City Council · 2016-04-28

OREM CITY COUNCIL/ALPINE SCHOOL DISTRICT
SPECIALJOINTMEETING
56 North State, Orem, Utah
April 28, 2016
This meeting was for discussion purposes only. No official action was taken.
CONDUCTING ..Mayor Pro Tem Mark Seastrand
OREMELECTEDOFFICIALS
Councilmembers Debby Lauret, Sam Lentz, Tom
Macdonald, Mark Seastrand, and Brent Sumner
OREMSTAFF -Jamie Davison, City Manager; Brenn Bybee,
. Assistant City Manager; Stephen Downs, Assistant
^to the City Manager; Karl Hirst, Recreation
: : Department Director; and Jackie Lambert, Deputy
City Recorder
ALPINE BOARD OF EDUCATION
John Burton, Paula Hill, JoDee Sundberg, and
Deborah Taylor
ALPINESCHOOLDISTRICTADMIN. Sam Jarman, Superintendent; Jess
Christen,
Administrative Director of Operations
ABSENT/EXCUSED Mayor Richard F. Brunst and David Spencer
INVOCATION Brent Sumner
Mayor Brunst called the meeting to order at 12:03 p.m.
Items of Common Interest
DISCUSSION - Alpine School District Bond - "Growing Forward"
Superintendent Jarman said they had been engaged in a public outreach effort regarding the
school board, but they were having meetings to get feedback from the community. He said
Alpine School District was the largest district in the state, with over 75,0o0 students and just
under 8,oo0 employees. He said they felt student achievement was the way to succeed, so they
believed in teacher quality and a comprehensive curriculum. He said the graduation rate in the
district was 92.3 percent, up from 75 percent in 2010, and that included Polaris High school,
which was a special purpose school for at-risk students. Polaris individually had a graduation
                
special needs students with IEPs that typically were in place until the student was 22-years-old.
Mrs. Lauret asked what had made the difference from 2010 to present in raising the graduation
rate. Superintendent Jarman said they used team teaching programs where teachers were grouped
by either subject or grade level and viewed all students as their students, not just those in their
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - April 28, 2016 (p.1)


classrooms. Mr. Macdonald asked what the Governor's goal was for graduation rates, to which
Superintendent Jarman answered 90 percent.
Mr. Christen said teacher assessments helped identify which students were not learning at the
point they should be, and helped those students refocus to be successful. The graduation rate was
tied to intervention programs that were in place. Ms. Taylor added that the intervention programs
were a K-12 effort, and they had changed what they did in specialty high schools like Polaris to
include extra help.
Superintendent Jarman said 96 percent of the 2015 graduates took the ACT with an average
composite score of 21.4. He said the State helped all juniors take the ACT test by waiving the
fee, which was why that percentage was so high. Over 5,000 Alpine School District students
took AP exams, with approximately 3,800 of them passing. They earned over 11,300 credit hours
through concurrent enrollment. As a district, they scored higher than the State average in all
areas.
Mrs. Sundberg added that 11'h graders did not take standardized tests to accommodate for taking
the ACT, so they were not burned out by taking multiple standardized tests.
Superintendent Jarman said a research report was done in 2014 by the Utah Foundation. The
study showed Utah County would grow faster than Salt Lake County and would grow
tremendously from now until 2050. Alpine School District's projected enrollment in 2020 was
80,000, up from 75,403 in 2016 from population growth. He said the district did an independent
survey with about 1,400 respondents. He said the three things to remember from the independent
survey were:
1. Given only the ballot language as information, 59 percent of those surveyed said they
would support a potential school bond.
2. A description of growth and no tax increase are the messages that most resonated with
thosesurveyed.
3.1  Following a series of informational messages about the bond, support jumped to 74
percent.
Superintendent Jarman said in their message testing they found that people wanted to know
details of what the bond would be used for. He said the first response from people was to pay the
teachers more, which he found interesting. He clarified that the bond money would only be
allowed to go toward things like capital improvements to rebuild or retrofit schools, improved
security, building maintenance, and land acquisition for future school sites. He reviewed survey
results about overall satisfaction with Alpine School District, academic performance, how
respondents felt while children were at school, school safety, access to technology, and
alternative plans if the proposed bond did not pass.
Mr. Macdonald commented that most alternative plans if the bond did not pass would be
additional burdens on the teachers. Superintendent Jarman agreed.
Superintendent Jarman said over the four year bond period they would address the following
topics:
·Growth
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - April 28, 2016 (p.2)


