Jordan may seek OK on a big bond

The state's largest school district could hit up voters for a bond big enough to build schools for at least 20,000 extra students projected to come in the next 10 years.

And unless Jordan District voters prefer measures like double sessions, year-round schools and busing to ease the crunch, the proposal might exceed the $281 million they OK'd in 2003.

"The only thing I'm willing to go on record now is, it will likely be larger than the last bond . . . (if we) meet (growth) in similar ways as we have in the past," Jordan Superintendent Barry Newbold told the Deseret Morning News on Wednesday.

Nothing is solid now. The district is working to project enrollment, calculate building costs and inflation and determine how many buildings might be needed in the growing south and west. Also in the mix: What might happen if Cottonwood Heights, Sandy and other cities seek to secede from Jordan and form their own school district.

The district wants to present the information at a fall growth summit; options for action likely will come then or shortly thereafter. Newbold calls the information-gathering a top priority.

"I am trying to couch this tentatively because the board has done nothing with this. But in the next nine months, this will all take shape," Newbold said. If the board seeks a bond, "we could be looking at November of 2007."

Jordan District has built 12 buildings and pulled down $70 million of its $281 million, 22-school building bond. Upcoming buildings include two middle schools and one high school, which are more expensive to build than elementaries.

At the time the bond was proposed, the district had 73,000 students and expected an additional 12,000 to 16,000 by 2010.

Now, the district expects to start school in the fall with 79,000 students — a 1,800-student increase from last year — and take in an additional 20,000 to 24,000 students by 2016, Newbold said. Those projections don't fully capture the upcoming Kennecott Land west-bench development, which has been projected to require nearly 100 schools in the Jordan and Granite school districts.

Growth is exploding — even faster than projected, Newbold says — in Jordan's south and west, and dropping in some built-out, east-side neighborhoods, where the board recently closed two elementaries. Construction costs have risen 25 percent to 30 percent higher than anticipated. The $281 million bond accounted for just 5 percent inflation.

The district has plenty of bonding capacity, which is equal to 4 percent of the district's tax base, Newbold said. As of August 2005, it legally could borrow an additional $932 million before hitting its ceiling.

Meanwhile, Cottonwood Heights this week learned it would be feasible to join with Sandy, Draper and Midvale to form a new east-side school district. Bennett Educational Consultants President Mike Bennett said the move would make economic sense; east-side cities now provide more than half Jordan District's local taxes, but have fewer than half the students, while the west side is booming and expected to need more facilities.

Not knowing how the cities might proceed complicates the district's growth study, Newbold said. But, he said: "I don't think it's a disadvantage to have these conversations going on at the same time in the context of impact to everybody."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com