2019 Election- $150 MIL School Bond

Scroll down to see all GRAMA requests from the Wasatch School District on the 2019 proposed school bond. We have been trying for 12 months after the failed bond election to get some info that we wanted last summer, before the bond election. We received some info in January 2020, but realized the school board omitted a very important report. Older GRAMA requests are further down the page. 

10-24-2020- After 10 months of determination, WTPA finally has the Biowest document that other school districts in the state would have released immediately, back in January.  It was released by the Wasatch School District, along with the Army Corps report. Here are the 2 documents-  BioWest Wetlands Study- released 10-23-20  Army Corps Study- N Fields HS land   KPCW REPORT 10-30-20   KPCW Interview- 9-21-20  

Our WASATCH WAVE- Letters to the Editor – 10-7-20 (Click pics to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter to the Editor – 10-28-20

 

10-28-20 Interlocal Meeting- After the disastrous attempt a month earlier to satisfy Wasatch County officials’ questions (and our above letters to the editor) the Wasatch School Superintendent, engineer, and some school board members did show up to this follow-up meeting scheduled by the county officials. The school district finally gave a presentation long overdue. Go to 50:00 into recording to hear the full discussion (also at 1:10:30 into recording, Paul Sweat explains the process moving forward and the “Future Schools” advisory committee’s key involvement in any future decisions.)

9-28-20- Interlocal meeting- Wasatch County officials asked the school board to attend this meeting (and notification emails for the mtg did show that members of the school board WERE notified twice in advance) and answer questions as to why they were making the Wasatch Taxpayers Association go to district court after the State Records Committee required the school district to release Army Corps documents to the public, and they were appealing the decision. John Moss was sent by school board to answer questions instead, and he was not prepared to answer most of them. Go to 2:23:30 into recording to hear this discussion.

9-24-2020-  The Wasatch School District decides to take WTPA, and the citizens of our community, to District Court to appeal! I guess it really doesn’t matter what the citizens want, or the State Records Committee decides, the Wasatch School District will spend OUR tax money on attorneys to keep this document hidden.   WSD- Notice of Intent to Appeal-District Court    Email your school board representatives if you do not want more of OUR tax money spent on this transparency failure.    Here are their emails- https://www.wasatch.edu/Domain/1870   Send an email to ALL board members, not just your own. (There’s a district map after their names) 

KPCW REPORT 9-21-20

More to come….

8-13-2020- NEW!!!!  WTPA won our appeal- read the decision here: State Records Committee- Decision and Order 8-24-20    The State Records Committee decided that Wasatch School District had to release the Bio-West WETLANDS Delineation Report to the citizens.  Listen to our complaint here (starts about 30 minutes into recording) and the Wasatch School District’s ATTORNEY argued against it’s release- WSD argument to NOT release document.  Here’s the info we supplied to the committee for are case- WTPA- GRAMA Appeal and Our Details of Case      BioWest invoice wetlands 5-31-1 9   BioWest Contract- WSD 5-16-2019  Now the school district has to release document within 30 days or appeal to the District Court.  We request that this document be released NOW, and the school district not spend any more taxpayer funds (by hiring an attorney to district court) to fight being transparent to the very taxpayers paying their bills.

5-22-2020- The WTPA has to appeal a GRAMA request clear to the State Records Committee in August 2020, because the Wasatch School District has denied us one document by Bio-West Engineers that may show how many wetlands are on the new North Fields property the school board purchased last year.  We received the Bio-West and WSD contract and noticed this requested document is included in the first part of a 4 part agreement, so it should be released to the public. BioWest Contract- WSD 5-16-2019 

3-1-2020  We had to GRAMA request again GRAMA request 2-13-2020 to get a specific evaluation & inspection that we found out, through the grapevine, had been omitted by the school district in our last GRAMA request below (1-27-2020)–  see below: ” **** Engineer’s Invoices”. Unfortunately, we had to find out from others this was omitted. Bio-West Engineers did a “Wetlands Delineation Map” for our school board in May 2019. Invoice:  Bio-West invoice wetlands 5-31-19 was given to us by the school district, but they denied the release of a copy of this “Wetlands Delineation Map” to the public. WHY???  There is no good reason to keep this document from the taxpayers, who paid for it. What does that Bio-West Map show on their newly purchased North Fields property, and why can’t the public see it?  Another concern is that the public was told in the summer of 2019, that this is the document that summarized the evaluations of the North Fields property- https://www.wasatch.edu/domain/2198 .    The costs of mitigating acres of wetlands would be astronomical, because the school district (us) would have to pay annually, in perpetuity to mitigate these wetlands. (see below under #3)  Here’s the school district’s GRAMA response to us, via email: (RED- their reason) (PURPLE- our commentary)