01 new high school
02 new middle schools
05 new elementary schools
OProperty for future schools
Safety and Security
Secure access entrances for elementary schools
Security cameras
 Key card access points
· Reconstruction
0Finish rebuild of Lehi High
ORenovate Mountain View High
Rebuild elementary schools
Clear Creek Education Center
。
Roof replacements
·Technology
0Update wireless access points in all ASD schools
0 Rewire infrastructure
Superintendent Jarman shared some of the projects that would move forward under the proposed
bond, including projects in the Orem area with a partial rebuid of Mountain View High and a
rebuild of Cascade Elementary. He said they had also considered a rebuild of Geneva
Elementary, but part of the challenge was its close proximity to Suncrest Elementary and they
might need to rebuild the whole area. He said the Central Elementary School Space Center
would either need to be upgraded or shut down, which was the same problem the Clear Creek
camp facility was facing.
    s            
considered building in solar panels. Superintendent Jarman said they had not looked at solar yet
though they did work with groups like Siemens Energy to guide them to better energy use. Mrs.
Sundberg said solar panels were a good idea that they should look into in the future.
Superintendent Jarman said they wanted to make upgrades in elementary schools that would
have the entryways lead right to the main offices and keep classrooms and hallways more secure
with keycard access points. Security cameras were installed in Alpine School District schools in
1988, but that system was getting older and needed to be updated. Most cameras recorded to a
digital hard drive and in some cases police departments had remote access to the system. There
were also issues to be addressed regarding video storage of the data.
Superintendent Jarman said the bond issue would be voted on by the school board in August. He
hoped that if they moved forward with the bond that the Mayor and City Council would be
supportive of it.
Mrs. Lauret asked the approximate cost per household for the bond. Superintendent Jarman said
there were certain things that would factor into that amount, so he could not definitively say but
it would be a relatively small increase if there was any increase at all. Mrs. Lauret said some
people had a hard time with these kinds of small increases because there always seemed to be a
newdebtintroducedonceonewasretired.
Joint Orem City CounciV/Alpine School District Minutes - April 28, 2016 (p.3)


Ms. Taylor said it was true that bonds were layered. She said there were no impact fees for
education, so the bond option had become their impact fee. They had capital costs and other
needs that could only go so far on tax revenue alone. Public education was a community benefit,
Mr. Lentz asked about the 26 percent that had opposed the bond in the survey and asked if they
had given feedback. Superintendent Jarman said traditionally certain communities would just
oppose bonds outright, without giving a specific reason. He said the Orem community had
supported bonds in the past, which they were grateful for.
Mr. Sumner asked about the decision to have the bond voted on by the school board in August.
Superintendent Jarman said they wanted adequate time to educate the public on the reasons for
the bond and the needs throughout the district. They also hoped to minimize pushback.
Mr. Davidson said the question was sometimes asked, "Why pay for schools built outside of our
community? He asked what the appropriate responses were to that question. Mrs. Sundberg said
she would remind people that most of their children and grandchildren were living in the
surrounding communities where these schools were going to be built. She also said that people in
our community understood the importance of having an education and wanted to ensure that all
children had that opportunity.
The question was asked about the possibility of Alpine School District splitting, as it was the
largest district in the state. Superintendent Jarman first said that splitting the district would not
remove the need for the bond. Secondly, every claim people had about large districts not being
able to meet the needs of the students could be refuted with Alpine School District's data. There
was an economy of scale that came into play with being a large district. He said there would
likely be a tipping point in the future where splitting the district would make the most sense, but
they were not there yet.
Mr. Lentz asked if the cities involved in the bond would be.responsible for their shares if the
proportional.
UPDATE-All-Together Playground
Mr. Downs said the All-Together Playground would be built at.the Orem City Center Park from
included Brian Regan and Jimmer Fredette. He said the playground build would be during the
United Way “Day of Caring" in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity's 25"h anniversary, and
groups like UVU employees were having specific build days. He said they could have a specific
Alpine School District build day if they were interested in participating in the build of the
playground.
Mrs. Sundberg said they would be interested in that opportunity and would contact Mr. Downs.
Mr. Seastrand asked if schools could benefit from taking fieldtrips to the playground once it was
built. It allowed all children to play together regardless of their potential physical limitations.
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - April 28, 2016 (p.4)


SuperintendentJarmansaidhewouldpass theinformationalong totheelementaryschool
supervisors.
Mr. Macdonald said he was impressed by Alpine School District's graduation rates and all the
work they did to support students.He thanked them for their commitment to the community.
Mrs.Sundbergsaid theyhadpartneredwith theJuvenile Court JusticeSystemworkingwith
principalsfrom elementary and secondaryschoolstohaveregularmeetingswithJudgeMary
Noonan.She was particularly committed to issues of those in difficult home situations, and the
goalof theprogramwastohelpchildrengetthe educationstheydeserved.Mrs.Sundbergsaid
the district was grateful for the partnership between the schools and the community.
FOLLOWUP-HAWKSignal
Superintendent Jarman askedfor an update on theprogress of the HAWKsignal.
Mr. Davidson said they were planning to follow up with Rob Smith and Mr. Christen about that.
They were also following up with engineering to get the project out to bid for a reasonable cost.
SetDateand TimeforNext
The next meeting was scheduled for June 30, 2016, at noon in Orem.
Mr.Lentz moved to adjourn the meeting.Mrs.Lauret seconded the motion.The motion passed
unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 1:27 p.m.
8
CORPORATE
SEAL
Oomma R. eave
Donna R.Weaver, City Recorder
Approved:May24,2016
JointOremCityCouncil/AlpineSchoolDistrictMinutes-April28,2016（p.5)