The board voted unanimously to close the study on Lehi Elementary and keep the school open another year, though more discussion was had with the others. The board voted 4-3 to close the studies for Lindon and Windsor.

Kimberly A. Bird, executive director of internal relations and operations for Alpine School District, said Lehi did not warrant a longer discussion because there are no schools, at the moment, that can handle the school’s population. At Lindon and Windsor, though, surrounding schools would be able to accommodate the incoming students.

“Whatever we vote tonight is not the end. It cannot be the end. It has got to be a pause. A significant pause, but it’s got to only be a pause, does that make sense? Because these needs are still there and there were reasons why we have ever talked about closing these schools, good reasons, lots of good reasons, and those reasons still exist,” said Sara Hacken, ASD board member from Orem.

The staff recommendation was to close the studies in an effort to provide more time to conduct other studies for programs such as the Advanced Learning Lab and Dual Language Immersion programs. Bird said these studies, still to be conducted, will include analyzing the accessibility of these programs across the district, accessibility for students with special needs and the possibility of all-day kindergarten.

“We’re seeing a cluster of program accessibility. It is not equally distributed throughout the district. As was mentioned today, Lehi, that one part of Lehi, doesn’t have any,” Bird said.

She said these studies will analyze how the programs are distributed across the district in an effort to create equal accessibility by possibly shifting the programs to other schools. No decisions have been made, but closing the formal study delays a decision on school closures until the program studies are completed.

Bird said the number of students enrolled within the boundary for Lehi elementary is far less than the number coming from other schools for DLI. She said the in-boundary students could fit into Rocky Mountain Elementary.

“Everybody has their needs, and we want to make sure our special ed kids are having fewer transitions. That’s our goal. The DLI and the ALL — we just want to make sure that there’s more opportunities for kids to access,” Bird said.

There are 84,000 students in Alpine School District, the largest in the state. Because of this, board members said, resources are important and decisions should be made for the district as a whole.

“As I look at this school, [Lindon Elementary] the situation hasn’t changed. It’s just kicking the can down the road to make a hard decision,” Hacken said “Whatever we do tonight, you need to be aware the needs are still there. And action will still have to happen at some point. If not tonight then when, when and how.”

Members voting against the closure did so in effort to not delay discussions that will still need to be held. Joylin Lincoln, ASD board member representing Lehi and Saratoga Springs, referenced her 2022 campaign for the board while discussing the future of Lindon elementary.

“I would look at student outcomes because we’re a school board and I want to provide the best opportunities for students. I would look at school safety because it is imperative that we keep our students safe and I would be accountable to our taxpayers because the funding for our schools it doesn’t come easy it comes on the backs of each of us,” Lincoln said.

Hacken said closing the schools would also allow the board to focus on more urgent needs, such as building and repairing high schools.

“I would like to just make a general comment that with the failure of the bond, that limited the capacity of the Alpine School District to meet the urgent capital needs of this district,” Hacken said, referencing the $595 million bond that was unsuccessful in the 2022 General Election.

Despite differing opinions, council members agreed that discussions on school futures should be public so members of the community can listen to board perspectives and voice their own opinions.

“Without knowing the details and spending as many hours as our board does studying things. For the average citizen, it’s not fair, because I don’t think they have and understand all of the information,” Bird said.