Deseret News | Jordan-east team says negotiations at impasse

Reader comments
Jordan-east team says negotiations at impasse

Monkies with typewriters | 6:34 a.m. June 3, 2008

The East wants more than it is entitled to. The West wanted to divide the common buildings. In the end the split gets nothing done for either side and just burns money. What about the children?

The children get burned the most because of this. Let's get that special session together and try to clear things up. If we can't get things cleared, we must do what is best for the kids and cancel this idiocy once and for all and go back to working together for the sake of the kids.

Stewart | 9:31 a.m. June 3, 2008

It seems that since the East side wanted this divorce in the first place that they would be willing to split the value of the common buildings, but they don't want to since almost all of them are in the east. The West will have to turn around and build new district offices and such. It looks like the East wants a somewhat one sided deal. The Jordan School District has been one of the best in the nation. It is too bad that people on the East decided to destroy it.

Chuck | 10:01 a.m. June 3, 2008

The biggest problem is the west is not acting in good faith. They don't WANT to make it work. They WANT to undermine the process.

There is NO reason to NOT go forward. Delay in this case is only meant to stop rather than improve the process.

The division will vastly improve education for both sides, as has been shown in many studies. Opponents refuse to read or consider these studies however.

The west will win big with M&O monies, that pay for teachers and class size, because they have the most students and are growing, AND they will now be helped on the rest of the budget by the equalization. But the opponents don't care about that. They continue to blast the east side instead. They want the bigger, more socialistic government. They want to continue to have their hand in the east's pocket without the east's consent. AND they don't realize that they lose by keeping the big district too.

Comments continue below

One-Sided | 10:03 a.m. June 3, 2008

@Monkies and Stewart: Perhaps you don't realize how one-sided the west side proposal(s) are/have been? In the last go round they were more than willing to have the east pay for 57% of ALL liabilities (bonds), yet wanted to $0 values on the vast majority of ALL assets. Even in the nastiest "divorce" and you insist upon calling this, each side gets some of what they paid for and some of the responsibility for what they owe. To claim that giving one side all the liabilities and the other all the real assets at no charge is extemely unreasonable - thus the impasse.
Remember, the west side team rejected the initial proposal that was signed off by two of their very own members, and did it in a meeting where those two voices of reason could not be present.
The JSD will continue to be a great school district unless Stewart-like naysayers create a self-fulfilling prophesy and blame it on others when failure occurs rather than take some responsibility for themselves and their own future.

west side tyranny? | 10:15 a.m. June 3, 2008

the west side has deliberately engineered this impasse to prevent the loss of tax base money so it can continue to fleece the eastern portion of the district. the west side district has only its students and interests at heart and it is at the expense of ours. if this goes to a special session the district will never be split. please east side board do not allow yourselves to be continuous victims to the west side greed and hegemony. stand your ground and protect our students.

George | 12:58 p.m. June 3, 2008

If this goes to arbitration the West is in big, big trouble. Their two transition negociators (Horst and Nielsen, both with accounting backgrounds)crafted a great deal for the West that their politicians (Haws, M. Johnson, et al) rejected. Both proposals were accepted by the East. The East has "bent over backwards" to accomodate the West. If this goes to arbitration, the West will lose big time.

Attorneys are the winners | 1:02 p.m. June 3, 2008

The only winners in this will be the attorneys-- and once again, students will be the real losers.

east-ender | 2:09 p.m. June 3, 2008

Was the vote to SECEDE from JSD or to SPLIT JSD? If the vote was to SECEDE, then JSD owes nothing to those who are leaving. Those who are withdrawing need to start their own school district from scratch, and see if maybe they can purchase existing buildings from JSD.
If the vote was to split JSD, then the division of assets makes sense. HOWEVER, if it was a vote to SPLIT JSD then everyone living within JSD boundaries should have been able to vote, not just those on the east side.
If I were to leave my company (secede) to start my own business, nobody in their right mind would say I was entitled to half of my former company's assets to help me start my own business.
What a travesty! The whole east-side v. west-side thing is juvenile and counter-productive. This should be put on the ballot again, only this time allowing EVERYONE living within JSD boundaries to vote - not just a few.
"We all talk a different language when talking in defense."

Duh | 2:27 p.m. June 3, 2008

You can't secede from a school district without splitting it. It's semantics in your head, but whether you support the west, the east, or the children, it's just not possible to have a secession without a split. East-side or west-side cities in the current JSD can not just form a new district without splitting away from the existing district. How could they? Do you want them in two districts at once? Alta can be in Jordan East and Jordan District at once? I'm sure the taxpayers will LLLOOOOOOOVVVVEEEE that one! :)

Greg | 2:33 p.m. June 3, 2008

The East side elites wanted this divorce. The west side folks like myself never had a say about this, and we only had one city on the West side that had the guts to take on this issue. Monkies said it best, what should be at the core of this decision is what is best for the kids, however Chuck quotes all of these studies that show how wonderful this will be for the children...forgive me for not taking his word for this, Chuck I'd be happy to read these studies your are refering too, just post them and I'll read them. From where I sit, the East side saw that they were going to support the West side like we supported the East side for years, now it is their turn and they want to take the money and run...HURRAH for the West side team for making sure we are not fleeced. If the childrens money is taken by the attorney's you only have the legislators and the east side elites to blame for it. Give the West Side the opportunity to vote, and I'll bet you see this process go quickly.

Chuck | 2:49 p.m. June 3, 2008

The whole east-side v. west-side issue was created by the DISTRICT OFFICIALS and opponents, et.al., in an effort to submarine the attempt! The east didn't create it. The west wouldn't have either. It was the opponents of the division who stirred it up. Had everyone been able to vote, they would have done the same thing in an attempt to kill it at the polls.

They aren't interested in fixing or making a better process. They are just doing and saying ANYTHING they can to defeat it.

Jack | 4:00 p.m. June 3, 2008

To Greg who says "HURRAH for the West side team for making sure we are not fleeced". You forget, as George has pointed out, that the 2 members of that team that the others appointed as their negociators, and that have most accounting experience, negociated a deal that their fellow team members then rejected. As George has said, because the West side team chose to bring in bluster and politics (rather than good sense), I am afraid we will get fleeced.

To One Sided | 5:27 p.m. June 3, 2008

The East is obligated to pay for the bond regardless of the split. That cannot be changed by creating a new taxing authority. If any of the split pundits told you it could, they'd be wrong. If the split goes through, new taxes will be determined by the new districts. The reason the West is so upset is that the East voted to create a new district for the West as they voted to create one in the East. That was the fundamental flaw in not allowing everyone to vote.

The split should not be allowed to transpire and the law for doing so should be repealed. It has caused too much damage as it is.

Reality Check | 5:31 p.m. June 3, 2008

When this goes to arbitration the East is going to lose the most (though the kids have the most at stake. I think it ridiculous that they demand half of everything and complaining that the West who has the majority of students has been the greedy ones. It also was the East from the get-go that was against a fair distribution, and has been the one who has walked away from the table.

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.