With respect to forming an Orem-only college district, I used to be just lately inspired to “take a step into the darkish” and assist Proposition 2 upon which we’ll conclude voting right this moment. That’s, oddly, an acceptable strategy to describe the method pursued by proponents of this initiative. No effort has been made to collaborate, handle vital points, or depend the prices with dad and mom, educators or the Alpine college board. Whereas they declare that they’re “doing it for the children,” how does it serve our children when so little care is taken for his or her well-being?
Orem college students are presently higher served staying in Alpine District. Choices with different cities needs to be studied, however an Orem stand-alone district is the worst-case state of affairs. Right here’s why:
- With shrinking enrollments and glued constructing prices, Orem colleges are the most costly districtwide, costing on common $1,000 extra per scholar in overhead. Alpine augments our operations by greater than $20 million yearly, together with further lecturers to present college students full curricular choices and applications.
- Alpine has aggressively invested in new builds/enhancements for Orem colleges. Solely two seismically unfit colleges stay, however one other sequence of wants will observe.
- Particular schooling wants in Orem are excessive, counting on many providers solely accessible in different cities. Orem is extraordinarily shut (13.6%) to the 14% enrollment cap on state-reimbursable funds. Once more, Alpine presently dietary supplements this price range.
- Orem has the very best academically impacted demographic with vital language and low-income helps which are presently backfilled by Alpine.
- Orem lecturers are among the many most skilled districtwide. Eighty-four % say they are going to search to search out different positions in Alpine.
- Difficult boundaries with neighboring cities will disrupt households and decimate colleges.
It’s regarding that whereas proponents of Proposition 2 are advocating for smaller colleges and smaller class sizes in Orem, they’re on the identical time actively asking the general public to disclaim these very advantages to our college students in critically overcrowded colleges in different elements of the district. Voting for the Alpine bond is not going to overburden Orem residents, no matter what occurs with Prop 2. Orem has the potential to obtain $45 million to $50 million, or 7%-8% of the bond, and can proceed to obtain many advantages from capital investments from Alpine. We love our stunning colleges and I’m dedicated to aggressively updating each constructing.
These supporting a cut up are operating a well-financed marketing campaign based mostly on innuendo, deceit and false claims to drive their narrative. In my position as board member, sworn to the oversight of our colleges, I’ve been repeatedly accused of “spreading misinformation,” “inflicting disruption” locally and appearing on behalf of Alpine College District. Let me verify that I’ve acted effectively inside my rights as an elected consultant and my actions have been taken by myself initiative. On this eve of the election, I’ve no regrets and am grateful for a public that cares deeply about schooling and Orem’s youngsters. I want to proceed serving on the Alpine board as Orem’s advocate. Proposition 2 would critically compromise schooling in Orem. Vote NO to manage the way forward for our neighborhood colleges.
Ada Wilson is a member of the Alpine College District Board of Schooling and organizer of the Stronger Collectively political points committee.
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