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Bob Stratton

Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald

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John Stewart

Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald

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Allison Lopez

Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald

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Bowen Martin

Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald

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Matthew Newell

Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald

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“I think not. And the reason I think not is because Orem is landlocked, it’s not going to grow. And it costs so much more to provide the services. If you have two districts, you have to have two district offices, two district attendants, two people doing all the stuff for the federal government. You have to duplicate things and that will cost millions.” — Bob Stratton, Orem

“I think it would be good for Orem to have its own control over that, in regard to funding and everything. When you have control over your own stuff and you can make decisions for your own things, for me that’s one of the primary motivators in life. If you can be as independent as possible to make your own decisions, whether that’s at an individual scale, or your personal family, or larger, your city.” — John Stewart, Orem

“I can understand why they would want to be a little more independent and have a little more control over the funds that they receive and how they spend those funds. And then the taxing issue, that’s probably the biggest thing. My daughter just got a job with the Alpine School District, and where I came from, in Idaho, the school districts were much smaller, and I do remember her talking about the Alpine School District and how big it is. So, I am familiar with the smaller ones and that seems to make sense.” — Allison Lopez, Orem

“So, I am a former employee of Provo School District. I taught at Timpview High School as an internship just recently. And Provo school district is the smallest school district in Utah and it’s also the poorest. And because of that, they don’t have the same access to certain amenities, I guess you’d say, both for the employees and for the students. So, without knowing a lot about it, I would advocate to stay in a bigger school district, especially because Alpine is the wealthiest school district in the state of Utah.” — Bowen Martin, Orem

“My opinion is the Alpine School District sucks. We are very low on the totem pole by provisions and detail. Alpine School District is raising taxes. I think the taxes we already pay should be enough to not have to raise the taxes. If (Orem) can do better than what’s provided then they need to prove it to the public.” — Matthew Newell, Orem

Photos and interviews by Brigham Tomco, Special to the Daily Herald.

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