Last night, the Orem City Council voted to let the residents decide!
Decide whether the city should form its own school district and split from the largest district in the state.
While it may seem obvious that you should be allowed to vote on such an important decision, it wasn’t.
The issue of Orem splitting from Alpine School District has been considered for nearly two decades. This will be the first time that the citizens will actually be allowed to vote on it.
We commissioned a comprehensive study in February of this year. The results of that study were presented to the Council on July 12th.
Tonight’s 4-3 vote in favor of allowing the public to vote, comes after three public meetings where questions about the study were answered.
I believe that everyone wants the best education possible for our children. I believe we want our teachers to be paid fairly. We don’t want our taxes to be too high.
The issue is that we have different visions of how we can get there. We had this same conversation back in 2006 and 2017.
I respect those of you who have reached out to me and made reasonable arguments, good arguments, and engaged with me in a civil conversation.
Not to state the obvious, but I will warn you, that there is a lot of misinformation online. Not a little bit…a lot. As a starting point for gathering solid factual information, I would encourage you to go to the recording of last night’s City Council meeting at the Orem City Government Channel on YouTube.
We don’t all agree, but each of us have been immersed in this subject for the past several months. This can provide you with some good factual information regarding the pros and cons of a split.
If an Orem School District were formed with 14,882 students, nationally it would rank in the top 5 percent in terms of size. In other words, an Orem School District would be larger…larger than 95% of all districts in the United States.
I encourage you to do your research. Determine what is best for you personally and your family. Then in November, let your voice be heard! Last night, we voted to give you that opportunity!
I hope you are enjoying your summer. There is one month left so make it a good one. See you next month!
