A strong connection: As school closures are considered, one Orem elementary cherishes its community
As school closures are considered, one Orem elementary cherishes its community
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- Orchard Elementary students ride their bikes to school Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Orem.
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- Eddie the Eagle and a parent participate in Orchard’s Bike Bus on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Orem.
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- Orchard Elementary students ride their bikes to school Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Orem.
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- Orchard Elementary students ride their bikes to school Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Orem.
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- Orem Mayor Karen McCandless (left from right) poses with parents during Orchard’s Bike Bus on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Orem.
At a quarter to eight, the caravan of elementary students arrived, riding their bicycles and wearing helmets and reflective gear.
As they waved to friends and chatted excitedly, the children stowed their gear, grabbed a donut, and shuffled into Orem’s Orchard Elementary School to begin their learning day.
This was the Bike Bus, a Friday tradition first started at Cascade Elementary School that was passed on to Orchard this year, where students and parents gather in a nearby neighborhood and ride together to the school. On this particular Friday morning, Orem Mayor Karen McCandless and Eddie the Eagle joined their ranks, adding a level of excitement to the proceedings.
The new tradition serves as a snapshot of a community that is cherishing its school in the face of an uncertain future.
The Timpanogos School District, which will absorb public schools in Orem, Pleasant Grove, Lindon and Vineyard from the existing Alpine School District when it dissolves on July 1, 2027, is facing difficult budget decisions due to declining school enrollment. The district said in a public letter last month that elementary enrollment across the four cities is almost identical to what it was in 1980, and that projections indicate 15 of the district’s 20 elementary schools will be outside the size ranges identified in its “Robust School Criteria” by 2030.
In August, the school board initiated closure studies for 13 schools, including Orchard Elementary. Board members said there is a possibility of closing three to five elementary schools and consolidating one of the junior highs.
“There are a lot of uncertainties coming up with the district changing, but we feel like they’re doing a great job in trying to help us navigate this and giving us all the information we need,” Orchard PTA President Stephanie Savage said. “We feel like we have a unique place here. We love being close to the junior high and having this huge campus that is easily accessible and that we can do things like Bike Bus here and we love it. We have our Dual Langauge Immersion program here, so a lot of these kids know Spanish, and we feel like at Orchard we just have a really strong community.”
Orchard is not alone in its consternation; each neighborhood feels a strong connection to its local school, its teachers, administration and location.
McCandless described schools as community centers, places where children can gain an education and socialize with their peers, while also providing a place for each neighborhood to gather.
“I know it’s hard,” McCandless said. “I know this school board’s got some tough decisions ahead, but we love our schools here. I love the Bike Bus and all the parents and teachers and everyone who gets involved and supports their schools.”
Board study sessions are taking place this month to discuss possible consolidations and boundary adjustments at various schools. This week, the board turned its attention to Lindon, Rocky Mountain, Aspen, and Bonneville elementary schools, as well as Oak Canyon Junior High.
In a public comment period Thursday, parents shared concerns about closing schools and fragmenting Lindon neighborhoods. Erin Dickerson said during the meeting that she moved her family to Lindon seven years ago because of the proximity to the schools and the programs available. She has children attending Oak Canyon and Lindon and described the schools as the “heart of the town.”
“If those two schools are closed, Lindon will be left with no high school, no junior high and a single elementary school. I would hate to see the town stripped of the culture and the identity that comes from our schools and I fear the domino effect that will cause families to choose to raise their families anywhere aside from Lindon. I fear we are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy regarding declining school enrollment by closing schools, increasing class sizes and reducing access to programs.”
Tyler Vigue, a spokesman for the Timpanogos School District, said the district is also holding “cluster meetings” for each school, where community members are invited to engage with board members in a setting more personable than a public comment session and share how potential changes would affect their families.
“We are very, very interested in community comments and participation,” Vigue said. “We want to know what they’re saying.”
At Orchard, parents feel like they have a thriving school in an ideal position. Savage said they like being next door to Canyon View Junior High, in a neighborhood that is easily accessible.
The school was just named a National PTA “School of Excellence,” and Savage said its principal, Sean Bowman, received the PTA Principal of the Year award last year. The school has a strong Spanish DLI program that has drawn more applicants than any other DLI in the district, Savage said.
She said the school and parents are working hard to cultivate the elementary school as a place of belonging, where kids can create good memories and enter junior high feeling strong and capable. There are planned activities, such as the Bike Bus or “Mingle in the Morning,” that give parents and students a chance to get to know each other.
“We’ve tried to connect families and parents,” Savage said. “We also have a parent-to-parent communication app, which is really unusual. We have 70% of our school on this app, so that parents can talk to each other instead of just school-to-parent communication. So that’s really made it so that families here have become friends, which means now we have a community, not just a place where we all drop off our kids.”
In boundary discussions, Savage said they’ve been linked as a likely pair with Foothill Elementary and that there is excitement about potentially combining forces and filling out the school size. Combining the schools would certainly make for a larger bike bus brigade.
Ultimately, though, much like any other parent at their respective school, Savage feels Orchard has a lot to offer and wants to hold on to the administration and teachers.
“That’s the tricky thing,” she said.
