Results of Poll on Voter Perspectives Regarding Alpine School District Configuration

Key Findings

West

Voters in the West are leaning heavily towards forming their own district.



Voters in the West are the least willing to pay higher taxes to support new district needs.

North

Voters in the North are almost evenly divided between remaining in the current Alpine SD and forming a new North-South combined district.


The North area has the highest percentage of undecided voters.

South

If the South were able to vote*, they would likely choose to have Alpine SD remain as currently configured.




*HB3003 prevents Alpine SD from placing a recommended configuration on the ballot and allows only cities with interlocal agreements to vote on the district configuration issue.

2-way vs 3-way split

Only 11% of the North voters prefer a 3-way split.

Our Approach

Why was this poll needed?

MGT Consulting Group, the research firm hired by  Alpine School District, surveyed parents, teachers, elected officials and the general public as part of their study. The results from their survey can be found in the link below.


There were very clear preferences expressed by the more than 11,000 responses. However, the MGT survey was not based on a scientific selection process which did not ensure a random sample of the community. The results may have been respresentative but there was no way to be certain.


Additionally, MGT findings were not broken down by city. Participation in the survey was evenly spread across the district but the results were all lumped together.


Multiple cities expressed interest in having a poll that would answer these questions and there was even discussion about a joint poll so that the results could be correlated.


However, when it became clear that this was not going to happen, Stronger Together undertook to hire an indepedent polling company to gather this input for city leaders and the general public.  

MGT Survey

Hiring the expertise

Stronger Together contracted with Alfajor, LLC to conduct the study. Aaron Campbell was the principal investigator. He has over 30 years experience in political research.


Stonger Together provided the requirements (objectives) but were not involved in the calls or data gathering. 

The polling company was given the following objectives:

  • Assure a low margin of error
  • Include all cities
  • Not a push poll
  • Use neutral questions - not leading towards any given outcome

The plan included the following:

  • An initial telephone poll
  • Random calling list generated from registered voters in ASD communities
  • Verify a sufficient number of successful calls in each city to ensure target margin of error
  • Further review successful calls to ensure a respresentive mix by age, homeowners/renters, gender, etc.
  • After the scientific  sample is complete, invite futher participation via an online survey
  • Include additional open ended questions
  • Analysis of telephone poll and online survey were NOT combined

Deliver accurate and reliable results:

  • A total of 3481 telephone interviews were completed
  • The confidence level for the poll is 95%.
  • The margin of error for EACH of the larger cities in ASD is +/- 5%.
  • Residents of the smaller communitiers of Cedar Fort, Draper's Suncrest area, and Fairfield were also polled but without sufficient respondants to achieve the same level of accurary. Results for those communities are not individually reported.

Dive deeper

Click on the appropriate button to access the full set of questions used in the telephone poll; a copy of the topline city-by-city results; or the presentation given in the Pleasant Grove City Council in their work session on August 20, 204.


Video presentation begins at 30:40