School-district bill tweaked

A draft bill intended to clarify many of the unanswered questions on existing small school district law was brought before legislators and local leaders Thursday.

Now in the draft bill:

• A city that straddles two counties can still participate in an interlocal agreement.

• If voters approve a new district, it cannot serve students until July 1 of the second school calendar year following the vote.

• Homeowners and businesses within the new district will still have to help repay bonds issued by the old district prior to the vote creating the new district.

• The state superintendent, new and old district superintendents and school board presidents will determine the transferring of all school property, such as buildings and buses.

• New districts that would isolate a portion of an existing district (an area that would not be contiguous to other parts of the existing district) could still be submitted to voters.

Those changes would pave the way for two proposed east-side school districts to move forward.

Two elements in the current law could have prevented the Salt Lake County cities from moving forward: first, Draper straddles the Salt Lake and Utah county border, and second, a toe of Murray, where Cottonwood High School is not included in the Murray School District boundaries and there are no plans for it to be annexed by the district. That area of the Granite School District will be isolated from the rest of Granite if a new district is created.

This week, Cottonwood Heights, Draper and Alta all unanimously approved an interlocal agreement between themselves, Sandy, Midvale and Salt Lake County to contract for a feasibility study among the five cities and county.

A feasibility study is one of the final steps municipalities need to take before the issue is put on the ballot.

In addition, South Salt Lake, Holladay and Millcreek township are looking at creating their own district and have contracted with three consulting groups to do a feasibility study.

"It's mushrooming," said Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Sandy. "It's a real groundswell."

Walker will sponsor the bill in the 2007 legislative session and says the bill will continue to be tweaked and discussed up to that time.

"It isn't just a financial issue. This isn't being driven to save money. It's being driven by parents who want more input on their child's education," she said.

On top of that, Rep. Susan Lawrence, R-Millcreek, is also drafting a bill that details how a new district would collect taxes. Under her bill, titled for now as the new school district leeway retention, a new school district would collect taxes for two years at the same rate they were collected under the old district.