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1-27-2020  After 6 months of repeatedly GRAMA requesting the Wasatch School District for information on the North Fields high school property involved in the 2019 $150 MIL School Bond, we have received some information from our latest request: WSD-GRAMA request 1-8-2020

The school district put most of these documents on their website as a response to our Grama request, after our constant requests for it’s release to the public since last summer. The public had a right to see these documents BEFORE the November 2019 election, but we’ll share them now. There is major concern for the $6.2 MIL for 50-60 acres price tag ($124K an acre) on the North Fields Land. Here’s a recent property report of sold North Fields’ parcels, showing between $30K and $60K an acre: North Fields Land Comps

 ****  Engineer’s invoices -All invoices paid by school district for inspections and evaluations of property. 

Evaluations and inspections done for North Field’s property:

Biological study for HS     Cultural resources study    Geotech study     Water report      Berg- delineation report summary     Traffic Study- west Heber    Traffic study contract 

North Fields land appraisal Done by© 2019 COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL VALUATION & ADVISORY SERVICES.   One needs to analyze this appraisal to ascertain if a reasonable value was determined. Some of these parcels were sold without water, did the appraisal take THAT into account?   Map of properties-NF Parcel-Appraisal Map  Here is a list of each parcel, and acreage:

PARCEL              OWNERSHIP                               ACRES
00-0005-7021   Robyn Probst                              3.28 ac
00-0005-7039    Heber City Corp.                        2.02 ac
00-0005-7047   MJS Real Properties                   14.68 ac
00-0008-0205   ZEBS LLC                                    14.50 ac
00-0008-0262   Mountain View Fellowship     3.64 ac
00-0008-0189   Mountain View Fellowship       5.00 ac
00-0020-1934    Probst Tile & Marble Co.            1.14  ac
00-0008-0239   Probst Robert T                        14.08 ac
00-0008-0221   Probst Tile & Marble Co.          5.21 ac

***Separate Purchase contracts for North Field’s land, click on name to see full contract – This is how much these landowners charged the local taxpayers for their land. 

TimpView Investments signed March 6, 2019, 14.50 acres, $85,000 an acre, NO WATER, 50% of money due by February 28, 2020- not sure what’s been paid so far. 

 Robert Probst tile signed March 8, 2019, 20.43 acres, $121,000 an acre, WATER-106 shares of Spring Creek, 50% of money due by February 28, 2020- not sure what’s been paid so far. 

 Redgie (Robyn?) Probst  signed May 30, 2019, 3.28 acres, $140,000 an acre, NO WATER, 100% of money due by Closing- whenever that was.

A.W.Hardy(MJS?) Family   signed April 1, 2019, 14.68 acres, $92,000 an acre, NO WATER, 50% of money due by February 28, 2020- not sure what’s been paid so far. 

 Mtn View Fellowship   signed April 5, 2019, 8.64 acres (sell only 6.5 acres?), $84,000 an acre, NO WATER, 100% of money due by Closing- whenever that was. 

Heber City Daniels Rd – Land trade with Heber City. Heber City Staff Report on Land Swap  11.12.19

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ELECTION RESULTS! The public voted down the school bond by some 1300 votes.  2019 General Election Results

AGAINST THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS  (NO) 5,320   56.73%
FOR THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS   (YES)        4,058   43.27%
Total Votes Cast                                               9,378       100.00%
Contest Totals                9,472

Here is some last minute info dropped by the Wasatch School District just prior to the election.  WCSD Survey Results Presentation 10-19       Traffic Study- Heber High School TIS      This next document was released after we GRAMA requested the Army Corps of Engineer’s study of the North Fields land. Instead of releasing the report we asked for, they released this vague summary of the engineer’s study findings. Berg- delineation report summary  After all, the school board themselves told other public officials at their Aug 8, 2019 Interlocal meeting (scroll down for that info) that they HAD been communicating with the Army Corps to get the land approved for building. After WE called the Army Corps ourselves, once we had heard from the public that the school district had actually PURCHASED some of the parcels only weeks before the bond election, we found out that the Army Corps had NO IDEA the school district was considering developing out in the North Fields area. Here’s the email we requested they send to us to verify they had not known of their plans:

$150 million School Bond Info that you may not have heard from the Wasatch School District (WSD).

