District debate hits Salt Lake County

The idea of creating small school districts is picking up steam in some Salt Lake County cities, and county officials say they want to hear from the cities' elected officials and their constituents.

At county meetings Tuesday, council members agreed to schedule a public hearing on the issue in June or July. They plan to invite mayors of the three cities that have been most vocal about forming the districts: South Salt Lake, Holladay and Cottonwood Heights.

"If they're doing a study, we'd like to be involved in everything they do," Mayor Peter Corroon said. Corroon added that he has been getting strong feedback from area residents about the cities' discussions of the possible districts, and he has spoken with the cities' mayors.

Councilman Randy Horiuchi said that the county needs to have a stronger role in the issue. "We definitely need to be involved," he said.

Councilman David Wilde has been assigned to be the council representative for the small school-district issue.

All three east-side cities had at least one of their city schools closed last year by Granite School District because of declining school-age populations. In addition to the declining number of young students, east-side neighborhoods are older and built-out. So most of the money from Granite — the county's largest district — goes toward west-side neighborhoods, where the housing market is growing and many young families are moving in.

Concerned residents and city leaders helped push a bill during the legislative session that allows cities with populations of at least 65,000 to form their own school districts. Smaller cities that border one another can band together to meet the law's population requirement in order to form their own districts.

But stipulations in the law say a new district cannot land-lock or create islands out of existing districts. South Salt Lake officials say that constraint likely makes the issue dead in their city. An area of Murray, which is outside the Murray School District and still in Granite School District, would constitute such an island and prevent South Salt Lake from ditching Granite. South Salt Lake would have to combine populations with other interested entities like Holladay or Cottonwood Heights or unincorporated parts of the county to form a district.