Vineyard's not quite ready to hop onto the Orem School District bandwagon just yet, even though their options could be limited by what other cities do.

The Town Council on Wednesday night asked for more information about the feasibility before giving its support, and possibly money, to the study looking at Orem and surrounding communities breaking off from Alpine School District.

"I personally, I'm not ready to throw my hat in the ring until I have a bigger understanding of why everybody's so bent out of shape about Alpine School District," Councilman Nathan Riley said.

He worried about the additional costs of a new school district, including the cost of administrators. Both he and Mayor Randy Farnworth also wondered if the unbalanced growth of the district was affecting the decision as new schools in the north end take more of the tax dollars.

"At one point Orem city was the mecca of that growth, and Orem city got the majority of that," Riley said. "That seems to make sense that you would experience some of that throughout a district-wide area."

Town Planner Jennifer Robison said Salt Lake County was experiencing similar questions as a couple of cities explored the new law allowing cities to take school district queries to the ballot instead of the county. The law was passed this year and authored by Rep. David Cox, R-Lehi, after a failed attempt two years ago to break off the boundaries of Lehi High School from the Alpine district.

"There's benefits and trade-offs on both things," Robison said, adding that while a smaller district might mean fewer class offerings and more administrative costs, it also brings control and representation closer to the community level.

"The community is the one that supports school things and those type of things," she said.

Riley also pointed out that the $230 million bond that the Alpine district will put on the November ballot, possibly along with a vote on the school district question, would still pay for the renovation of Orem High School as planned, even if the district splits.

"I kinda wondered if it's maybe more of a scare tactic to try and get Alpine School District to be more responsive to concerns," he said.

The council opted to have Farnworth go back to Orem to get some answers before making a decision on the study, which has already begun and should be completed by July. When the Orem City Council commissioned the study, members set an unofficial deadline of each interested city's next council meeting to decide if they wanted to be involved.

Should a new district be formed that includes both Orem and Lindon, Vineyard may not have a choice in being part of the new district. The law forbids creating "islands" in school districts, and if those cities broke off without Vineyard it would become an island.

Heidi Toth can be reached at 344-2543 or htoth@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C1.