Granite School District split?

Efforts are underway in one of Utah’s largest school districts to divide. According to a recent Deseret News article, residents from both sides of the political spectrum are feeling that Granite School District is too big to adequately provide for their students.

From the article:

“Parents and policymakers are asking city councils in Holladay, Millcreek, South Salt Lake and Emigration Canyon to approve a feasibility study, which would act as the first step to split the district in half.”

Taylor Davis told the Deseret News, when he speaks to people on both sides of the split, they tell him it was difficult and a long process, but “I have never had a single person — I’m talking teachers, administrators, citizens — I’ve never had a single person tell me they wish that they were still together.”

The article linked to several studies that we have also linked to on SmallerSchools.org. The studies stand for themselves: Big districts are not good for taxpayers, parents, or teachers.

I recently had a conversation with a teacher in Granite School District recently. Here’s what they had to say:

“A few years ago, they tried to have all of the teachers in Granite School District to meet together. The first place they had us meet together was in the Maverick Center. