But after one year of its new mission, Granite High School is a skeleton of what it once was. Academies didn't come. About 300 kids opted in — the rest were bused away to other schools whose boundaries they were drawn into. The "small learning community" ended up costing the district more than $3,100 per student in fixed costs. By comparison, the district spends $1,200 per student at the much larger Skyline High, which would be a sister school in the new district. On top of that, Granite this past year only graduated 68 percent of its seniors, much lower than the 78 percent at Hunter and 92 percent at Skyline.

This is not what Anderson had in mind for Granite's new mission.

"I want a good Granite High School," he said. "I'm trying to find the best way to get a good Granite High School for our students ... but I'm not seeing it come into fruition with the existing school district."

The Granite school board talks of putting more career and technical programs at the school, and wants to see if it becomes more of a draw, Granite District assistant superintendent David Gourley said.

"I would think that Granite High School has a much better chance of staying operational in some fashion, whether as a high school or a special program, (in Granite District) than it would were a split to occur," Gourley said. "I believe our east side is going to have a difficult time keeping three high schools open."

Indeed, the new district would have too few students to fill up all its schools, states the study examining costs of splitting the district. The district, if taken as is, would have 18 elementaries, when enrollment supports 12; six junior highs, when enrollment supports four; and three high schools, when it could fill two.

But the high schools in that part of the study included just Skyline, Olympus and Cottonwood — and now that Murray city voted to not participate in the new district, Cottonwood, in the event of a split, would be absorbed by Murray School District.

It didn't mention Granite High. It's not a neighborhood school.

"Granite High School has no boundaries. It has no athletic teams ... and kids at Granite Park Junior High who used to go to Granite now are being bused to Cottonwood," said Lynn Pace, a Holladay city councilman and steering committee co-chairman.

It's a specialty program, which the law treats differently in school district splits.

Neighborhood schools automatically go with a new district under state law. But transition teams haggle over which district, the old or new, gets the special programs.

So what's going to happen to Granite?

No one can guarantee its fate. That job would go to the transition teams, and ultimately, the new school board.