A load of Murray and Draper residents want to keep the status quo when it comes to their public-school systems.

The problem is, all the cities around Murray and Draper are considering a vote to create an east-side school district. And as the decision on a new east-side district nears, Draper and Murray officials are dealing with a lot of confused residents.

Draper, along with Sandy, Alta, Cottonwood Heights, Midvale and Salt Lake County, is considering a split from Jordan School District. But while a new east-side school district looks good on paper, SunCrest residents say, look at it from the top of a mountain.

Some 300 residents of the mountaintop Draper community actually live in Utah County — not Salt Lake County. Many take their kids to schools in the Alpine District, which is closer and provides bus service up the mountain roads.

If the proposed Jordan District split is realized, new school boundaries would be drawn along city lines, meaning those SunCrest families would have to send their children across the ridge to attend school — a long drive down steep roads, dangerous in bad weather, where bus service is not guaranteed.

Some residents have banded to form a group called "Better Boundaries" and are pushing their concerns via a Web site, betterboundaries.org.

They question a law passed in 2006 that allows cities to cross county boundary lines to create a new district. Paul Tonks, a parent who is serving as attorney for the Better Boundaries group, says "the legislation does not grant cities the power to cross school district boundaries when creating a new school district."

Adds DeLaina Tonks, Paul's wife and a leader of the group: "They cannot carve out a chunk of something they have no authority over."

DeLaina Tonks said estimates put SunCrest's growth to 1,500 children by 2012 — a number that was not taken into account in the district-split study completed in May.

Ideally, the group wants no part of the east-side split and prefers to stay in the Alpine District.

"Basically, what it comes down to is all the promises being touted by the advocates of small school districts would be null and void if we are included," she said, because of the number of students being added to the school system.

"People don't realize and understand we're trying to give Draper a chance to understand and exclude us but they're just dragging their feet and taking forever."

Draper is tentatively planning a July 10 public hearing on the proposed school-district split. City officials must make a decision by July 17 on whether they will take it to a city vote. The Better Boundaries group is also hosting its own meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the SunCrest Info Center Common Area. Draper Councilman Jeff Stenquist will be there, as well as Rep. John Dougall, R-American Fork, and Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper.