City Council · 2016-06-30

OREMCITY COUNCIL/ALPINESCHOOLDISTRICT
SPECIALJOINTMEETING
56 North State, Orem, Utah
June 30, 2016
This meeting was for discussion purposes only. No official action was taken.
CONDUCTING Mayor Richard F. Brunst
Councilmembers Sam Lentz, Tom Macdonald,
OREMELECTEDOFFICIALS
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
John Burton, Paula Hill, JoDee Sundberg, and
ALPINEBOARDOFEDUCATION
Deborah Taylor
ALPINESCHOOLDISTRICTADMIN. Sam Jarman, Superintendent
Debby Lauret andDavidSpencer
ABSENT/EXCUSED
INVOCATION Mark Seastrand
Mayor Brunst called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m.
Items of Common Interest
DISCUSSION - Alpine School District Bond Presentation Highlights
          s  
were worth celebrating. He said the Alpine School District covered 14 municipalities and had
over 80 schools. He said even though Alpine School District was the largest district in the State
they did everything they could to help people, from students and parents to teachers and
principals, feel like their voices were heard. Dividing the district into clusters helped create a
smaller feel. Superintendent Jarman said they would often meet with administrators from one or
two clusters at a time to allow for more discussion on the issues and hear feedback. He said there
was an elementary school that had started construction on January 20, 2016, and would be
completed by August 1, 2016, in time for the new school year. That new school would be a huge
help in the growth area on the west side of the district.
Superintendent Jarman reviewed some of the information he shared at the last joint meeting with
Orem, like the district's impressive graduation rate of 92.3 percent and a districtwide average
score of 21.4 on the ACT. They did well on AP exams for passing rates, and 3 of the 14 State
Sterling Scholars were from Alpine School District. He said many educators in the district were
award-winning, including the number one teacher in the state for 2016 that would go on to
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - June 30, 2016 (p.1)


compete at a national level for number one teacher in the country. ASD students were offered
$40 million in scholarship dollars, and the number one high school in the state, Lone Peak High
School, was in the district. He said there had been great achievements not only academically but
in arts and athletics as well. All four teams in the State Baseball Championship were ASD
schools. He said the last game of the State tournament was the day three of the four schools had
their graduation ceremonies, and it was a neat experience to hand diplomas to the players on the
baseball fields after the game and let the families take pictures.
Superintendent Jarman said the district was growing fast, and was projected to have
approximately 80,000 students by 2020. He said that Alpine School District had received a
Triple-A (AAA) rating from Fitch Ratings. Rob Smith, Assistant Superintendent, said, “A
Triple-A rating is like someone having a credit score of 85o! Superintendent Jarman said only
eight government entities in Utah had AAA ratings, and the Alpine School District was the only
one not in Salt Lake County. He also said only 73 out of 13,900 school districts nationwide had
that rating. He said they hoped people would respond well to the rating, and that Alpine School
District families had generally been very supportive of the district in the past. Superintendent
Jarman said the School Board would vote on the bond item at the August 16, 2016 meeting.
Because the bond had not yet been approved by the board, the project lists were not finalized. He
said the proposed bond projects would address the four areas of (1) growth, (2) safety and
security, (3) reconstruction, and (4) technology.
Superintendent Jarman continued that because of the layering effect in how bonds were paid off,
they were predicting no tax increase in yearly property tax. Mayor Brunst asked the size of the
proposed bond, to which Superintendent Jarman answered $386 million. Superintendent Jarman
explained that as bonds were retired they could take on new debt without increasing taxes.
Mr. Downs asked if the School Board was in support of the proposed bond. Mrs. Sundberg said
it would probably receive unanimous support to include the bond on the ballot. Superintendent
Jarman agreed.
Mr. Sumner asked about their public outreach efforts. Superintendent Jarman said that they had
been having public input meetings for the last three months. He said if the bond was voted on by
the Board in August, they would spend time between then and October canvassing again. He said
they were trying to ensure that the public had all of the information, much of which could be
found online. There were also places for people to provide feedback. Superintendent Jarman also
reminded them of the survey that was conducted by Y2 Analytics for feedback, which showed
that the majority of respondents were in favor of the bond.
Mayor Brunst asked if taxes would go down if the school district did not pursue a new bond.
Superintendent Jarman said they would, but that the district would be in a world of hurt. He was
not aware of a time that that had happened. Mrs. Sundberg said there had been occasions where
taxes were not raised to the full amount which they could be raised, and that had shown a
decrease in taxes, but it was not terribly common.
said some people were philosophically against increases of any kind, even if it did not directly
affect them. Mrs. Hill added that they would educate people on options if the bond were not to
pass, like double sessions, year-round school, etc. but the growth rate was not likely to slow
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - June 30, 2016 (p.2)


