Alpine charter school issue going before City Council
By Mark Eddington
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake TribuneAbout Mountainville
   
   Mountainville Academy, which is scheduled to open this fall near 365 E. 100 South in Alpine, plans to educate kindergartners through eighth-graders. The charter school's academic emphasis will be math and language arts.
    ALPINE - If Alpine planners get their way, backers of a proposed charter school will need a new plan.
   By unanimous vote this week, the Alpine Planning Commission rejected allowing construction of Mountainville Academy on about seven acres near 365 E. 100 South.
   Now the contentious issue will go before the City Council, which is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to go along with the Planning Commission's recommendation.
   Some neighbors now are optimistic they can stop the 675-student school from coming to their area.
   

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald   

After listening for two hours to comments from dozens of residents -- many angry -- Alpine planning commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to deny the site plan of a controversial charter school.

About 300 people filled the auditorium of Timberline Middle School for the public hearing. City Council members are expected to vote on final approval or denial of the site plan next week.

Tuesday night wasn't the first time residents spoke out against the charter school. Last month about 60 people gathered to protest the school's location because of the traffic it would bring to the neighborhood and historic flooding in the area.

School organizers have proposed to build a 50,000-square-foot, two-story school on the site to accommodate 675 K-8 students and 45 faculty members, said Shane Sorensen, city engineer. According to the state's charter school directory, the school is scheduled to open in August.

Mayor Hunt Willoughby opened the public hearing by saying Mountainville Academy "has been kind of an emotional issue. We're all adults, neighbors and friends. Let's be kind to each other."

But over and over again during Tuesday's meeting, the crowd flouted the stated rules of the hearing to applaud and occasionally boo a speaker. Many times after commission chairwoman Jannicke Brewer pounded her gavel attempting to take control, the crowd laughed out loud, sometimes applauding anyway.

One after another, many residents living near the proposed school, 350 E. 100 South in Alpine, stood to say they did not want the school in their backyard. About a dozen residents spoke in favor of the location.

After listening to residents, Commissioner Lincoln Watkins said he felt the location could never be approved because state law says "the school site shall not be located in an area where there is a history or high possibility of flooding."

Those who opposed the school brought a poster-sized photo of the location taken during a flood in 1953. That evidence alone rules out the location, despite a letter the city received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in January officially removing the site from a flood plain map at the request of school developers, Watkins said.

He faulted school founders for not approaching the city for regulatory permissions until after land was "purchased and a groundbreaking scheduled. ... I don't understand how the charter school can even recommend to propose this site. The entire area was flooded and on that alone we cannot approve this. I can only surmise the charter school ignored this law.

"I feel sorry for the supporters of the charter school. I think you have to feel disappointed the law was not complied with."

In an interview after the meeting, school founder Rebecca Whitchurch confirmed that school organizers were under contract to purchase the property for the school. Before deciding what to do next, organizers will wait for a final decision to approve or deny the site plan from City Council members next week. She said it was not immediately clear whether the school could break the contract to purchase the land if the city denied the site plan.

In their vote, commissioners said they wanted to make it clear they were not voting to deny the school, just the proposed location. Audience members broke out in the loudest applause of the evening after the vote.

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 344-2543 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.

Some see conflict in Alpine charter school -

Residents opposed: State and local officials would be part of the approval, building and running of the school