Included below are actual documents FROM the Wasatch School District, the Utah State Office of Education, UDOT, Wasatch County website, newspaper articles, radio interviews, or videos of actual meetings where people spoke in their own words. The school board has commented that they believe our research is incorrect, and so it has been repeated by others. Please read these factual documents and form your own opinion. Thank you.

***** Are you aware that our current capital debt compared to the other school districts, per capita and per student costs, is one of the highest in the state?  WSD 2020- debt STATE comparison WTPA Wasatch School’s DEBT per capita is currently fifth of all Utah districts. (click on chart to enlarge). With the proposed new building construction of $150 MIL it will be, far and away, FIRST. In debt. See this – School Dist Debt per capita (Several districts report NO Debt???)   –Here’s a disturbing 2017 letter from the state that shows their analysis of  WSD debt vs. debt limit that was 54%, and the state average was 25.3%  Utah State Bd of Ed- Wasatch Bonding capacity 4-8-17   Let’s not forget that we are all paying the interest on this debt, too.  And what happens if we have another recession? Well, your taxes individually will increase due to the overall decrease in value of everyone’s property. The tax rates adjust up or down when the value goes down or up. That should be of concern to every taxpayer, especially our local mom & pop businesses.  They pay taxes on 100% of property value, where residential homes are taxed on 55% of value. 

(Click on our county-wide mailer to enlarge and read) Some people did not get one!

 

 

 

 

 

Our enrollment is around 7,000 students, and we have about 34,000 residents in Wasatch County.  $237 mil (just for the school district bonds) is too much debt for such a small community. We know we’re growing, but other school districts our size have only 1 high school. The school board needs to supply citizens with options, price considerations, and answer why the bond itself is so high. 

**** 10-10-19 A great debate was given by the Midway Boosters. Here’s the presentation given by Chris Crittenden on another option to achieve housing 3600 high school students that’s only $10 MIL, and better options for Midway Elementary. It’s well worth the 3 minutes to read!! Crittenden presentation- Midway debate  The debate video is  on Midway City’s Facebook Page.

Other school districts’ citizens are given OPTIONS on how to accomplish issues facing their community. Not us, we get one choice, then decide whether to vote for it or not. See Park City, PCSD- public input timeline 2019      PCSD- public input presentation 2019  and how their school district has been working with citizens for 2 years since the public voted AGAINST their school bond.    KPCW report part 1   KPCW report part 2   KPCW report part 3   South Summit School District had to change their plan on what to bond for this year. Their citizens voted down their bond last year, and couldn’t afford both a high school and an elementary. KPCW report part 1   

****Where to find costs of other schools that we compare our bond to-  2018- Capital Outlay Report By Project Number     Wasatch School District webpage where you’ll find their bond numbers

****Here are the articles discussing how Corner Canyon High School (Draper) is spending less than $10 MIL on their addition.  Corner Canyon High adds new classrooms, lunchroom -1-2019 Draper Journal       Corner Canyon High expansion completed by next school year- 10-2018 Draper Journal   

**** Does Midway Elementary really need to be demolished when we supposedly are in dire need of schools? Why can’t we repair and renovate this school to save $23 mil? A school board member this summer said that they didn’t renovate the cafeteria because they didn’t want to waste $500K when they were going to build a new one for $23 MIL. Do YOU run your household this way? Forego the affordable repair to buy a brand new Mercedes? Could you afford this kind of thought process with your own bank account? We have talked to some Midway parents and teachers and they said the repairs needed are being exaggerated and that they would rather stay put. We’re just saying, it’s not a total consensus on this new school plan.

 

 

Enrollment Numbers per school 

 

 

 

 ⇐Read Mayor’s Corner article (click to enlarge). All Mayors of Wasatch County signed a letter to express their opinion.

The Davis Demographic Study done by the school district shows a different slant, coming from California, and not knowing our community or state.  Here’s another report done in 2017 by the Kem Gardner Institute about Wasatch County’s growth. It paints a much different picture than Davis Demographics. Kem-C.-Gardner-Wasatch 2017

Where was the public input BEFORE the parcels of land were chosen? Some public officials are already very unhappy with where the new high school would go, right where the proposed bypass road was being considered, BYPASS- NW route open house FEB 2019  and next to the ONLY exit on that Bypass on Midway Lane. (See Aug 8th Interlocal meeting post below) Traffic would be horrendous. Why have we not required a traffic study done on this high school location?? And UDOT just said in the spring of 2019 that they won’t have possible routes decided for at least a year and a half. This school location should wait until after the bypass route is determined because we’re running out of options for the bypass. 