down. There was subsequent discussion about the advantages and disadvantages to these
alternatives.
Mr. Davidson said the City of Orem and the Alpine School District were in similar positions.
Some detractors would say a bond like this was a tax increase, but in order to maintain a level of
service that people were accustomed to, and to maintain and even improve operations,
investments had to be made. If there was no investment in assets, they would deteriorate and the
costs would be much higher.
Superintendent Jarman said their intention was to present as much information about the bond as
possible without campaigning for or against once the bond item was approved. They wanted to
be as transparent as they could, and help the public understand the phases. He also wanted to
emphasize that they kept their bond promises even when bond money was no longer available
and it was to their detriment.
Mr. Sumner asked if there were organized groups that would oppose the bond. Superintendent
Jarman said he did not specifically know of a group, but there were always different viewpoints.
He said there were some candidates currently running for school board positions that have said
q   n   s n    s s    sd o m 
DISCUSSION -Joint Meeting Locations
Mr. Macdonald asked if the joint meetings between the City of Orem and the Alpine School
District Board could be held at Orem schools.
Mrs. Sundberg said they used to meet in schools, and she was not sure why the change was
made. She thought it was mostly tradition, though it could also be for the convenience of support
staff.
Mr. Macdonald suggested they explore the option of holding meetings in Orem school venues.
DISCUSSION-Orem and ASD Collaboration Areas
Mr. Seastrand said he really appreciated the collaboration between the district and the cities they
served. He asked if there were other opportunities for collaboration they had not yet connected
on, like safety issues, bicycle and pedestrian access, or water usage.
Superintendent Jarman said the HAWK system going in near Orchard Elementary and Canyon
View Junior High was a good example of their collaboration. He asked Mr. Davidson for an
update.
Mr. Davidson said they had a preconstruction meeting scheduled for the following Tuesday. The
concern had been about high construction costs, but they were going to move forward to get the
signal in place for the new school year. His understanding was that Alpine School District would
reimburse the City for their half of the construction costs.
Superintendent Jarman said another example of collaboration was School Resource Officers
officers spent as much time helping in the Springwater area of the community as they did at the
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - June 30, 2016 (p.3)


school. He believed the primary commitment of the SRO was to the school, and was concerned
aboutthedividedattention.
Mr. Davidson said the contract between the City and the district for SROs was expiring at the
end of June and that Orem was anxious to renew that contract. He said Chief Giles had tried to
contact the district and work through Mr. Smith to renew that, but there were some concerns
about the terms of the agreement. They wanted to ensure that there was value achieved on both
sides of the ledger, and so there needed to be a conversation in terms of clarifying expectations
of the officers as well as the contracted rates. He hoped they could have the discussion sooner
rather than later to make sure the SROs were in place for the new school year.
DISCUSSION - Interlocal Agreement for Ball Field Land Swap
Mrs. Sundberg said the idea of balance for both sides fed into the next topic she wished to
discuss, which topic was the interlocal agreement for the land swap issue near Mountain View
High School (MVHS) and Orem Elementary. She said that basically Orem wanted to use the
softball fields owned by ASD, and ASD wanted to use the baseball field owned by Orem. That
part of the agreement meshed well, but there were other pieces of the agreement that she had
questions on. One concern was about the installation of permanent fencing around the baseball
field, and another was the per day or per head cost of ASD students using Orem's Fitness Center
(OFC).
Mr. Hirst tried to clarify some points. He said some of the confusion in the interlocal land swap
agreement came from an agreement Orem City had had in place since the 1970s, where they
received federal dollars for the park area in question but there were some eternal requirements in
that agreement. One such requirement was that no permanent fencing could go into that part of
the park. The plan was to install a permanent fence for the baseball field per the interlocal with
ASD with the understanding that if the City faced an audit on that park, the permanent fencing
would have to be removed. Therefore, the interlocal agreement would still use the word
temporary in describing the fence for that reason. Mr. Hirst said those who entered the agreement
in the 1970s may not have had the futuristic mindset to understand some of the consequences to
the eternal provisions in the agreement. They needed to be cautious as they had been in violation
of those terms before, which was why the wording of the interlocal agreement language was
important.
Superintendent Jarman said he appreciated that clarification. Mrs. Sundberg said that made more
sense now, and she was supportive of moving forward with installation of the fence. The fence
would be built to secure the baseball field and MVHS would take over the scheduling.
Mr. Hirst said MHVS had already taken over the scheduling aspect of the baseball field, and he
would continue to work with the district on the draft of the interlocal agreement to get it right
before it was adopted. Mr. Davidson said he was pleased with the progress of this issue, and felt
a n ns    s xis    a a  pu 
Mr. Hirst said the four softball diamonds were critical to Orem. He said if and when Orem
Elementary needed to grow they might have to move the diamonds to where the baseball and
soccer fields were. Superintendent Jarman said he had similar concerns about expansion of the
OFC affecting the baseball field. Mr. Hirst assured Superintendent Jarman he did not need to
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - June 30, 2016 (p.4)


