Educated voters on education issues?

From school vouchers to smaller school districts, residents in the Jordan School District will have a lot to consider at the ballot box on Nov. 6 — and it's cause for worry with some city leaders.

Between talk of the east-side cities breaking into a new district and subsequent west-side cities considering the same, leaders in various Salt Lake County cities are concerned their residents might confuse the issues.

Add to that a lack of campaigning on the matter, fractured communities and a fear of the unknown, and it's easy to see how Election Day has some local leaders on edge.

In West Jordan, where voters will decide if they want to create a school district just for their city, City Councilman Rob Bennett says he's concerned about a lack of public awareness.

"Some people appear to have mixed the issues," Bennett said. "I think some people are possibly under the impression that this vote we're having ... will have an impact on whether the east side will leave the Jordan School District ... . That is not a correct understanding."

One reason residents may be confused is because campaign efforts for and against the split has been spotty. Just in the past month has a citizens' group popped up in favor of the split. And, to date, a local group against the split has yet to form.

Cottonwood Heights resident Nicole Bangerter helped start the group Citizens for Small School Districts, or C4SSD. The group is putting up lawn signs which read "Vote yes to create a new school district."

"I understand the need to build new schools on the west side. But I also want us to have air-conditioners on the east side," Bangerter said in reference to the school-construction urgency on the west and renovation in the east. "The fact is, they closed two of our elementary schools two years ago and now we have overcrowding."

Those schools, Cottonwood and Mountview elementaries, were in Cottonwood Heights.

The group is fund-raising through its Web site — www.c4ssd.com — and has so far raised $3,500 in donations. Most of that came after the Jordan Board of Education voted Tuesday to oppose district splits. West-side leaders say they appreciate the board's stance but wonder if the position has come too late.