The Orem City Council may take up an effort to start a new school district, and now the city's neighbors appear to be interested in getting in on the deal.

After a group of residents asked the City Council at a meeting on Tuesday to perform a feasibility study on the issue, council member Dean Dickerson said his phone has been ringing -- sometimes with Lindon and Pleasant Grove residents on the other end.

"I haven't heard anything from elected officials, but the citizenry I've talked to seem to be very interested," Dickerson said.

Lindon City Council member Toby Bath said he's been getting calls from his constituents for the last couple of days.

"I think that it's an option that is well worthwhile for the people in the south end of the district to look at because, at this point, they are the ones that are actually financing all of the schools and everything on the north end," he said.

Orem's tax base pays for schools farther north, Bath said.

"I don't know that people here in Orem, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, American Fork area should have to pay out any more," he said. "The district's grown so big right now that it should be downsized in my opinion, and it would be a good idea for them to finance some of their own."

But Alpine School District spokeswoman Jerrilyn Mortensen said that in the 1980s when Orem was booming, other cities footed part of the bill.

"Now other areas are growing, and we are still one school district working for the good of all the children in the district," Mortensen said.

But Bath pointed out that Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs weren't chipping in then -- they didn't exist -- and said residents in the south part of the district aren't getting their fair share.

"They kind of paid their own way, and now they're paying everyone else's way," Bath said.

Barbara Petty, who's helping organize the effort for a new district, referred questions about the matter to Lindon and Pleasant Grove city councils.

"I'm really not in a position to make a decision as to whether we include any other cities in this district," she said.

The Orem City Council will likely address the issue of a feasibility study in a meeting later this month or in early June, following the custom of placing resident initiatives on the agenda, Dickerson said.

Organizers, who say the district is too big, unaccountable and unresponsive to parents' needs, are encouraging the city to take advantage of a new state law that lets cities poll voters about forming new districts.

But declining enrollment in Orem might make the district a tough sell. Over the past four years, 961 fewer students have enrolled in Orem schools -- almost the number of students who attend Orem Junior High School -- with no school closures in the city, Mortensen said.

Meanwhile, other parts of the district are growing.

"Given the efficiency that we have with use of dollars, which includes the lowest administrative costs in the nation, and with the opportunities available for parents to participate and have input, it's difficult to understand what benefits there could be to a new district, especially in an area where there is declining enrollment," she said.

Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said the issue is bound to get emotional, and it's best to know what residents want.

"Any time you talk about school schedules or boundaries or some of those issues that affect the daily lives of families, people really have strong feelings about it," Dayton said. "When you have a choice like on this particular issue to put it to the vote of the people, I think people will be more comfortable with what the final decision is."

Rep. David Cox, R-Lehi, sponsored the bill that created the new law. He said it puts the Alpine School District and the proponents of a new district on more equal footing than in 2004, when a push for a new school district inside Lehi High School's boundaries failed.

"All you needed was two county commissioners to say, 'No, we won't let the people vote on this.' The people never got a chance to hear both sides or to voice their opinion in a secret ballot," Cox said. "A small minority that was very vocal were able to completely dictate what happened."

Anna Chang-Yen can be reached at 344-2549 or annac@heraldextra.com.

Orem city schools enrollment

2002 18,496

2003 18,150

2004 17,704

2005 17,535

Source: Alpine School District

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.