Jordan school split may not cut into choice

At Alta High, 19 percent of 111 permit students are from the west side.

Jordan schools also take in nearly 700 students from other school districts, 39 percent of whom attend east-side schools.

They also give up 2,662 students to other school districts. Of them, 115 are from Brighton High. Lear says students for decades have migrated north to Granite District's Skyline High.

Nov. 6, voters in Sandy, Cottonwood Heights, Draper, Alta and Midvale will decide whether to secede from the Jordan School District. The new east-side district would contain 33,500 students and 45 schools. West Jordan voters also will decide whether to create a city school district, which would have 20,600 students and 23 schools.

Those opposing the splits have worried about sustaining programs such as gifted and other magnet programs and those for children with severe, multiple disabilities. Such specialty schools and property such as district offices will be divvied up by transition teams representing the old and new districts.

In the mix are school choice concerns.

Choice always is less complicated within the same school district, Lear says. If that's the case, then the majority of transfer students, including the Gawrych family, may be able to rest easy.

But "it's going to be a mess if you're going to sort out where kids have gone, where they want to go — all those things are going to be multiplied with new districts," Lear said.

When a student transfers out of a school district, leaders use a special formula to calculate how much money to give the student's new school district to cover the cost of the child's education. But will a new school district have a handle on what the local portion would be? What about being able to draw boundaries, a process that some school districts have undergone using only neighborhood enrollments, and not students attending the schools by choice? Lear believes answers are not simple.

"I think this is an area certainly people are thinking about ... it is more complex than what most people concern themselves with," Lear said. "Splits don't lend themselves to quickly letting kids go back and forth."

School districts do have the right to put a moratorium on school choice for a period of time while it aligns its schools, Lear said.

But that won't have to happen, said Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights, who carried smaller school districts legislation.