Reader comments
Jordan transition team not ready to give up on talks

Arbitration will favor the West | 6:31 a.m. April 16, 2008

I am still surprised to see the East haggling over money that will be spent on buildings before the new district starts. They have schools with much higher property values, all the Title one schools, the district offices and almost half the existing schools with the smaller group of schools AND they still want more.

I suggest they sell off some of the less used buildings and combine schools if they want to generate money for projects.

VOR | 8:06 a.m. April 16, 2008

I suggest the west side pay for what they want with their money .Quit taking mine !

WJ | 9:41 a.m. April 16, 2008

Rejection of one point in the negotiation is not rejection of the negotiation process. The east side team needs to come back to the table and talk.

VOR, you are asking us to give you our money, it's not the other way around as you imply.

Comments continue below

Chuck | 9:45 a.m. April 16, 2008

Of course the west side doesn't want arbitration. The west will not do as well in arbitration, because they are already taking more than their share from the east. They want "compromise", because then they can use media spin to pressure the east to give up more than they already are.

WJ fantasies | 9:53 a.m. April 16, 2008

The negotiation team explicitly said "this is a package deal, remove any one point and it fails". The west team did just that. The point "arbitration favors" apparently don't grasp is that there is much more value to those buildings/facilities in the remaining district - so much so that some sort of mitigation was required.

VOR - the proposal was for an amount equal to the 57% of the bond payments (that will start this Nov and last for then next 15 years) that the east side residents will pay be left to them. How is money we're paying yours? The west has already seen decades of subsidies from the east - does that justify the "what's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine" mentality your comments suggest?!

What about kids? | 10:34 a.m. April 16, 2008

All this talk about money, money, money. When's the last time either side even considered "what is best for students?" I live on the east-side but worry about my neighbors on the west. The west has every reason to be fighting for every dime they can get. They are looking at a major tax increase just to maintain current services...all because the east-side voted on this ridiculous idea without having all the honest facts. I was opposed then and I still am.

Reality Check | 11:39 a.m. April 16, 2008

WJ Fantasies,

That money you are trying to take belongs to the JSD district currently and has effectively been spent. Get over it and move on. Those schools are being built and will be done before the split. You cannot change the law regarding the bond debt and you are stuck paying for those schools.

The East side schools have a significantly higher value because of property values and because they house fewer students don't have as much wear and tear as several newer West side schools. They also will be getting all the District offices because they are in the boundaries of the new school district. Don't forget the value of all the things inside those schools will not be inventoried till the end of the school year. Arbitration will be most costly and slow down the process to get your kingdom set up. If the East fails to negociate and arbitration happens, both sides will suffer. But in the end it will be the state's children who will the most.

VOR | 11:45 a.m. April 16, 2008

I would have perferred to have the schools built on the west side paid for by those who built up the west side . But the legislature prevented that to protect the profits of the builders. So now the east side pays 57% to 43% to build the schools on the west and we agreed to pay the bond and should.But we also get our schools closed down and a bunch of whining about the unfairness of it all. It is unfair and the blame rests with the Legislature!

West Side | 12:51 p.m. April 16, 2008

The blame in the legislature lies with the eastside legislator who wrote the law allowing the disenfranchisement of voters on the west side in this district split vote. Those of us on the west side have paid for all of your schools and their higher property values, paid to build your district offices, and now it is your turn to pay for something you will not use. I doubt that west side negotiators are fearful of arbitration, they simply need to point out the fact that in the 100 years of the Jordan school District's existence folks on the west side have built Jordan High (twice), Brighton, Hillcrest, and Alta and all schools that feed them. So the west is not asking for the east's money, they are asking for their money back !!

VOR | 12:01 p.m. April 17, 2008

Thats right give me back my oney too . I paid tobuild schools on the west side . What a greedy lot we all are.

Steve Jarvis | 5:10 p.m. April 17, 2008

I grew up on the West side in substandard buildings while we were popping out ones in the East. My middle school (Bingham) was torn down. My elementary is now a private LDS school that has one more year till it too is torn down (SJ Elementary).

It saddens me to see the zealousness with which these educrats have gone to making this split happen without really looking at what the impacts could be. Draper City has rezoned three properties because they don't trust the old or new school district won't sell off the land. Teachers are moving en mass, and the East wants all the money they would be paying into the 2003 bond given back to them. We still don't know where the two districts will cut in order to pay for the duplicated personnel, because each will be working with less money than before.

This is a nightmare that will effect this generation of children negatively in the same manner as the open schools did back in the seventies.

Lacey | 7:10 p.m. April 19, 2008

I am sick of this whole thing. I wish we can have a do over. This mess is not what we were told would happen. Personally I think the Jordan School District stinks, with the split it is going to stink even worse.

Add your comment

Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.

Words Remaining

E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.