New school district ahead?

PROVO — Several major hurdles remain in front of state Rep. David Cox, R-Lehi, before his vision of a Pioneer School District in northern Utah County can be realized.

That's OK with him. He's surprised he got over the first two hurdles.

First, the state legislator worked for three years to pass a new law that created a way to split school districts. Then, based on that law, he needed 1,122 residents living in Lehi, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain — a number equal to 15 percent of people from those cities who voted in the 2000 gubernatorial election — to sign a petition saying they wanted to split off from the Alpine School District.

The effort rounded up 1,602 signatures, and 1,208 were certified by the county elections office, said Kris Swensen, election coordinator.

Now Cox, a fifth-grade teacher at Sego Lily Elementary in the Alpine district, will submit a proposal this morning to the Utah County Commission that, by law, it must accept: Form a committee to study the feasibility of a split.

Today's county commission decision is a formality. Cox won't even attend the meeting because he needs to be in class. Representatives will hand over his proposal, patterned after the Declaration of Independence.

"When in the course of growing populations," wrote Cox, "it becomes necessary for one to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. . . . "

Cox argues that research shows school districts fare better when they are smaller.

"Smaller school districts have produced significantly better student outcomes, with lower per-pupil expenditures nationwide," he said. "They are more likely to unite local residents with their neighborhood schools. This improves the district, which raises community pride, and even real estate values. Citizens in community districts are more likely to support bond issues, etc., because they are for their own community."

Alpine officials welcome the feasibility study.

"We believe we're cost-efficient," district spokeswoman Jerrilyn Mortensen said. "For districts larger than 20,000 students, we're ranked fourth in the nation in efficiency of dollar use. There isn't a district in the state of Utah in the range of 8,000 to 12,000 like the one Mr. Cox is proposing that doesn't have a higher operating cost per pupil than we do."

Alpine superintendent Vern Henshaw hopes the study answers a vast range of questions.

"What impact would the split have on the child?" Henshaw said in a recent interview with the Deseret Morning News. "Will it significantly change the classroom? Will it reduce class sizes? What would change? At this point, I don't see how anything would be different."