 

**** There is major concern for the $6.2 MIL for 50 acres price tag ($124K an acre) on the North Fields Land. Here’s a recent property report of sold North Fields’ parcels, showing between $30K and $60K an acre- North Fields Solds. We are also concerned about how this will affect the $10 MIL Open Space Bond the voters passed last November, and if this sale will affect future conservation efforts by artificially raising values in the North Fields. 

   ——– TRANSPARENCY???? ——–

Why do we have to GRAMA request information (public documents) that other school districts release without being asked??? We GRAMA requested the high school land appraisal that the school board said supported this price, but they refused to release it denial – appraisals to us (and the public). Explanation in this KPCW report.  In their school bond public hearing meeting, the school superintendent responded to our concerns of not releasing it by saying their denial was based on there being 6 different landowners and that some may see what the others got, plus the parcels had not been purchased yet. That’s even more concerning. So some landowners got $60K- and some got $175K? Who knows….  But now we have discovered at least 3 parcels have closed, so we went back in to the school district to get those actual contracts (now that they sold) and the appraisals.  We are waiting to hear back on our expedited response of 5 days.

Also, a school board member brought up the inevitable annexation of this land (which Heber City has put on hold until the results of the bond because they are not in total agreement that this is a good location. Heber planning commission chair in July said he would not support it, read page 4 of minutes attached in the link.) Land speculation should not be in the job description of the school board. They are using our tax dollars to raise the land values based on FUTURE developments and possible development approvals. They’ve admitted that’s how the appraiser got to the price, which usually they only appraise at current values.

We also GRAMA requested the recent citizen’s survey (the questions asked, the results, how many people took it, how were the sample group chosen, total participants of focus groups, and those results) conducted by the school board months ago that supposedly supported the decision to put this bond on the ballot, but the school district denied releasing  denial – y2 survey this to the public also.  At the top of this page we posted that the school district finally released the results of the survey, but NOT the other parts of our GRAMA request.  — Another weak explanation in this KPCW report.

Here’s the code the school district cited as their reason to deny, not correct! denial appraisal and survey- STATE GRAMA CODE 9-17-19  It clearly says “UNLESS” info (appraisal) has been disclosed. We know the location and price already. Also, there is a “weighting provision” that the Utah State Records Committee (where we have gone before to appeal denied GRAMA requests) uses to decide if the public benefit of releasing of the documents to the public far outweigh the privacy of the landowners. It most definitely benefits the public more to know whether they are outrageously being charged for this property.   Also, for survey denial, it’s still in DRAFT form and has not been formally presented to the board yet? Is it right that the school board has decided to put the $150 MIL bond on the ballot IF the survey isn’t completed? Or are they just denying it’s release so the public won’t see it?  How can we, as fiscally responsible citizens, be forced to make this expensive decision without those documents? 

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****August 8th Interlocal meeting where the school board was questioned by our Wasatch County, Midway, Heber, and Daniel public officials asked about including the ARMY CORPS,  demolishing Midway Elementary instead of using it, why we aren’t adding 2 classroom wings for $10 MIL on to the current high school (like Corner Canyon High School– same design as ours), and why the new high school location is in a flood plain, and how the students, teachers, and taxpayers would be protected from an uncontrollable event of a dam failure. The 3 must watch videos of this meeting are here:  Wasatch Taxpayers YouTube page   When the public officials had given the school board their opinions and asked pointed questions for over an hour, a school board member finally told them to, “Stay in their own lane.” 

The school board didn’t think the new North Fields high school land was in a flood plain, but these 3 maps are clear. Flood Map- Earthquake Hazards   Map Central Area – Dam Failure  WSD high school property- Dam Failure GIS map     Wasatch County Emergency Management talks about flood hazards. (Here are the high school location maps: click to enlarge)

WSD Presentation video     WSD Bond Q&A video  

 

 

*** 8-15-19  WTPA asked to be put on the school board’s regular meeting agenda back in March 2019, but couldn’t get on their agenda until the WORK meeting on August 15th 2019. We gave them a presentation about helping them communicate better with the public. The school board had no comments, nor did they want to discuss our presentation. But a couple hours later the same day, at the Aug 15th Truth in Taxation hearing, two members of the school board, Mark Davis and Tom Hansen, decided to hijack the public hearing to publicly berate the chair of our organization for 20 MINUTES.  Watch her comments here at 12:25 into video, and the school board’s ongoing comments here.  It’s also very concerning that the board chair, the superintendent, or other board members seemed to allow them to continue with no concern, and did not stop them and get back to the public hearing. There were a few letters to editors,  and emails sent to the school board that shared the citizens outrage and concerns. The school board makes a point of telling the public they want their input, but this is what happens when you have questions that challenge their opinions or plans?

