Opposition to Splitting

Recently, Stronger Together (a group that was formed to oppose the Orem Prop 2 split) has created 2 Political Issues Committees (PICs): One to oppose the West District initiative and the other to oppose the Central. This Lehi Free Press article has some important information I highly suggest reading first.

Key takeaways:

• All the officers of the PICs are the same, and all reside in Orem.
  • This actually says that they were unable to find anyone who lives in the 10 cities that feels strongly enough in opposition that they would put their name out there. This is actually a good sign that the propositions have broad and vast support in those areas.
• Many of the people behind Stronger Together have ties to the district.
  • This raises questions of conflicts of interest for these individuals. Why are these people so intent on keeping the district together?
• Quote from the opposition: “We think this is not the best time or way to do [a split of ASD].”
  • The fact is, this group has never and will never agree on any way to divide the district. There have been multiple options presented over the last several years, and all have been rejected. There is no perfect way or perfect time to divide the district. They only use this line of reasoning to delay and/or prevent the split from happening.
• “Our goal is to inform voters and encourage a better process for this decision”
  • Encourage what better process? They have yet to present an option for dividing that they will actually support.

The best part of the article came from AnnMarie Gordon:

“For the first time this fall, voters can decide for themselves to create a new school district.”

“Our six local city councils each voted unanimously to put this proposition on the ballot because they recognized it would enable much better representation on important issues, increase funding at our schools, and facilitate lower taxes. The new school district will be strong, stable and efficient, as the sixth largest in Utah and larger than 99% of districts nationally. Stronger Together, a small group of residents in Orem, apparently want to confuse voters. However, just as voters in this area should not decide which, if any, schools are closed in Orem, residents in Orem should also not attempt to interfere with our voters’ decision-making.”