So, why don't we combine all of the School Districts in Utah and create 1 Super large District that will save all of the costs....

The fact missed, is that a large district is hard to manage and that the Administration can only do so much to ensure the children's education. While the management is costly, the cost of mismanagement due to extreme size is even more costly to society.

Your letter makes me wonder if you are like me, and got an education despite all the efforts of the Jordan School District to do otherwise.

Want some cheese with that whine?

Perhaps the writer also advocates combining all 41 Utah school districts into 1 and eliminating all that redundant overhead. Or, maybe combining just the 4 (now 5) in SL County. One would think that after 27 years in the district, he would have a little perspective. Perhaps he ought to give Mayor Seghini a call and ask whether she thinks the prospect of a little extra cost outweighs the ability to get some action on Midvale's crumbling school buildings.

Why would the DN even print this letter at this late date other than to re-hash the same old arguments?

Duuuh!

The headline should add "administrative" before costs in order to approach accuracy. Administrative costs MAY double - they MAY NOT. Either way they are a minor portion of the entire school budget. To say "Costs Double" implies that ALL costs double and is inaccurate.

A few years ago one of the minor tax levies on my property tax bill tripled their tax rate. To claim my taxes "tripled" connotates a much larger increase ($4000) than what actually occurred ($20). My taxes to the one tax authority DID triple, but the overall impact was minor.

It's worth your time to realize what's happening all over the country with small school districts that can't provide breadth of services.

Check out the article about "Budget woes spark school district mergers" in USA Today.

Is Utah moving in the wrong direction?

I know of special needs children in smaller districts who could be fully functioning members of society (not just wiping tables at McDonalds) who are not receiving the help they need because their small districts do not have the resources. Splitting into smaller and smaller districts with the concomitant increase in administrative overhead does not make sense in a lot of ways.

"Uhhh" makes a very good point. Unfortunately the word "administrative" would be way too long for a headline.

To "school district's merge": Reread the article. Most school districts across the country are TINY. Many are just a thousand students. What is happening in Jordan District is the creation of a new (still large) district of 35,000 students from a humongous district of 80,000 students. The existing JSD covers 250 square miles and represents more than 350,000 patrons. Its size made management unwieldy and true representation almost impossible. The new district's size (now 5th in the state) will still allow it to provide all the "breadth of services" JSD did in a much more concentrated, focused way. That can only be good for both districts -- pointing Utah in the "right" direction.

No matter how you slice this pie, tax payers will pay dearly for a few to have a little control. Now that the new Jordan East Board has voted themselves a big raise and are still complaining about the long hour they have to spend, let's have a little sympathy and applaud their wonderful effort. So far I've seen nothing they have done that improves the education of our children. With our Mayors looking for ways to divert education dollars to city projects and a Superintendent who has next to no experience, coupled with a self serving Board of Education, who thinks costs will go down or even remain the same? Give me a break

This district split has been a huge disaster. This is what you get when you don't have good open democratic government. This split was pushed by a small group of self-serving politicans. They created this split and pushed it with dark back room deals. The Mayors and Legislators even went as far as hand picking the school board and unqualified superintendent. Nationally the states are moving forward with consolidating districts. Las Vegas has a consolidated District and they have been very successful. We get exaclty what we vote for. Oh, I forgot or did not vote for if you live on the West Side. All these mayors and politicans need to be held accoutnable and voted out when they come up for re-election. Let these pompous Mayors, Board Members, and Leislators enjoy the kick off of the new District in Mayor Dolan's and Representative Curtis's grand Soccer Stadium. What a great use of our tax dollars. Only the lawyers and fat cat politicans will benefit from this split mess. We hurt teachers and students!!! God help us all.

I agree with Rodney.

It is a shame that the adults involved can't seem to see that certain services and administration could be shared like one administration building, special education, computer technology, etc. Life could be better and less costly.