worry about that, since they could not expand the OFC into that part of the park; that was yet
another eternal consequence of the agreement from the 1970s.
Superintendent Jarman said he appreciated working with Mr. Hirst to find solutions.
Superintendent Jarman asked Mr. Hirst to clarify the costs of ASD usage at the OFC. He said
some groups were being charged per head, some were charged per lane, there were costs for
holding swim meets, etc. and he wanted to understand the fees. His concern was that the fees
were varying from city to city.
Mr. Hirst said the northern county fitness centers formed a group that was to establish a fee
schedule so there was consistency. He said a P.E. class from MVHS going to the OFC to use the
racquetball courts would be charged a per head custodial fee. The MVHS swim team, however,
would be charged a per lane fee for usage of the pool lanes and a daily admission. He said there
were also volume factors that were considered for some groups. The OFC was in a unique
position because of its proximity to MVHS.
Superintendent Jarman said there was not consistency in the fees the district was charged. Mrs.
Sundberg thought there needed to be a conversation with representatives from the cities, the
recreation centers, and the school district to establish a clear fee schedule that was set for all
partiesacrosstheboard.
Mr. Hirst said they had had several meetings with Jess Christen in attendance where they
discussed the fee schedules. He said it was valuable to have Mr. Christen represent the school
district in those meetings, and hoped he was relaying his information to the board.
DISCUSSION - Alpine School District Federal Funding
Mr. Lentz said he was hesitant to broach the subject, but he wanted to express concern about the
discussion that the Alpine School District budget was looking at operating away from federal
funding. He understood that some people wanted those monies separated out, but he did not
think it was fair to put that burden on future generations.
Mr. Burton said that was not going to happen. The school board members said they were going
to move ahead using federal funds as they always had, which was around $40 million, and they
would address needs as they saw fit. He assured Mr. Lentz that it was a nonstarter.
UPDATE-All-Together Playground Build Out
Mr. Downs said he had reached out to Kimberly Bird about the Alpine School District build of
the playground and had been coordinating with her to schedule that opportunity.
Superintendent Jarman suggested that not only district staff but students as well could join forces
and build together. He also said they had some tools and skill sets that they could possibly
provide that would be helpful. He would contact Mr. Downs with further information.
Set Date and Time for Next
The next meeting was scheduled for August 31, 2016, at noon at Orem High School.
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - June 30, 2016 (p.5)


Mr. Seastrand moved to adjourn the meeting.Mr. Lentz seconded the motion.The motion
passed unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 1:23p.m.
OREM
CITYOF
CORPORATE
SEAL
maR.eanen
DonnaR.Weaver,CityRecorder
Approved:August9,2016
JointOremCityCouncil/AlpineSchoolDistrictMinutes-June30,2016（p.6)