Faced with a growing number of questions about the feasibility of building a new $18 million high school for Altamont, the Duchesne County School Board on Thursday agreed to appoint a committee to determine how much money would be saved by sending those students to other schools in the county.

The decision to appoint a committee to study “consolidation” in the district followed lengthy debate on the issue during the first half of the board's five-hour meeting in Roosevelt.

The school district will ask voters on Nov. 3 to approve a $49 million bond measure to build three new schools: a new high school and elementary school in Roosevelt, and a new high school in Altamont.

Many county residents voiced support for a new Altamont High School, noting that the area has its own sense of community that would be lost if students were sent to schools elsewhere in the county.

“Our whole community would die because of it,” one man said. “They need to be able to go to their own schools.”

An Altamont teacher who lives in Roosevelt agreed. “I think it would tear their hearts if we lost that school,” he said of youths in that small community.

But a few others questioned the wisdom of spending $18 million on a new school for Altamont for fewer than 200 high school students while spending $36 million on a new Union High, which has more than 800 students.

Though school board members said they still favored the plan to build two new high schools, most agreed that it wouldn't hurt to look at the pros and cons of consolidation so that voters can make a more informed choice on Nov. 3.

“There is a numbers question,” said board member Gordon Moon.

Board member Kim Harding said that while it would “break the heart of Altamont” to close the high school, it makes financial sense to show voters how much money, if any, could be saved by folding the students into other county schools.

Sandra Swasey, a teacher at Altamont, said the school district should take into account factors that don't necessarily equate to economic feasibility.

“Sometimes we do things for our children when we may not have the money,” she said. “There are benefits to children in small schools that they don't get in the big schools. My plea is to think about what's best for the children.”

In other business, the board heard comments from Roosevelt swimming pool manager Kirk Wentworth, who asked for a commitment from the school district to help pay for the operations and maintenance of a new municipal school.

Wentworth told board members that local schools could make good use of a new indoor-outdoor pool, and that about $75,000 annually from the district would help cover part of its annual costs not related to construction.

The city is moving ahead with plans to ask city voters in June to approve a property tax increase to help pay for construction of a new pool, which could cost as much as $8 million to build and $500,000 annually to operate and maintain.

City officials say without extra support from sources such as the school district, the Duchesne County Commission, Uintah Basin Medical Center and Utah State University, the pool project would not be economically feasible, even if voters approve a property tax increase to build it.

Board members told Wentworth to return to them at a later date with information on other local partners in the pool project and more solid numbers relating how much money would be needed to participate.