Most favor creation of small school districts

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — As Cottonwood Heights considers a new study recommending that the east-side suburb split from Jordan School District, a majority of Utah residents say it's a good idea to create smaller school districts and give local residents more say over public education.

In a Dan Jones & Associates survey of 900 registered voters statewide, 54 percent said they strongly or somewhat favor a new state law allowing cities to break up existing school districts into smaller ones.

Of those respondents, 59 percent said they would still favor the concept even if it means more property taxes.

On the other side are 31 percent who strongly or somewhat oppose the measure. Another 15 percent didn't know.

Residents offered a similar response for giving cities more local control over school districts — 53 percent wanted more local control, 21 percent said it should remain the same, 18 percent said there should be less local control and 9 percent said they didn't know.

The statewide survey of 900 registered voters was conducted July 14-20 for the Deseret Morning News and KSL. It has a plus-or-minus 3.3 percent margin of error.

Recent state legislation allows cities to split from large school districts and create their own locally controlled small school districts. The idea is picking up steam in several Utah cities, including Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, South Salt Lake, Sandy, Lindon and Orem.

Tuesday night, Mike Bennett of Bennett Educational Consultants Inc. presented the results of an information-gathering study to the Cottonwood Heights City Council.

The conclusion: Cottonwood Heights, Sandy, Draper and Midvale should split from Jordan School District to combine and make a new east-side district.

The four-city district, Bennett said, would make economic sense for the cities involved. Currently, the east-side cities provide 57.3 percent of the local taxes in Jordan School District, with a student population of 43.8 percent. However, in 2015, that enrollment will decline to 30.3 percent. Jordan spans both the east and west sides of the Salt Lake Valley, and the west side is growing quickly with younger families while the east side is built out, and its residents are older.

"You have to decide if that much money is going to be spent on the east side," Bennett said.

In addition, Jordan still has $211 million in voter-approved bonds. Also, Bennett said, Jordan is planning to receive authorization for $400 million in additional bonds in the next few years. The amount of money the east-side cities would receive "will become increasingly disproportionate," he said.