Five east-side cities in Salt Lake County are on the brink of signing a $84,500 contract with three companies to study the feasibility of breaking away from Jordan School District and creating another east-side district.

Draper, Sandy, Alta, Cottonwood Heights, Midvale and Salt Lake County plan to approve an interlocal agreement by the end of the year to do the joint feasibility study. The cities hope the study will help determine whether or not a smaller, east-side school district would be better than remaining part of the large Jordan School District.

The Cottonwood Heights City Council approved the agreement Tuesday night, and the Sandy City Council is expected to approve it next week. Holladay, South Salt Lake and Salt Lake County have also entered into their own feasibility-study agreement.

"Right now, with two feasibility studies going on in the valley, it's raising quite a stir," said Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore Jr. "I think the key here is to give it a full airing, to make sure we have adequate information. Then I think people can make an informed decision before they can vote."

As defined by current law, put into place during the 2005 Legislative general session, a feasibility study is one of the steps municipalities must take before the issue can be put on the ballot.

For Alta Mayor Tom Pollard, the concern is that his small town's school, set up in the Goldminer's Daughter hotel, remains open. About 15 students attend the school, including two of Pollard's children.

"If we can do a better job educating the students through a smaller district, I think that's a pretty good idea," he said. "But what it comes down to is if can we provide the same or better level of education with this new district."

Salt Lake-based investment bankers Lewis Young Robertson & Burningham Inc. will be leading the financial analysis of the study, while Western Demographics will be handling educational-quality issues and The Center for Management and Organizational Effectiveness(CMOE) will deal with human-resource and personnel issues.

The cities and the county will split up the cost of the new feasibility study based on their population and assessed taxable value. The base fee for the study is $84,500. That amount could increase to $154,500, depending on whether the cities decide to delve into further financial and educational issues.

Sandy will contribute $35,873; Draper: $16,426; Cottonwood Heights: $15,022; Midvale: $9,830; Salt Lake County: $6,555; and Alta: $793. A fact-finding study released earlier this year by Bennett Educational Consultants Inc. showed a new district with the five southeastern cities would have smaller class sizes and generate more money per pupil.

An updated small school-district bill was endorsed earlier this month by the Legislature's Political Subdivisions Committee and is slated to be one of the first bills heard by the Senate in the 2007 general session.

---

E-mail: astowell@desnews.com