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OREM — After announcing a plan to close and consolidate a handful of elementary schools in Orem in September, Alpine School District officials are taking another month to decide whether or not the schools will be closed.
School board members will vote Nov. 14 on the future of Hillcrest and Scera Park elementary schools, Alpine School District Assistant Superintendent John Patten said on Sept. 29.
Patten said board members heard feedback from parents, teachers and community members who were both for and against the consolidation plan. A vote on the plan had been scheduled for Oct. 10, but the board decided it needed more time to gather more feedback and information, he said.
“We are very hopeful of engaging members of the public in this process and working together to arrive at a viable solution,” Patten said. “We’re anxious to see it all through and get the input we need to make some great decisions.”
If board members vote to move the consolidation plan forward, construction on a new building would start in the 2019 school year. A new school would be built on the Scera Park site, and the Hillcrest school would be demolished.
The new school would have 700-800 students, which Patten said is a “sweet spot” for elementary schools. Both Hillcrest and Scera Park currently have fewer than 500 students.
Board members had previously discussed consolidating Geneva and Cascade elementary schools, but that portion of the plan has been postponed indefinitely, Patten said.
Parents have spoken out for and against the consolidation plan. Rebekah Westover, whose children go to Hillcrest, said there are “huge problems” with the plan.
She said she thinks the smaller schools are serving their communities well. She also worries that closing small schools could set a precedent, leading Alpine School District to close more schools in the near future.
“I’m just really worried at the larger impact this is going to have on my city and on the kids in my city,” Westover said. “If this sets a precedent for what may continue in Orem, people need to really be aware that this could have a huge impact on our city.”
On the other side, Hillcrest parent Chelsey Olenik said a new school could give students access to more resources and opportunities than they have now.
“When we look around our district, we can see where our school is not meeting the same standard as our other schools ... who have a larger school population and consequently have more funding,” she said.
Olenik taught for several years in Lindon in the Alpine School District. She said building a new school would bring classrooms into the 21st century, with new and more advanced technology that would benefit both students and teachers.
Melody Jenson, who has three sons at Hillcrest, said her boys love their school and their teachers there. But they’re also excited about possibly having a new, safer school with better technology and more teachers, Jenson said.
“I think children are very resilient,” Jenson said. “If the district decides (consolidation) is best for us, we need to come together whether we were for or against it to begin with ... get our children excited about it, and work together to build a stronger school and a stronger unit.”
Parent involvement would improve greatly if the two schools are combined, she added.
“I’m just really worried at the larger impact this is going to have on my city and on the kids in my city. If this sets a precedent for what may continue in Orem, people need to really be aware that this could have a huge impact on our city." — Rebekah Westover
Westover said she worries that students wouldn’t do well moving from a large school from a smaller one such as Hillcrest. The school has been “awesome,” and it’s the kind of school where almost all the teachers and staff know every student’s name, she said.
“There’s kind of this family feeling,” Westover said. “If we lose the school here it’s going to be such a travesty.”
Though the entire Alpine School District continues to grow each year, the Orem area has seen the reverse trend in the past few years, Patten said. Younger professionals and retired people who don’t have school-aged kids have moved into Orem, he said.
The number of elementary school-aged kids especially has declined in Orem, Patten added.
The Alpine School District’s website will be updated with more information on the consolidation proposal by Friday, Oct. 6, Patten said.
Some have alleged that this is an open and shut case for the district that is purely financially driven.
Patten said that’s not true. While Alpine School District wants to be fiscally responsible, the first priority is to have schools that provide challenging educational opportunities to help kids develop, he said.
Public education is the largest investment any community makes for the future and wellbeing of that community, Patten said.
“We still would hope to preserve a neighborhood school feel even if that neighborhood now gets extended a little farther than the school that used to be just around the corner,” Patten said. “We just hope that kids will be resilient, but usually they do a little bit better at that than we adults do.”
