District facilities staff updated the Provo City School Board on ongoing work to address a failing retaining wall in the Wasatch area. The engineering work to date has produced conflicting recommendations from consultants: one engineer urged a full 'blanket drain' to capture and route groundwater; another argued vertical drains could be effective and less disruptive.

Facilities staff said a seepage-model study is being scoped to determine where water is entering the backfill and whether vertical drains would reliably collect that water. The facilities lead said the vertical-drain proposal is currently 'off the table' until engineers can demonstrate it will capture the source of seepage and provide monitoring evidence. "I have already said no. So that design right now is off the table until we figure out if there's something that can be done to prove that it will be okay," a facilities representative said.

Board members asked for concrete cost ranges and asked the district contractor to present both a full-blanket-drain cost and a lower-cost vertical-drain alternative with trade-offs, schedule impacts and the expected level of road and neighborhood disruption. Staff said an immediate priority is to obtain concrete cost estimates and to convene the engineers and contractor to form a recommended plan. The board did not vote and directed staff to accelerate the next step of a targeted analysis and cost estimate.