"I was so mad at that, I wanted to scream," Midvale's Seghini said. "What that says is we'll take the poor people from Midvale and give their money to Draper. I don't want Midvale to be included."

That money is not transferrable anyway, Seghini noted, because it must stay with the low-income students.

If east-side cities were to switch to local districts, it could be a double-edged sword, she warns. Many cities jumped in on early discussions of creating smaller school districts because so many schools were closing on the east side of Salt Lake County.

However, with a new district, "they'd end up keeping their schools open in declining child populations," she said. "If you don't have the critical mass to do that, you're going to be closing more schools rather than keeping them open."

If Midvale doesn't want to consider the new district configuration, Bennett said, a study he has been commissioned to do for Sandy involves just three cities: Sandy, Cottonwood Heights and Draper. Those results will be presented on August 8 to the Sandy City Council.

Shortly after that presentation, Cullimore said, the cities involved will conduct numerous meetings with each other, Jordan School District and their residents to discuss future options. Further details with the current law still need to be resolved. But Cullimore said he would be surprised if it actually made it on the November ballot.

"This is one of those things that you really have to measure 10 times and cut once," he said. "You really don't want to do it wrong."

A law passed earlier this year allows cities to ditch large school district and create their own small school districts. The idea is being explored in several communities, including Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, South Salt Lake, Sandy, Lindon and Orem. According to a Deseret Morning News and KSL statewide poll, a majority of Utah residents said it's a good idea to create smaller school districts and give local residents more say over public education.

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com