Orem council unanimously approves interlocal agreement on new school district and appoints Jen Gale

Orem City Council voted unanimously at a 4:00 p.m. special session to approve an interlocal agreement with Vineyard, Linden and Pleasant Grove to begin the statutory steps for a reorganized school district and to appoint Jen Gale to the interlocal joint board.

Councilors moved one of the consent items to discussion before voting. Speaker 7 opened the discussion by saying, "I have some concerns that there aren't any timelines on there. There's not an end date," and asked for clarity about when city involvement would end. Steve Earl, who spoke for staff, responded: "This agreement should terminate when the new school board takes office," and said that language is included in section 2 of the agreement. Earl added that the new board—s term might begin in January 2026 or potentially earlier depending on legislative timing.

Earl described the joint board—s powers as narrowly focused on the filings state law requires: registering the entity name with the lieutenant governor's office and submitting a plat map that defines the new district—s boundaries. "If this board wants to do anything beyond that narrow scope, they will have to come back and amend the agreement," Earl said, noting any change would require approval by the participating city councils.

Councilors also asked whether the joint board—s meetings would be open to the public. Earl said the meetings are not required by law to be public but that "if this group ... wanted to allow the public to attend, they could," adding that the joint board would need to vote to open meetings.

Speakers discussed cost-sharing and voting-power mechanics if the joint board's scope is expanded in the future; staff and councilors said costs are expected to be minimal for the narrow statutory tasks but acknowledged that studies or other actions could create expenses that might require further negotiation on how costs are apportioned.

Council members noted external timing constraints: a 30-day window after vote certification was discussed and a December 19 deadline was mentioned by Brent (Speaker 8). According to comments in the meeting, Vineyard had adopted the agreement, Linden likely adopted it the previous day and Pleasant Grove planned to act that day.

After the discussion, Speaker 2 moved to approve the consent items and council members cast ayes; the board recorded seven ayes and the motion carried. The council then moved to adjourn.