The North Summit school board may place a general obligation bond on the November ballot for the third year in a row after residents successfully gathered enough signatures to trigger a vote on a multimillion dollar lease revenue bond. North Summit Business Administrator Marci Sargent on Wednesd ay confirmed petitioners met their goal of obtaining 771 verified signatures from registered voters living within the school district’s boundaries. Walter Brock, one of the residents spearheading the petition effort, in early January said his group gathered 1,090 signatures. The Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which publicly posts the names of those who signed the petition online, reported a total of 957 verified signatures as of Wednesday, well above the 771-signature threshold. The petition’s success would have led to the $125 million lease revenue bond being placed on the Election Day ballot, but Sargent said the school board is now considering pivoting back to a general obligation bond. General obligation bonds already require voter approval, and it would be a better financial choice for the district. “Putting a lease revenue bond on the ballot does not make sense when a general obligation bond would be a better interest rate,” Sargent said. “The school board and district personnel are taking some time to figure out the best next steps and how best to move forward to get the citizens to support a bond.” It is currently unclear whether the district plans to still pursue the lease revenue bond, which would be required to appear on the ballot because of the petition, or if it will be abandoned entirely in favor of a general obligation bond. Previously, the district shifted to a lease revenue bond because voters declined to pass a general obligation bond two years in a row. State law allows constituents to contest the issuance of a bond if they are able to submit a petition with signatures from at least 20% of the active voter base to the Summit County Clerk’s Office within 30 days of the bond’s passing. With the North Summit petition specifically, community members were trying to gather 771 signatures by Jan. 9. Brock previously said the goal of the petition wasn’t necessarily to have voters shoot down the bond measure for a third time. Instead, he said he wanted to delay the issuance of the funds to give the school board and North Summit residents time to explore alternatives, including obtaining bids and further analysis from other third-party companies. He said he wasn’t staunchly against the idea of a new school, but he viewed the North Summit community as wary of the board’s insistence that the only solution is an entirely new building with state-of-the-art facilities. He said residents have questions about construction costs and requested documents regarding reports that the current North Summit High School building is unsafe, but they’ve been left feeling ignored. Vern Williams, president of the North Summit school board, in late December said the board isn’t legally allowed to comment on the petition, but he pointed to previous discussions on school safety and the rising cost of construction materials. “Over the past four or five years, we have collected figures on the needed upgrades to make the building safe for our students and make necessary repairs that will be required by the state,” Williams said. “We have put hundreds of thousands of dollars into prolonging the life of the mechanical systems. Professionals have been through the school to give their opinions on the best way to solve the problems. To bring it up to code will cost nearly the same as a new building.” Williams said information on the board’s reasoning has been shared frequently in school board meetings and public hearings, which were “not well attended.” “We will be willing to continue to discuss these needs with anyone that would like to meet with district personnel,” he said. North Summit High School was built in 1977 and hasn’t had any substantial modifications since its original construction. District officials have repeatedly said there are structural issues with the building that make the school potentially unsafe for students, especially if the area were to experience a major earthquake. However, voters in 2024 and 2025 shot down the district’s attempts to pass a multimillion dollar general obligation bond to fund the project. In response, the school board proposed a $125 million lease revenue bond, which had a higher interest rate but did not require voter approval — until the successful petition initiative this month. The school board unanimously passed the lease revenue bond in December at a public hearing where more than 20 people spoke against the move. The speakers expressed frustration over the district’s continued pursuit of the funds, as well as general economic concerns, including whether the bond would affect housing costs and potentially price more families out of the area. The post Petition opposing North Summit School District bond meets signature requirements appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less