As for South Salt Lake and Holladay, they have joined forces with Millcreek township to look at their own district and have contracted three consulting groups to do a feasibility study — one of the final steps before a city can put the issue on the ballot. However, none of the east-side cities will put a new district on the November ballot. Instead, they may shoot for November 2007.

Still on the minds of many mayors, however, are the dozens of questions the original bill did not answer.

An ad-hoc working group of legislators and local officials on Thursday discussed a draft bill to further clarify the original. The draft, expected to be carried by Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Sandy, is to be discussed again Sept. 14, then brought to the Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee for discussion by year's end.

The draft bill also was tweaked by the working group. Now on the table:

• A new district's school board would be elected the June following the November vote to secede. The district would become operational a year later.

• Two transition teams would be appointed, one representing the old district, the other, the new one, to divide property. Tangible property such as buses, computers and desks would be divided based on student populations. Real estate and other property would be divided based on the new district's assessed valuation, perhaps sans RDAs.

The transition teams would be appointed by school districts or cities, depending on area representation. In case of disagreements, the teams would go to arbitration.

Also:

• There was some talk of allowing old and new districts to share some property, like buses, and ensuring the transition teams somehow get paid for their work.

• There also was talk of letting cities, such as Draper, which straddle two counties, be able to secede as a whole rather than splicing them along county lines.

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com