The idea of creating small school districts is picking up steam in some Salt Lake County cities, and county officials say they want to hear from the cities' elected officials and their constituents.
At county meetings Tuesday, council members agreed to schedule a public hearing on the issue in June or July. They plan to invite mayors of the three cities that have been most vocal about forming the districts: South Salt Lake, Holladay and Cottonwood Heights.
"If they're doing a study, we'd like to be involved in everything they do," Mayor Peter Corroon said. Corroon added that he has been getting strong feedback from area residents about the cities' discussions of the possible districts, and he has spoken with the cities' mayors.
Councilman Randy Horiuchi said that the county needs to have a stronger role in the issue. "We definitely need to be involved," he said.
Councilman David Wilde has been assigned to be the council representative for the small school-district issue.
All three east-side cities had at least one of their city schools closed last year by Granite School District because of declining school-age populations. In addition to the declining number of young students, east-side neighborhoods are older and built-out. So most of the money from Granite — the county's largest district — goes toward west-side neighborhoods, where the housing market is growing and many young families are moving in.
Concerned residents and city leaders helped push a bill during the legislative session that allows cities with populations of at least 65,000 to form their own school districts. Smaller cities that border one another can band together to meet the law's population requirement in order to form their own districts.
But stipulations in the law say a new district cannot land-lock or create islands out of existing districts. South Salt Lake officials say that constraint likely makes the issue dead in their city. An area of Murray, which is outside the Murray School District and still in Granite School District, would constitute such an island and prevent South Salt Lake from ditching Granite. South Salt Lake would have to combine populations with other interested entities like Holladay or Cottonwood Heights or unincorporated parts of the county to form a district.
At South Salt Lake's council meeting last Wednesday, a second geographical snag was shown to council members. Cottonwood Heights mostly sits in Jordan School District, but a small splinter is still in Granite. If South Salt Lake and Holladay were to form a small school district and Cottonwood Heights did not join, that portion of Cottonwood Heights would be land-locked.
"There's really not a geographical configuration for South Salt Lake to create a school district with the east-side neighbors," city attorney David Carlson said. "Anyway you try to put the pieces of the puzzle together, you lock out a portion of the Granite School District."
Cities that want to pursue a locally controlled district must first do a feasibility study. Cottonwood Heights has already commissioned its own study.
The idea has also been brought up in Sandy and Orem. Until February, West Valley City was also active in pursuing its own district, and even passed a resolution supporting the small school-district bill. But most of the City Council members withdrew their support.
County councilman Michael Jensen said in Tuesday's meeting that other west-side cities might want to form small school districts, and Magna and Kearns officials had expressed interest.
E-mail: astowell@desnews.com