Reverse Gerrymandering?
One result of the vote last month to split Jordan School District into smaller east-side/west-side governing bodies will be a shift in power to some of the smaller cities on the east side and the entire south-end Salt Lake Valley west of the Jordan River.
An ad hoc committee of the Salt Lake County Council has opted to base school-board boundaries on individual city boundaries rather than school boundaries, as they have been in the past.
That means that in the new east-side district, members Midvale and Draper will each get a representative on the seven-member board. Those two cities have no representation now. Cottonwood Heights will retain a board member. The rest will be split up between Sandy and unincorporated Salt Lake County. Sandy currently has three members on the existing, larger, Jordan District board.
The new west-side district will have board members from South Jordan and the Herriman/Bluffdale area, while larger West Jordan will have a few. Currently, none of those west-side cities, which represent a huge chunk of Salt Lake County's population, have representation on the school board.
The idea, says Joe Hatch, one of the ad hoc committee members, is that board members beholden to a city-wide electorate rather than a junior high school district with its elementary feeder schools will be more likely to make school closure and other decisions based on sound economic and educational principles instead of parochial neighborhood reasons. One thing that has gotten the districts in trouble in the past, says Hatch, is the protection board members tend to give to their own neighborhood schools, whether it makes sense economically or not.
Cheers, Paul Rolly
An ad hoc committee of the Salt Lake County Council has opted to base school-board boundaries on individual city boundaries rather than school boundaries, as they have been in the past.
That means that in the new east-side district, members Midvale and Draper will each get a representative on the seven-member board. Those two cities have no representation now. Cottonwood Heights will retain a board member. The rest will be split up between Sandy and unincorporated Salt Lake County. Sandy currently has three members on the existing, larger, Jordan District board.
The new west-side district will have board members from South Jordan and the Herriman/Bluffdale area, while larger West Jordan will have a few. Currently, none of those west-side cities, which represent a huge chunk of Salt Lake County's population, have representation on the school board.
The idea, says Joe Hatch, one of the ad hoc committee members, is that board members beholden to a city-wide electorate rather than a junior high school district with its elementary feeder schools will be more likely to make school closure and other decisions based on sound economic and educational principles instead of parochial neighborhood reasons. One thing that has gotten the districts in trouble in the past, says Hatch, is the protection board members tend to give to their own neighborhood schools, whether it makes sense economically or not.
Cheers, Paul Rolly
1:51 PM
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