Cottonwood High backers rally

MURRAY — Hundreds of agitated residents flooded to the courtyard of Cottonwood High School Monday night bent on saving the beloved 40-year-old high school. The school likely would be closed if a proposed split of Granite School District becomes reality.

Before two government entities vote on a split from Granite School District, east-side leaders and district officials have banded together to stop the division, which they say will hike taxes, put thousands of students' academic futures in jeopardy, close more schools, leave dozens of teachers unemployed and plunge the area into a frightening unknown.

The group Tuesday detailed why a split would hurt residents and, most important, their children.

"There are so many unintended consequences, such as closing down one of the premier high schools in the state, Cottonwood High School," said Holladay Councilman Hugo Diedrich. "There are too many questions and not enough answers. In fact, new questions surface almost every day."

Thursday, Holladay City Council is expected to give its approval to putting the district split issue on the November ballot. Diedrich most likely will be the lone dissenting vote, "I've given up on my colleagues at the Holladay City Council," he said.

If Holladay and Salt Lake County approve the proposed split from Granite School District this month, residents will vote on whether they want their own east-side district. South Salt Lake already opted-in to the vote last week.

During the Monday meeting, however, various community and school district leaders outlined the possible consequences, the major one being the likely closure of Cottonwood High School and, probably, other local schools.

Although Cottonwood High is in Granite School District, it falls within Murray City boundaries. Murray runs its own city school district and voted earlier this month that those residents residing in Granite would not take part in an east-side vote on the split. If a new district is formed, that chunk of Murray and all the buildings would be part of Murray School District.

Murray, however, does not have enough students to sustain Cottonwood High and would be forced to close the school. Tentative talk is that it would be sold, leased or used to house Murray's Hillcrest Junior High, which needs to be rebuilt.

"Is this really about what's best for kids? When I look at this, I do not see one child in Granite School District ... benefiting academically from dividing the district," said Sarah Meier, president of the Granite School Board.

Others were worried the feasibility study that says a split will work merely appeased those cities that commissioned it.