Alpine School District moves forward with plans to build more schools
-
- This photo shows ongoing construction at the site of a new elementary school in Eagle Mountain.
-
- This rendering depicts the facade of a new elementary school being built in Eagle Mountain.
-
- This map shows new school boundaries in Eagle Mountain, as approved by the Alpine School District on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023.
At the Alpine School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, school board members adopted a resolution to authorize issuing lease revenue bonds to approve the debt for building a new middle school.
It was a long-awaited move, in some board members’ minds.
“If we’re going to have (the new middle school) open the fall of ’25, we need to start yesterday. We’ve already deferred for two years,” said Rob Smith.
Board member Julie King addressed concerns about moving forward with the lease revenue bonds after last fall’s $595 million bond ballot measure failed by saying, “One of the realities is that many of the projects … on our bond were not wants, they were needs. … We have projections that Frontier (Middle School) will be over 2,000 (students) and that at Cedar Valley High School we are approaching 4,000 students. … We have a responsibility to our taxpayers … (and) to our students. … We need to move forward so that we can provide for the students and fulfill our responsibility to them.”
Board member Joylin Lincoln elaborated by saying, “Safety is a top priority of this board. And when classrooms and hallways are so crowded that students can’t maneuver through them, we are putting their safety at risk. And we need to remedy that as much as we can. Sometimes our options aren’t fabulous or the best way to do it, but the need is there, and just because the bond failed doesn’t mean that growth failed.”
The council then voted on the resolution, which passed unanimously with no comment from the public.
Further on in the meeting, the public was shown a video update of the new Eagle Mountain elementary school’s progress by ASD Executive Director of Communications David Stephenson. The clip showed drone footage of the construction site in the Overland neighborhood and a digital mockup of what the school would look like once finished.
“Kimberly Bird and her team with operations have been hard at work at getting the new school in Eagle Mountain built,” Stephenson said. “You can see the gymnasium has the roof on top, that’s the white part, and the classrooms are being built down inside.”
Eagle Mountain City Public Information Officer Tyler Maffitt said the city regularly communicates with the school district “about the need for additional schools … (and) conducts a site plan approval prior to the start of construction.”
The new school, in addition to the new John Hancock Charter School, comes at a pivotal time as current schools have been dealing with a higher student enrollment than their buildings are capable of serving. The boundaries outlining which neighborhoods will attend which schools were also voted on and unanimously approved at the school board meeting.
“Placing a school in this area is anticipated to relieve school overcrowding and positively impact future traffic flows. Eagle Mountain also values the creation of additional education jobs and the impact that has on our local economy. Overall, the construction of this school, we believe, is a positive for Eagle Mountain,” Maffitt said.
