The Jordan School District transition teams have a new draft proposal to mull over this week that could help them get one step closer in coming to agreement over the division of the districts assets and liabilities.

"It appears the plan narrows the gap that we have experienced before. ... I am anxious to look through it and have more conversation about it," said Dennis Higbee, member of the Jordan-west transition team.

Team members received the proposal at their weekly meeting Wednesday but did not have the chance to go through it. They will be discussing it next week along with the Jordan-east team.

Last November east-side residents voted to split from Jordan and establish their own district.

And last month a negotiating team, which included two members from each transition team, presented recommendations to both teams on how to fairly divide district assets.

The Jordan-west team members rejected the proposal, something the Jordan-east team viewed as a rejection of the negotiating process. Shortly thereafter Jordan-east hired a lawyer and began preparing for arbitration.

Jordan-west then followed suit in pursuing legal counsel but sent a letter to the Jordan-east team indicating they were still interested in negotiating in the spirit of avoiding arbitration, something the Jordan-east team hopes to side-step as well.

So Tuesday the negotiating team met again and crafted a new proposal that both teams have are yet to comment on.

"It looks like we are making some progress and hopefully we will continue in that effort to move forward," said Ralph Haws, chairman of the Jordan-west team. "We are still very much interested in doing all we can to get closure on it through the process of negotiating with the east side team — but at the same time we are in a position where we feel like we need to begin to make proper preparation if some of those items have to go to arbitration."

The Jordan-west team will most likely select a firm that could represent them in arbitration next week.

---

E-MAIL: terickson@desnews.com