Canyons officials 'disheartened' by governor's comments

SANDY — Upset with recent comments from Gov. Gary Herbert over the district split last year that created the Canyons School District, Canyons Superintendent Dave Doty and Tracy Cowdell, board president, have penned a letter to the governor saying they are disheartened.

"We understand you believe Canyons District's creation to be a mistake. We respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree," reads the letter sent last Friday.

Herbert said last week during the taping of his monthly news conference on KUED Ch. 7 that the 2009 split, which created the Canyons District, is causing "a lot of grief" and never should have happened.

"The split has not worked very well. I think everybody would acknowledge that this split, for one side that was not able to participate in the vote to their disadvantage economically, has really caused a lot of grief," Herbert said. "I don't think they should have split."

The Jordan School District division occurred in July 2009, with the east-side Canyons District breaking from the west side after a vote of east-side residents. The west side remains as Jordan District.

Herbert's spokeswoman Angie Welling said the governor received the Canyons letter Monday and hasn't had a chance to respond.

Cowdell told the Deseret News the intention of the letter was to better inform the governor of the facts. Cowdell pointed out the governor has never attended a board meeting or contacted Canyons officials.

"Great things are happening in our district. Polls and data show the community is thrilled with what we are doing," Cowdell said. "Since we have the support of the community, I feel we should have the support of our other elected officials, as well."

Cowdell said he doesn't believe the governor should be "choosing sides" on the district division. "In essence, the governor's statement pitted himself against half of the electorate in the south end of the valley," he said. "I think such a statement is inappropriate and politically unwise."

Welling said Monday that Herbert's comments were not intended as a political statement. Rather, he was responding to a question posed by reporters following the failure of a bill.

"He certainly has no interest in taking sides on the issue and did not intend to further polarize the matter. He was simply offering a perspective, shared by many people, that the school district split has not gone as smoothly as was originally envisioned," Welling said.