Two proposals to split up Utah’s largest school district have gained significant traction with Utah County voters.
That means it’s likely the Alpine School District will dissolve, resulting in three separate districts at most.
The first proposal to split the district — Proposition 11 — would establish a new “Central District,” encompassing the cities of American Fork, Cedar Hills, Draper, Alpine, Highland, and Lehi. As of Thursday afternoon, early returns showed 57.85% of voters in those cities supported the measure.
Although Utah County is still counting votes and has yet to certify the results, the city of Lehi announced in a Wednesday news release that voters “overwhelmingly” approved the creation of a Central District.
The new school district would become Utah’s sixth largest, serving approximately 35,978 students with 34 school buildings and six district facilities, according to the release.
The other proposal, Proposition 14, would create a “West District” involving Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Fairfield and Cedar Fort. Early returns showed that 61.74% of voters in those cities supported the proposal as of Thursday afternoon.
Regardless of Proposition 14’s outcome, Proposition 11’s expected passage means a new “West District” and a third “South District” would be established by default, with the latter comprising of Orem, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, and Vineyard, Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson previously told The Salt Lake Tribune.
To form the three new school districts, Alpine will be dissolved, and voters would elect new school board members for the Central, West and South districts, according to the Lehi news release.
Those new school boards will oversee resource negotiations, establish administrative policies, and make staffing and personnel decisions, the release stated. The new districts are expected to launch by July 2027.
“With the passage of Prop 11, voters have made their preference resoundingly clear,” Lehi City Councilmember Heather Newall said in Wednesday’s news release. “They want a new school district that better represents them and provides a high-quality education for the children in our communities.”
Alpine School District’s own split proposal was blocked
Splitting the Alpine School District has been a looming possibility for decades due to its rapid population growth. The district covers nearly half of Utah County, which encompasses 13 municipalities and 92 schools.
But it wasn’t until last year that district leaders took formal steps to set it in motion.
The district was gearing up this year to put its own split proposal on November ballots until state lawmakers shut down the effort. During a special June legislative session, lawmakers passed HB3003, titled “School District Amendments,” which prevented local school boards from initiating the process to divide a district.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, said the legislation was necessary because the Alpine school board’s proposed split would have conflicted with the interlocal ballot measures.
“It was never intended that there be multiple splits put on the ballot at the same time,” Brammer said in June. “If there are multiple measures on the ballot and they all pass, what happens? Nobody knows. That’s the problem that this bill is intended to solve.”
The difference between an interlocal split and a district-initiated split is that, for interlocal splits, only voters from the cities involved in the agreement vote on it. A district-initiated split proposal would have included voters from all cities within the Alpine School District.
Past attempts to split the district have failed
There have been several previous attempts to split the Alpine School District, but only one ever made it onto a ballot.
A 2022 proposal would have created a new school district in Orem, which the Orem City Council pitched in August of that year.
Proponents of the Orem split argued that the Alpine School District was unable to meet Orem students’ needs because of its large size. It ultimately failed, with 73% of local voters rejecting it.
Orem residents had previously attempted to split from Alpine in 2006. That year, they filed a petition to the Orem City Council requesting a split, but after a feasibility study, the City Council voted against it.
Other proposals to split the district have been blocked by the Utah County Commission. In 2004, commissioners declined to add a potential new school district for Lehi, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain to the ballot after a feasibility study didn’t recommend it.
