Orem mayor feeling positive despite failure of Proposition 2

SALT LAKE CITY — Most of the voters in Orem that had a choice to approve Proposition 2 on Election Day, voted against it. It would have split the city of Orem from the Alpine School District and created the Orem School District instead.

By Wednesday evening, Utah County’s unofficial results page showed that nearly 72% of Orem voters said no to Prop 2.

Speaking with KSL NewsRadio’s Jeff Caplan on Wednesday, Orem Mayor David Young admitted he was disappointed. But he said he was feeling positive for getting the conversation started. 

“I think it’s, from my perspective, it’s very, very positive. In the way we put it out there, we had the conversation for the first time in history, we allowed Orem voters to vote on it. And we learned a lot in the process,” Young said.

While Young feels positive about starting the process, he reiterated his belief that some in the community were not providing accurate information to Orem voters about the proposed split.

That’s a reference to the Stronger Together Coalition, a group started by parents in the Alpine School District which was against Proposition 2. They believe the passage of the measure would have significantly raised taxes for homeowners in Orem.

“People did not understand the finances. They didn’t understand the test scores. They didn’t understand a lot of things that were issues in our school districts,” Young said.

Moving forward, Young hopes to have a conversation with Alpine District officials.

“If they want to, you know, want to have a conversation with us, we’re always happy to have a conversation.”

Related reading:

• Alpine School District will not split, according to preliminary results
• Complaints filed against Orem leaders amid Alpine School District split issue
• Orem City releases possible outcomes of a school district split

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