⇐ And our response finally this week (click on article to enlarge). 

 *** We have also seen a total of a 35% tax increase in 2018 and 2019 for increased teacher’s salaries and benefits. We all agree that good teachers deserve good pay, but now if this SECOND high school is approved those recent increases will be given to the new teachers to fill that school. Also, we will need another tax increase for the maintenance and operations of those schools when they are completed.

****Here’s the response to our GRAMA (public document) request for total amount in capital fund and leftover money from the 2015 $62 MIL bond: GRAMA request 5-24-19   2015 bond PTIF account statement   Apr 2019 Cap fund balance sheet .

Our concern is that the Wasatch School District in the past has told the public BEFORE the bond how they are going to spend the money, but then they move the money around wherever they want during the process. The WSD reportedly “saved” $5.7 million on the 2 school construction projects (although we stated in the summer of 2015, before the bond election, that the costs quoted by the WSD were way over budget compared to the other elementary and middle schools built in UTAH in the prior 2 years)- CLICK HERE for our concerns prior to the election.  Our research on school construction before that bond election has now been shown to be accurate.

Do they purposely over budget some projects so they can move money around? Before the bond election, the school district told the public that the pool would cost $10 mil. The original SIGNED construction contract POOL-Westland Construction Contract 5-2016 was for $11.8 mil? And then the construction costs on this document POOL expenses 2018 (splashpad is in there)  says $12.5 mil? …but wait, take a look at the “total cost” on that document- $14,338,687.17 !  Could this happen again now?      … And let’s take a moment to discuss the $573,400.00 SPLASH PAD. That seems to have gotten the attention of most citizens, more than other facts. When we are struggling to pay for classrooms, how can the school board justify spending that obscene amount of money, demolishing perfectly good freshly poured concrete, and adding that as an afterthought. They must have already known they were way over budget. Please explain how a ridiculous splash pad raises test scores or gets students into college? 

They actually moved MORE money over to the pool to make it a total of $14.3+ Mil.  Not what we were originally told by the school board, or what we voted on in 2015.  And why didn’t we hear about this FROM the school board during this process?  Why didn’t the public have a say in whether we wanted to go way over budget on the pool?  If it wasn’t for our GRAMA request a year ago, no one would have known.   — The final tally of the rest of the $62 MIL 2015 bond (2 schools) here: Timp Middle expenses 2018   Timp Middle School – Construction contract    and  Daniel Elem expenses 2018  Daniel Elementary- Construction Contract 2016  

****The school district finally acknowledged that they were over budget on the 2006 high school bond. We have been reporting that for a decade, and in 2011 GRAMA requested the “schedule of payments” that tallied all costs of the high school. Their $69 MIL total in 2010 does not included many improvements like parking lots, outdoor lighting, landscaping, football stadium, furniture computers & equipment, concession stand, etc. We’re pretty sure they were not free. To see more info on the 2006 High School Bond go here.   During the 2006 $59.5 MIL high school bond, there was analysis done back then of the price per sqft of existing high schools, click here for reference.    

**** But here’s the reality of how our school district compares to others.  Go to this website to compare your kids’ schools to similar schools in the state.    Click this page to see how our district scores (scroll down page to see individual school grades).     Sage test website – to check student testing.     Go to this website – to see what grade our schools and district get?(Hint, most of our school grades have gone down in the past couple years. click on “school grade details” to see)    This links to the history of all reports.    Wasatch District enrollment reports compared to all districts in state.

Wasatch School District- Utah Certified Tax Website  See what we’ve been paying the school district in property taxes each year. (You can change year and public entity in top left corner). 

 

Stay tuned for more upcoming election info!!

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This website is for educational purposes only, unless it is specifically stated that WTPA has a stance on a specific issue. To the best of our knowledge this is correct information, but we welcome corrections if errors are found.