City Council · 2018-05-16

OREMCITYCOUNCIL/ALPINESCHOOLDISTRICT
SPECIALJOINTMEETING
56 North State, Orem, Utah
May 16, 2018
This meeting was for discussion purposes only. No official action was taken.
CONDUCTING Mayor Richard F. Brunst
OREMELECTED OFFICIALS Councilmembers Debby Lauret, Sam Lentz, and
Brent Sumner
OREMSTAFF Jamie Davidson, City Manager; Brenn Bybee,
Assistant City Manager; Steven Downs, Assistant
City Manager; Karl Hirst, Recreation Director; and
Jackie Lambert, Deputy City Recorder
ALPINEBOARDOFEDUCATION Mark Clement, Sara Hacken, Paula Hill, and JoDee
Sundberg
ALPINESCHOOLDISTRICTADMIN. Sam Jarman, Superintendent; Rob Smith, Assistant
Superintendent; and Jess Christen, Admin of
Operations
Councilmembers Tom Macdonald, Mark Seastrand,
EXCUSED
and David Spencer; Board member John Burton
Mayor Brunst called the meeting to order at 12:03 p.m. He asked Mrs. Lauret to provide a
blessing on the food.
Items of Common Interest
DISCUSSION -Alpine School District Updates
Superintendent Jarman reviewed the locations, dates, and times for the graduation ceremonies for
Orem's threehigh schools:
Timpanogos High School - May 30"h at 9:00 a.m. - BYU's Marriott Center in Provo
   n s - d o    -    
Orem High School -- May 31" at 1:30 p.m. - UVU's UCCU Events Center in Orem
In response to Mrs. Lauret's question, Superintendent Jarman said there were approximately
5,500 students graduating district-wide, with a graduation rate at around 91 percent. He did not
necessarily have a breakdown of how many students were graduating from each of Orem's high
schools.
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes -May 16,2018 (p.1)


Superintendent Jarman said construction would shortly begin on the new elementary school that
would combine from the Scera Park and Hillcrest elementary schools. He said a principal would
be named in the coming weeks and the process of selecting a new name, mascot, colors, etc.
would commence. There would be a committee established to determine the new school's
information, but ultimately the school board would have final say. In response to a question from
Mayor Brunst, Superintendent Jarman said there would be space in the new school for
memorabilia honoring the old schools.
Mr. Christen provided information about the footprint of the new school, the fencing and barriers
that would be put in, the parent drop-off zone, and the projected finish date. He said the goal was
to complete the project July-August of 2019, with parking and landscaping following. Mrs.
Sundberg added that the district had been in contact with the SCERA regarding anything
affecting the Shell for the summer season, though the summer of 2019 may have more
disruption. They were looking at ways to mitigate those issues.
Mr. Davidson said the City and the district had been discussing all of these issues, as well as the
alignment, pedestrian crosswalks, and ingress and egress solutions. Mr. Smith added that they
had met with City Engineer Sam Kelly to discuss access easement solutions, and were
             
working hard to ensure that no Orem summertime activities would be impacted.
There was continued discussion about alignment of the school project, upgrades and changes to
the park and play structures, building and road construction timelines, and parking.
Superintendent Jarman said they would be reconfiguring the parking lot to accommodate
approximately 177 parking stalls, which would help the SCERA Shell for evening events.
Mr. Christen advised that the Cascade students would be housed at the Hillcrest location while
Cascade was rebuilt. That was the option parents had preferred when the district reached out.
Superintendent Jarman said the Hillcrest property would likely be rebuilt as a district-wide K-12
STEM/Innovation Learning Center.
DISCUSSION - Safety in Schools and Gang Activity
Mrs. Hacken told of a teacher at Westmore Elementary that had a new student from out of state
who was involved with a gang. She wondered about the City's policies regarding gang activity.
Mr. Davidson said Chief Giles and the Orem Police Department (OPD) were well aware of
which gangs operated in the city and who their leaders were. School Resource Officers (SROs)
were also highly involved in monitoring for signs of gang activity and handling gang-related
incidents. He continued that social media was also being used in gang activity now, and OPD
monitoredthatasbesttheycould.
Mr. Hirst, who had previously served as a police officer, said he had not seen an uptick in gang
activity. He said graffiti was happening, which was usually one of the early signs, but everything
had been seemingly normal and had not heard of any increase in gang activity.
Mrs. Lauret asked about Alpine School District's philosophy when it came to arming teachers,
which had been a national topic of discussion. Superintendent Jarman said some teachers had
concealed weapons permits, and they were required to follow all the laws and regulations that
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - May 16, 2018 (p.2)


