Jordan transition team not ready to give up on talks

The Jordan School District Transition team isn't ready to close the book on the negotiating process with the new Jordan School district team in splitting up district assets — despite their recent rejection of a negotiation proposal.

Tuesday the team, which represents the remaining west side of the district, sent a letter to the Jordan-east team, both responding to their latest correspondence and inviting them to continue in negotiations and possibly side-step arbitration.

Jordan-west transition chairman Ralph Haws said team members recently received a letter from the new district's team that invited clarification of their stance and outlined their interpretation of the team's rejection — arbitration.

According to the letter from the Jordan-east team, they welcomed further discussion but felt it could be futile if the Jordan-west team continues to "hold some elements as non-negotiable."

Last month a negotiating team, which included two members from each side, presented recommendations to both teams on how to fairly divide district assets. East-side residents voted in November to split from Jordan and establish their own district.

The biggest hurdle standing in the way of an agreement is what to do with a 2003 $196 million bond.

The proposal allocated 57 percent of the bond proceeds to the new east-side school district, requiring the west-side taxpayers to reimburse the new school district $112 million. Leaders said that would most likely mean a tax increase for residents on the fast-growing west side.

The Jordan-west team members rejected the proposal, something the Jordan-east team viewed as a rejection of the negotiating process. Shortly thereafter Jordan-east hired a lawyer and began preparing for arbitration.

Jordan-west then followed suit and will be reviewing firms next week.

But leaders from both teams said arbitration is still last resort and they would still like to work things out through the negotiation process.

The letter sent from the Jordan-west team Tuesday invited the Jordan-east team to continue working together through the negotiating team and determine the points in the proposal where both teams are in agreement. Then they could seek an official endorsement from both teams on the parts of the proposal that work for both while isolating the trouble areas.

Then should the teams be unable to settle on an agreement, only a few issues would go to arbitration rather than the entire proposal.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com