Take time to ponder a district split

In 2005, our family relocated to Utah from Columbia, S.C., where we had lived for several years. Leaving an excellent public school district in suburban Columbia of 20,000 students, we settled on a house in Sandy, in the middle of the Jordan School District, with more than 80,000 students. One might think, based on the arguments currently being made in favor of splitting the cities of Cottonwood Heights, Sandy, and Draper into their own school district, that based on school district size alone, we would be extremely unhappy with the schooling our children have received in the Jordan District. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are we very satisfied with our childrens' progress in Jordan schools, we are deeply concerned about what might be lost should this split occur.

First, and most importantly, we are concerned that unique programs now offered by the Jordan District may not be sustainable in a smaller district with significantly smaller enrollments. We chose to live in the Jordan District specifically because of the ALPS program at Midvale Middle School, which offers an advanced, rigorous program of study for motivated students, preparing them to succeed in college-prep courses in Jordan's high schools, including AP and International Baccalaureate classes. Because this magnet program enjoys the funding base of a large school district, and draws students from the entire southern end of the valley, it not only provides a viable choice for parents but also helps to sustain an otherwise under-enrolled school. Our concern is that with smaller enrollments and smaller budgets in a new school district, such public school choices for parents may be reduced or cut altogether.

Second, we are concerned about the ethnic, socioeconomic and religious diversity that may be lost with the creation of an east-side-only district. Coming from South Carolina, where our children attended public schools in a district that was 55 percent African-American and 45 percent white, we value the opportunity they have in the Jordan District to attend school outside their neighborhood with peers of different ethnicities, languages and faiths. What will happen when such voluntary integration disappears and students on the east side have no choice but to attend schools likely to become even more homogeneous than they already are?