By Mark Eddington
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake TribuneALPINE - Think fighting city hall is tough? Try duking it out with city and state lawmakers.
   Some Alpine residents insist that's the task they face to stop a charter school from coming to their neighborhood. If approved, Mountainville Academy would bring 675 students to about seven acres at 365 E. 100 South.
   Martin Southwick, whose son was hit by a car 2 1/2 years ago on 100 South, says academy traffic would further endanger children. He says stopping the school won't be easy because of conflict-of-interest issues.
   "It kind of stinks," said Southwick, one of dozens opposed to the academy. "It feels like there is some sort of back-room dealing to get this installed."
   The problem is, he and others say, Councilman Thomas Whitchurch's wife, Rebecca, is chief executive officer of the charter's board. Mayor Hunt Willoughby's wife, Aniva, also is involved.
   What's more, Rep. Mike Morley, R-Spanish Fork, is the contractor and Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem, is the financier. Both are vocal champions of charter schools in the Utah Legislature and partners with former GOP state lawmaker Glenn Way, also of Spanish Fork, in U.S. Charter Development.
   "I don't think they should profit from legislation they helped pass," said Southwick, who feels the same way about Thomas Whitchurch having a vote on the issue.
   Whitchurch, however, notes state law allows charter schools in all zones. He said Alpine cannot stop a charter from coming but can decide only if the developer has filed an appropriate site plan. He insists he is entitled to vote on the site plan because he and his wife won't make money from the decision.
   City law, which is more restrictive than state law, bars council members from voting when they stand to "realize substantial financial gain." The only gain he and his wife would get, he said, is greater choice for their children's education.
   Still, he likely won't vote when the issue comes before the council due to opponents' conflict-of-interest concerns. And Willoughby, who votes only to break ties, does not think Whitchurch should recuse himself.
   "When you have a conflict of interest," the mayor said, "you declare it. You're not hiding your bias; you're putting it out front."
   The mayor's wife is a Mountainville founding parent who is poised to put in 1,000 volunteer hours there should they decide to enroll their son there.
   Alpine City Attorney David Church said opponents are mad at the wrong people.
   "They ought to be mad at the state Legislature," he said. "There are a couple of state legislators who make a living in the charter-school industry" and have taken away city officials' ability to plan and zone their community. "They basically have allowed charter schools to plan the community."
   U.S. Charter Development has constructed four charter schools thus far and has another four in the works. Rep. Morley says the company is paying to build Mountainville and stands to lose a lot of money if the school is not successful.
   "The investors are the ones who take all the risk and stand to lose that investment," Morley said.
    Ferrin says he has helped enact laws to make it easier to build charters but insists there's no conflict because the legislation made it easier for everyone, not just him.
   "Most of the people who complain about me [building] charter schools are people opposed to charter schools in the first place," Ferrin said.
   Alpine resident Susan Smith disagrees.
   "What we object to is sleazy state legislators who fill the public trough with their votes and then feed from it in their professions," she said. "This is a textbook example of why we need a two-party system in Utah. Republicans have become too powerful and too arrogant. We need some checks and balances."
   Southwick's neighbor, Kelley Somer, prefers to pass on politics. Safety is her concern.
   "There will be a huge influx of traffic, and this town and the streets can't manage it," she said. "Our children walk to school."
   Mountainville, which is scheduled to open this fall, will educate kindergartners through eighth-graders. Board member Linda Seeley said the curriculum will focus on academics, with an emphasis on math and language arts. She said enrollment is almost full.
   "The majority of grades have a waiting list," she said.
   Charter schools are alternative, taxpayer-funded public schools that depend on public money - the $2,280 the state allots for each student - to pay their bills. Private firms typically line up investors to pay for construction. Once the schools open, administrators tap diverted taxpayer money to make lease payments on the buildings.
   meddington@sltrib.com

Saturday, March 25, 2006

KATIE ASHTON - Daily Herald   

Concerned with the safety of Alpine neighborhoods, about 60 residents gathered Friday night to discuss their options of preventing Mountainville Academy, a charter school, from moving in next fall.

Headed by Walter Noot, Alpine residents met at Alpine Elementary School to discuss issues ranging from increased road traffic to costs imposed on the city to accommodate the influx of 675 students.

Although it has not been approved by the Planning Commission, Noot said he feels strongly that legal counsel is a must to ensure everything is done to protect the residents of Alpine from traffic hazards and unwanted costs to the city associated with the school.

"We recognize the arrogance with the people that we are dealing with," he said at the beginning of the meeting.

Noot said he feels the developers and proponents of this school have not adequately assessed the negative impact this would have on 100 South, the road where the school is slated to be built. The roads that will be taken to the school cannot support the traffic of 675 students being dropped off and picked up, he said.

In a Planning Commission meeting where charter supporters showed a film depicting what traffic would look like at the school, Noot said there would be, with the estimate of 326 vehicles coming daily, 16 vehicles dropping students off every minute.

But this study isn't accurate, he said, because the film didn't show parents waiting for their children, which would increase the amount of congestion.

"I'm sure the real studies, whatever we end up doing, will prove us correct," he said.

With the increased traffic in the area, children are "going to get run over by a Suburban," Noot said.

That's not the case, said Rebecca Whitchurch, chairwoman of the school's board of trustees. Much of the information was misrepresented at Friday's meeting, she said.

The location of the school, which is under debate because it is in a flood zone, is the only viable option for financial reasons and serves the students of both Alpine and Highland, she said.

Tensions began to rise when Whitchurch was explaining why the location was chosen and how Alpine would be impacted financially. Repeatedly interrupted, Whitchurch was asked to stop talking. "They obviously, by shutting us down, don't want to hear" the truth, she said.

"They're not answers that we're comfortable hearing at this point," Noot said after Whitchurch asked to finish her explanation.

The reason for Noot's passion about this issue came when his neighbor's son was hit by a car along 100 South. He was hit because there wasn't, and still isn't, a crossing guard in this area, Noot said.

Even though the city was asked to place a crossing guard along this area, nothing has been done, Noot said, "this is a serious issue for us."

Noot said this grass-roots effort is under legal counsel and he will be soliciting other individuals for donations to help with the effort.

For now, the group remains under advisement and will send a petition out to the community in opposition to the charter school being developed. The school has been approved by the state.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.