School districts chided for not getting along

Legislators took the opportunity in Friday's legislative budget discussions to chide the Jordan School District and the newly formed Canyons School District for not saving money by getting along.

The two districts recently failed to strike a deal to temporarily share office space and services such as payroll, insurance, transportation and maintenance.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said he was disappointed in the districts for not combining services to save money.

"There is such a divisiveness, and it's destructive to good common business sense," Stephenson said. "They will have very costly duplicative administrative roles in each of the districts."

He told the Legislative Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee the latest tiff between the two districts reminded him of a song. However, committee members forbade the senator from singing.

After the meeting, Stephenson told the Deseret News the song on his mind is "The Farmer and the Cowman," from the musical "Oklahoma." The lyrics say those who want fences "should be friends" with those who favor free-roaming cattle.

In November 2007, east-side residents voted to leave Jordan District and form their own school district. Since then, the two districts have not been able to agree on splitting assets and liabilities. Arbitration is scheduled for December.

The Jordan District division will be official July 1, 2009.

---

E-mail: astewart@desnews.com