Hillcrest students would move into the new Scera Park Elementary School.

Other stakeholders support the proposal, excited at the prospect of getting schools and classrooms updated with current technology and safety requirements.

The board members, during the work session, indicated they would consider making changes to the proposal in response to feedback.

Board member Sara Hacken said the feedback reviewed during the work session was thoughtful.

“They are really trying to help us solve this problem,” Hacken said during the board’s work session, prior to the public comment received during the evening meeting.

Clement said during the board’s work session that, because of feedback, it seemed it might be better to combine two schools into one rather than split one school up. He didn’t realize how traumatic that could be, he said.

Board members also expressed concern that people seemed to think because the schools would have more students, that class sizes would go up too. Class sizes are not expected to change in any significant way should the proposal be approved.

“A lot of people think a larger school means a larger class size,” Hacken said. “We know that’s not the case. Generally speaking, if we use district funding formula, class sizes will be pretty consistent.”

Parents still expressed concern during public comment that having larger schools would take away the family, neighborhood feel they have now even if class sizes are not affected.

Several parents said they felt blindsided by how quickly the process is moving, and asked for the school board to delay a decision so people have more time to weigh the options and provide feedback.

After public comment, board member Scott Carlson said he doesn’t believe the board is opposed to making changes to the original proposal.

“There’s been some ideas that have come up that I think we can make adjustments and changes to the plan that was sent out to address some of the concerns,” Carlson said.

Board member JoDee Sundberg said the board has discussed putting together focus groups over the next few weeks consisting of leadership and stakeholders to address more concerns and continue to massage the proposal.

Hacken said there are parts of the plan that they need to go “back to the drawing board” for.

“Whatever we do, let’s keep Geneva together,” Hacken said.

Sundberg said the board will postpone the decision from October to the November meeting.

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