Splitting a school district is complex

The district has other concerns. The west side would need more money to accommodate growth, but a bill proposal aimed at helping out wouldn't give much aid. The study does not address impacts on programs for students. Enrollment would drop at east-side schools because a chunk of the 1,300 plus west-siders attending them, many of them because of boundaries or cross-district busing, probably won't be there anymore. Meanwhile west-side schools will need at least 23 portable classrooms to house those students.

The Granite Board of Education remains officially neutral on the issue.

The Wikstrom study uses three different numbers for per-student spending and forecasts as many financial outcomes. It's confusing, acknowledged Karen Wikstrom of Wikstrom Economic & Planning Consultants Inc..

"Depending on what you assume is the appropriate level of service in the future, whether you think it is what's currently being supplied or one that is equitable across the district, you have different tax consequences," she said.

Using the districtwide average, a west-side district would be unfeasible while an east-side district would be feasible and manage with area property tax decreases. But using the existing funding levels, the west side would operate feasibly by 2011 and the east side would also be feasible after the first few years. Until that point, they would need to increase taxes beyond the statutory limit.

Using existing funding levels, the study concludes that both the new and remaining district would be feasible — a fact Granite School District contests because of the time-frame and various numbers throughout the study.

"The issue is if it's a minimal amount only in the initial years, it (eventually) meets the statutory requirement," Wikstrom said. "It's pretty hard to call that unfeasible."

At the existing funding level, the west side would eventually become feasible and the east side would have to increase taxes instead of decreasing them as stated in the preliminary study.

"I think that's going to be the case no matter what happens. I don't think anybody's taxes look like they're going down under any circumstances," said Bill Anderson, a South Salt Lake city councilman. "This has never been about finding a way to cut taxes. This has been about local control."

Anderson's biggest concern, however, is the west-siders.

"My first impression is kind of the key thing for me is whether or not the tax base is sufficient to support the ongoing operations for the west side of the district," he said, adding the small school district issue cannot be looked at in isolated chunks of east or west.

Murray is part of this story, too. Mainly because it's leaning toward not joining the group that wants to break away from Granite.

The city expanded a couple years ago and in doing so picked up part of Granite District: Woodstock and Twin Peaks elementaries and Cottonwood High School.