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Posted: 1:02 PM- HEBER CITY- The Utah Attorney General's Office is reviewing an allegation that a design contract was awarded unfairly for a proposed $59.5 million high school for Wasatch School District.

Voters in Wasatch County will decide Tuesday whether to pass a nearly $60 million bond that would pay for the proposed 308,000-square-foot school.

Critics claim a flawed bid-selection process led to a design that is larger and more expensive than the school district needs. Presently, Wasatch has fewer than 1,000 high-school students - but it expects enrollment to top 1,500 in the coming decade.

District officials say the bidding process was "fair, aboveboard and open."

"I reject the contention that there was some pre-grooming going on here," said Superintendent Terry Shoemaker.

But in a letter to the Utah Attorney General, Wasatch County resident Tracy Taylor maintains that Orem-based Sandstrom Associates Architecture had the inside track on winning the bid prior to the Feb. 4 request for proposals published in Heber City and Salt Lake City newspapers.

"Our concern is that a relationship between Wasatch School District and Sandstrom Architecture was formed long before the beginning of the bid process and interfered with a fair and rigorous process for the design of the high school," the letter states.

In an interview, Taylor said that more than one year prior to the request for proposals, Sandstrom Architecture was allowed to conduct a "needs assessment" by interviewing Wasatch High School faculty and staff about what they would like in a new high-school design.

Eight other architectural firms that submitted bids were not given the opportunity, she said, to conduct such assessments and were not provided the results of the Sandstrom study.

Although the school district's request for proposals was published the first week of February, it called for a Feb. 24 deadline for submissions. The Wasatch Board of Education unanimously selected Sandstrom Architecture on March 9.

The design contract is worth about $1.5 million.

School Board President Helen Robinson acknowledged that Sandstrom Architecture was given permission by school officials to conduct the study. She maintained, however, that the assessment that helped guide Sandstrom's design did not give the Orem firm an unfair advantage.

Of the nine architectural firms that submitted proposals, three were selected as finalists before Sandstrom Architecture was chosen, Robinson said.

"We were very familiar with all three architects that made the final cut," she said. "We just made the choice and chose the one that we thought would be best for the community."

According to the district's superintendent, none of the firms not chosen for the project leveled any complaints about the selection process.

"You'd think if they thought there was a problem, they would have contacted us," Shoemaker said.

But Wasatch County resident and former fiscal analyst R.K. Nelson said the process by which the school design was selected is "way beyond not quite right."

It will cost many millions more than a more efficient and Spartan design, he said, maintaining that the eight firms submitting unsuccessful bids did not have enough information to produce competitive designs.

"This product was based on a wish list, rather than the best cost for taxpayers," said Nelson. "The whole reason for competition in a case like this is the hope that the public will be served - the best product for the best price. But this takes us in the opposite direction."

Spokesman Paul Murphy confirmed that the Attorney General's Office is reviewing the allegations to determine whether the bid process conforms to Utah law.

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