The west-side Arcadia is considered a feeder school for both Cottonwood and Bonneville, despite the distance. The Granite School Board voted to keep that boundary a couple years ago, spokesman Randy Ripplinger said, because the community was used to it and wanted to keep it.

Many westsiders long argued that Cottonwood should not have been built, at least not when it was. At its completion, hundreds from west-side Taylorsville were bused there, and they argued that Taylorsville High School should have been built first. Cottonwood is now used at 92 percent capacity, including the bused west-side students and a charter high school that operates within it.

Numbers of other west-side students bused to east-side Granite schools include: Churchill Junior High, 94; Granite Park Junior High, 181; Moss Elementary, 30; and Skyline High, 22.

Busing isn't necessarily a bad thing, said Linda Mariotti, Granite assistant superintendent over instructional services.

"Busing smacks of ... integration and segregation. But busing also is about opportunity ... taking advantage of options we can't (offer) in every school," including programs offered at the centrally located Granite Technical Institute, Mariotti said. "More important is school choice.... As a district, we have really made a conscious effort ... to facilitate kids being mobile."

The east side has more special programs for talented students.

Granite and Jordan: Partially confirmed.

Gifted programs and accelerated classes are offered in every school in both districts. Both also have magnet programs for the cream of the crop.

Jordan has more accelerated or advanced learning programs on the east side than on the west. The only such middle school program is on the east side, as are four of seven such elementary school programs. However, its Itineris Early College program is on the west side.

The district last year expanded offerings, adding two magnet gifted programs on the east side and one on the west, due to a lack of space, Newbold said. The school board is looking for another west location for that and an IB program, he said. "This inequity you see right here, we know it, and we're working to mitigate that."

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