SANDY — The city of Sandy has hired a former educator and superintendent to gather information on whether forming a new school district would better meet the needs of Sandy children.

The city hired Mike Bennett, a former principal who was also Iron County superintendent, to gather numbers from Jordan School District about the possibility. His services will cost $7,000, said Byron Jorgenson, chief administrative officer for the city.

Bennett also is gathering the information for the city of Cottonwood Heights. The two cities have mentioned the possibility of teaming up to create a joint school district outside of the state's largest school district, Jordan, but the talks are more like a preliminary suggestion at best, said Sandy City Council Chairman Steve Fairbanks.

The first step is to gather the information to see if city residents' school tax dollars could be better spent to reduce class size, pay teachers more and improve the educational product students would receive in a separate school district, Jorgenson said.

"We've authorized Mr. Bennett to do a study for us," Fairbanks said. "We want to look at what he finds so whatever decision we ultimately make will be in the best interests of our citizens."

And, both officials said, the decision may be to do nothing.

The information came up in a cordial joint meeting between the Sandy City Council and the Jordan Board of Education on Tuesday evening. The talks, however, revolved more around safe walking routes for school children and partnerships between schools and the police department than the city's investigation into forming a smaller school district.

Jordan Superintendent Barry Newbold acknowledged the city had approached him officially about its activity, which he characterized as gathering information in order to respond to residents' questions.

The Utah Legislature this year passed new procedures to form smaller school districts, including letting only residents within a proposed new district's boundaries vote whether to create the new entity.

Sandy is among a handful of cities, including South Salt Lake, Holladay and Cottonwood Heights, to broach whether to walk away from what some call large, impersonal districts and create small, locally controlled ones.

In related news, the Lindon City Council decided Tuesday to join Orem in examining whether to create a joint school district. Both cities are part of Utah County's Alpine School District.

In Salt Lake County, Jordan and Granite school boards have closed some east-side schools where enrollments have been declining and neighborhoods are built out. Meanwhile, they're building on the west side, where many families are moving in and the housing market is growing.