West Jordan May Go Solo in School District Split
None by KCPW
(KCPW News) West Jordan Mayor Dave Newton says his city was perfectly happy being part of the Jordan School District. But then several East-side communities got serious about splitting off to create their own smaller district and West Jordan officials decided they'd rather go out on their own than be district leftovers.West Jordan meets the population threshold required by state law to create a stand-alone school district within its boundaries. Today the West Jordan City Council will learn the final results of its feasibility study and could soon decide to put its own school district proposal on the city ballot this November.
Mayor Newton says there are lots of benefits to the plan, including more local control over schools and less tug-of-war with other cities for taxes. West-side cities that will be left in the Jordan School District fear they won't have enough money for their own needs. Several state lawmakers are lobbying for a special session to work out funding issues next month.
Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW
1. Concerned for the community said:
I've lived in West Jordan almost 30 years now, I have to say this makes me a little nervous just because of WJ's track record of handling money - like the missing $1m for the fleet cars and the lawsuit they settled with Patty Atkinson, settling and paying her even though she was the one that was supposed to be responsible for the money.
WJ government doesn't have a great reputation for its honesty and in my opinion it's not very good about listening to what it's citizens want and moving forward as much as it's about doing what works best for a few influential people in the community.
If they do this right, it could be a great thing for West Jordan - high quality schools will drive up property values and better paying jobs (aka more taxes for the city) but if they handle the school district like they handle the government, then I'm afraid the results could be diastrous.
After all, we do have the dubious distinction have being the home of Chris Buttars, the author of a bill to stop teaching science/evolution in the schools, the man that said "Brown v. Board of Education is wrong to begin with", a homophobe, and a friend of Gayle Ruzicka This is definately an issue I'll be keeping a close eye on.
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