Salt Lake County puts off action on school district split

The Salt Lake County Council on Tuesday voted to ask the Legislature to clear the muddy waters surrounding the debate over whether cities should be allowed to form small school districts.

The futures of Jordan and Granite school districts are now left in one big waiting game, while every player waits for the other to act first.

The County Council is waiting for the Legislature, and the Legislature is waiting for the County Council. Standing on the sidelines are west-side mayors, who are waiting for the County Council to make a move before deciding whether to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of allowing just a sliver of the county to vote on a school district split, rather than letting everyone vote.

"It's like we're at a concert and we keep waiting for the crescendo," Riverton Mayor Bill Applegarth said. "Just when we think it's going to come, we have to wait again."

Applegarth and other west-side mayors will have to keep waiting, because the Salt Lake County Council could postpone a vote on splitting the Jordan and Granite school districts until the first week of September.

County leaders want to wait until the last possible minute, in case the Legislature finds a way to equalize the burden of school construction on a county or statewide level, and decides whether everyone in the county can vote on the issue.

But that might not happen in a month. House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, has said he will have a hard time convincing legislators of the need for a special session, unless there's a solid reason, such as a ballot proposal. After all, he has said, about 60 percent of legislators are not from the Salt Lake metro area, and the special session would be all about people in Salt Lake County.

The lack of a decision by the County Council on Tuesday also means west-side city leaders' promised legal challenge to the constitutionality of the law remains in limbo.

If the County Council waits until September to make a decision, west-side leaders will rely on the courts to move the legal challenge through the system quickly, Applegarth said.

"I really don't know if there's anything else we can do," he said.

The waiting game could end if Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. calls the Legislature into special session. The governor has said he would entertain the idea of a special session, but there must be some consensus first.

Mainly, there are competing ideas on how to equalize money available to tax-poor districts. Curtis wants to combine building money from all Salt Lake County school districts — Murray, Salt Lake City, Jordan and Granite — and divvy it out by need. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, has looked at a $100 million statewide building aid fund.