An effort to split the Alpine School District died on Tuesday night with a 3-4 vote of the Orem City Council.

Council members Mark Seastrand, Stephen Sandstrom, Les Campbell and Shiree Thurston voted against the ballot measure. Mayor Jerry Washburn and council members Karen McCandless and Dean Dickerson wanted to put the question on the ballot.

The council spent six hours weighing an effort that began with a petition presented at a council meeting in May by residents who wanted Orem to start its own school district. The Pleasant Grove City Council also debated the issue Tuesday, with council members deciding that it was not in Pleasant Grove's best interest financially or educationally to leave the Alpine district. They voted unanimously to deny the resolution to put the issue on the ballot.

"I have yet to hear one single compelling argument to put this item before the voters," said Pleasant Grove Councilman Lee Jensen. "I don't know of any organization, of any size, that doesn't have problems. I just feel that a new school district doesn't solve anything."

Pleasant Grove decided to join Orem several months ago in a feasibility study, after City Council members realized that many students attending Pleasant Grove schools were from adjoining cities that were looking at potentially seceding from the district.

Vineyard and Lindon are set to debate the issue today, but it's unclear if they'll go ahead with the debate now that Orem and Pleasant Grove voted against putting the issue on the ballot.

McCandless said the situation was not ideal, but she was interested in what Orem residents wanted. "I am frustrated that state law putting us in our current situation is so lacking," she said of HB 77, which allowed cities to poll residents about such splits. "I think the citizens of Orem should have the opportunity to voice their opinions at the polls. I only want what's best for our children."

Sandstrom said north county residents help pay for Orem schools and he hadn't heard any compelling reasons to leave. "If you look at either study, we are being subsidized right now by the northern part of the county," he said. "We are doing well in test scores, despite the Title I schools. It leads me to believe 'What is so wrong about the Alpine School Districtfi' "

In Orem, some audience members wore stickers reading "Let the people decide." After hearing on Thursday night two studies about the feasibility of the split, along with a legal analysis about how a new district would function on Tuesday night, council members decided voters would not get the issue.

The cities faced a Thursday deadline for adding questions to the Nov. 7 ballot, but even that deadline might have been a squeeze, said assistant city deputy attorney Greg Stephens. The county clerk would have had 45 days after the council's vote to make sure the proposal complied with state law, he said. "We have talked to the county clerk and they have agreed to do everything they can to expedite the process if the City Council OKs this," Stephens said before the vote, but he added that there were no guarantees.

Findings from the two studies on the issue were presented to members of the Pleasant Grove, Lindon and Orem city councils Thursday and took into account anticipated growth and financial costs of the split. But Pleasant Grove Mayor Michael W. Daniels said that while the report showed a minimal tax increase to homeowners, that was not really the issue at hand.

"What I feel brought this about was the perception by a large group that those elected are not listening to and following through for those whom they serve," Daniels said. "There is no way to get a detailed spreadsheet to tally this up. It is emotional and is individual preference."

Updated copies of the two studies were available at the Orem meeting, and an overflow area was set up outside the Orem council's small meeting room. About 175 people attended, spilling into the staircase in the lobby, and residents lined up at the microphone to talk about the proposal. One group presented a petition signed by more than 500 residents in favor of the split -- an addition to 1,000 signatures presented at the May meeting. Some complained of unresponsiveness from the Alpine School District and the need for more local control, while others said they had found the district responsive and thought their children were getting a good education in district schools.

The Orem council got a recap of the two studies -- one by consultant Mike Bennett and one written by an investment banking firm and commissioned by the city after Orem officials questioned some of the numbers in the first study. On the table where the documents were available before the meeting, Bennett's study was labeled as the feasibility study, while the second document was called a supplemental financial analysis.

Washburn defended the city's decision to get the supplemental analysis. "When it was preliminarily presented to the City Council, there were some obvious serious questions in that feasibility study in one instance to the tune of some $30 million a year. We looked at our obligation as to present a credible feasibility study, not just a feasibility study, but something that we and whomever else is going to be evaluating it can base some decision on."

Alpine district officials including superintendent Vernon Henshaw, business administrator Rob Smith, Board of Education president JoDee Sundberg and board members Debbie Taylor and Andrea Forsyth were in the Orem audience for the debate.

Taylor read a statement on behalf of herself, Sundberg and Forsyth. She listed district programs to enhance student achievement and said, "In our judgment, after much study and evaluation, we firmly believe the best interests of the children of Orem are being served by the Alpine School District."

Alpine Board of Education member Guy Fugal was at the Pleasant Grove meeting and said he believes the issue was brought to the forefront because there are some who may not be getting what they want from the school board.

"I know that the district has some problems, but we are willing to listen to residents on what they feel we are doing wrong," said Fugal. "In the 14 years that I have served, this is the best staff, and to say we want to create another district and try to duplicate what we already have will be a loss."

Stephens told council members the new district could be without a functioning school board for more than a year under state law. Alpine district board members living within the new district would serve the remainder of their terms on a new board, and new members would be selected during the next general election and begin serving the following January.

State representatives Brad Daw, R-Orem, and David Cox, R-Lehi, said they were working on ways to make transitions smoother for new school districts, and Daw said new laws could be passed in as little as a month.

Correspondent Brenda Armstrong contributed to this report.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.