Jordan official backs school split with donation

One of the top three donors to the effort to split Jordan School District is a member of the Jordan Board of Education.

Board member Kim Horiuchi gave $500 to Citizens for Small School Districts, according to the financial disclosure reports that Political Issues Committees and Political Action Committees had to file by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Her gift is surpassed by two others. Mike Bennett gave the most with an in-kind donation of $1,400. Group vice chairman Brian Allen said Bennett is not the same person who conducted the cities' feasibility study for a new school district but is a neighborhood business owner. Allen says the in-kind donation was a phone service for a get-out-the-vote campaign.

Allen was the second-largest donor on the report, totaling slightly less than $650.

Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore, who led the effort for east-side cities to secede from the state's largest school district, also kicked in $500.

The Jordan Board of Education this month took a stand against splitting the school district. Horiuchi voted against the move, as did two others who preferred to remain neutral on the issue.

"I've always made my position known. I supported the concept of a smaller school district ... and I decided to make a donation to show that," Horiuchi said. "I have donated money to other educational causes, too, like Utahns for Public Schools (which opposes private school tuition vouchers), probably in the same amount if not a little bit more."

Citizens for Small School Districts reports receiving more than $4,600, and spending about $1,820, mainly on get-out-the-vote phone calls, a Web site and voter list. Allen says the group hopes to send out a mailer before Election Day Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Political Action Committee report for an opposing group had not been received by Salt Lake County Chief Deputy Clerk Jason Yocom as of the 5 p.m. Tuesday filing deadline. But, he said in an e-mail, Friends of Jordan School District PAC may not have raised or spent $750. They also may have mailed in the disclosure, he said.

Ellen Wallace, who is active in the group Friends of Jordan School District and is also a school board member, said she was working to sort out the circumstances Tuesday evening.

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com