Education
County Commission presents new school district boundaries, seeks public feedback
Megan Wallgren | Lehi Free Press
Proposed boundaries for Utah County’s three new school districts were presented at the Utah County Commission meeting on March 12. This marks the first step in the voter-approved split of Alpine School District, Utah’s largest school district. The new boundaries will be used in November to elect school board members for the proposed West, Central and South districts.
Maps of the proposed boundaries can be found onUtahCounty.gov. Public feedback on the proposed boundaries is open for two weeks. A link to leave feedback can be found on the same web page. The final maps will be officially adopted at a March 26 County Commission meeting.
Mac Sims, chair of the redistricting committee, presented the maps and emphasized the careful planning involved in drawing these boundaries.
“I think this [district] change is very important. It was important to me in drawing boundaries for new seats that we did so effectively and had lots of broad voices in that discussion,” said Sims.
Stakeholders from various backgrounds contributed to discussions to create balanced and fair district maps. Current school board representatives, representatives from area cities, and citizens from each area served on boundary committees for each district area.
“We had a broad perspective from various stakeholders to make sure that we were considering lots of different points as we went to draw these maps,” Sims added.
As state and federal law require, each new school district will have seven seats, with boundaries designed to maintain substantially equal populations. The maps aim to be as contiguous and compact as possible, following city and precinct lines whenever feasible. Additionally, they consider economic, cultural and geographical similarities within communities. Other factors considered in the boundary proposals included school zones, natural and structural boundaries, neighborhood divisions and projected population growth.
Population estimates were sourced from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, the state’s recognized entity for population projections. While these estimates from 2023 helped guide the process, they still lag slightly behind current population trends.
Each redistricting group held three to four meetings in February, spending a total of five to eight hours in discussion. Their final maps were unanimously agreed upon. Committee members continued engaging with stakeholders between meetings to refine and adjust their plans.
In the Central District, one major challenge was balancing representation across six cities, ranging from smaller towns to larger areas like Lehi. Lehi was allocated three full seats and will share half a seat with Highland near the Texas Instruments area, where a new LDS temple and residential developments are in the works.
Some seat areas were underpopulated, but future growth is anticipated, while others were overpopulated with limited room for expansion. The committee worked diligently to unify cities within district overpopulation balance.
“We thought community cohesion was more important. We worked hard to make sure cities were unified in as many seats as possible,” said Sims.
Utah County Commissioners praised the volunteers for their efforts. Commissioner Skyler Beltran, a Lehi resident, commended their hard work and noted that the process had been relatively smooth despite the usual challenges of political decision-making.
“This is tremendous work, and I really think you guys did a great job in stakeholder engagement. Politics is not the friendliest game, and I have not seen anyone who is very upset. That’s a tough task, so you guys did a great job,” Beltran said.
At the March 26 meeting, a random draw will determine the length of the initial school board terms. Three seats will have three-year terms, while four seats will have five-year terms. After these initial terms, all seats will transition to a standard four-year election cycle.
The filing deadline for school board candidates is June 6 by 5 p.m. Primaries will be held Aug. 12 and school board elections will be Nov. 4. The new school board members will take office in January 2026.
The newly formed school districts will have temporary names, with official names to be decided by the newly elected school boards. The districts will undergo redistricting again in four years following the next U.S. Census.