came with that permit including keeping the weapon on their person and not giving students or
others the opportunity to take control of the weapon. He said they were not going to be a district
where gun training would be put in place. In response to a question about lockdown procedures
during an active shooter scenario, Superintendent Jarman said that district policy included
teachers gathering students from the hallways into classrooms, and they would then have the
opportunity to lock the door if the lock was on the outside.
DISCUSSION - Traffic and Orem Roadways
Mrs. Sundberg thanked the City for installing a stop sign on 400 South at a busy intersection.
She said it had made a world of difference, though there were still some drivers unaware of the
new addition of the stop sign and they would run through it. Mr. Davidson said that was
unfortunately a typical problem in an area with a new traffic control device, but drivers would
get used to it. He said the intersection in question was a future candidate for a traffic signal.
Note: Mrs. Hill left the meeting at 12:45 p.m.
There was continued discussion on traffic through the City during peak times. Because Orem had
four interchanges with I-15, Orem was a sort of hub for drivers to reach Geneva Road or I-15.
That sometimes pushed traffic onto arterial roads like 4oo South as drivers looked for alternative
routes to the collector corridors.
DISCUSSION - Orem School Upgrades
Mr. Clement said there were modifications and upgrades to Mountain View High School
(MVHS) that would be ready for the new school year starting Fall 2018. He said there would be
upgrades to the security systems and cameras, as well as a remodel of the locker rooms. The
locker rooms had been the sight of the stabbing incident in late 2016 and some of the students
involved still had emotional responses when they had to enter the locker rooms.
Mr. Davidson asked if the construction work he had seen at and around MVHS was part of those
upgrades. Mr. Christen said they had been laying footing for an elevator, along with other
projects around the fine arts area and the new greenhouse out behind the school near the LDS
Seminary building.
Superintendent Jarman added that Timpanogos High School (THS) had a new roof, a project that
cost approximately $4 million and would give the roof a long life-span. It was hard to believe
THS was already more than 20 years old.
Mr. Davidson said Orem City was entering the summer construction equipment and they had
sincerely tried to coordinate their projects and the mobilizing of equipment not to interfere with
the beginning or ending of the school year. He asked that the district let him know if there were
any problems they encountered in regards to construction projects.
DISCUSSION -Alpine School District Board and Bonds
Mayor Brunst asked which board members were going to run in the coming election.
Superintendent Jarman said that Board Chair John Burton, Board Members JoDee Sundberg,
Joint Orem City Council/Alpine School District Minutes - May 16, 2018 (p.3)


Paula Hill, and Wendy Hart would all be leaving the board and four new members would be
elected. Mrs. Sundberg said there were excellent candidates in every area, including three for her
seat.
Mayor Brunst asked about the process the district went through for bonds. He said Orem was
considering a bond for capital improvements in the 2018 General Election, which would capture
needed funding without a tax increase. Superintendent Jarman said they had a packet they shared
with other entities interested in bonding that included hard copies and a USB drive with digital
copies of all the documents used in their process. Superintendent Jarman added that the most
likelydatefor thenextASDbondwould be2020.
Mr. Davidson commented that they had reached out to Alpine School District staff Kimberly
Bird and David Stephenson about the public relations and market aspects of the process. Mr.
Downs said he would follow up with Ms. Bird about the packet Superintendent Jarman had
mentioned.
There was continued discussion on bond cycles and public outreach, as well as changes related to
recent legislation from the Utah Legislature.
DISCUSSION - Orem Referendum and Initiative Petitions
Mr. Davidson said Orem had received a petition application for an initiative. The intention of the
initiative was to limit or eliminate high density housing developments within a 1,500 foot radius
of any K-12 school in the city. He said there were a lot of schools in Orem and staff was
currently working on a map that would show which properties would be impacted; the current
information was that approximately 12,000 lots would be impacted. He said they did not believe
this was good policy, but believed the initiative was tied to the angst of the recent student
housing development proposed near UVU and Lakeridge Junior High. That project had gone
through a referendum process and had secured enough signatures to put the item on the ballot for
the 2019 General Election.
Mr. Davidson said high density was an issue all over the state and nationwide, and not unique to
Orem. He said the concern of an initiative like this was the unintended consequences that could
follow, such as eliminating areas where density would be best suited and pushing those projects
into areas that had traditionally been single-family neighborhoods. One frustration was that
people were not understanding or willing to admit that roughly 75 percent of the projected
growth was coming from growing households, not out of state move-ins. The representation was
that the initiative was moving forward to protect the kids, but he felt this was more a solution
looking for a problem. Mr. Davidson said the initiative petitioners would have approximately
300 days to collect 3,000+ signatures.
There was continued discussion on high density housing projects, the timeline of the referendum
item appearing on the ballot, and response from UVU regarding the student housing project area.
Mrs. Sundberg said she had heard from some that they would prefer that UVU purchase the land
and build a parking structure. She said that made little to no sense because a parking structure
would likely produce more traffic than a residential project. Mr. Davidson agreed that support for
that option was confusing.
Joint OremCityCouncil/AlpincSchoolDistrict Minutcs-May16,2018(p.4)


Mayor Brunst said there were many conversations about the future of that project area, and it
washardtosaywhatwouldactuallyhappen.
Note:SuperintendentJarmanandMr.Christenleftthemeetingat1:09p.m.
There was continued discussion about density and its effects.Mr.Davidson mentioned that a
recent change during the Utah Legislative session took $175,000 away from the City and sent it
toSalt Lake to address homelessness. That meant that the City was unable to direct that money
toitsownresourcestoaddresshomelessness.
SetDateandTimeforNext
The nextmeeting was scheduledfor September 12,2018,at noon at MVHSto allow the City
Council to see the new upgrades to the school.
Note:TheUtahLeagueofCitiesand TownsAnnual ConferencebeganonSeptember12,2018,
sotheJointMeetingwasrescheduledtoSeptember19,2018atnoonatMVHS.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 1:15p.m.
OREM
CITYOF
CORPORATE
SEAL
oDluBato
JoD'AmmBates,CityRecorder
Approved:June19,2018
JointOremCityCouncil/AlpineSchoolDistrictMinutes-May16,2018（p.5)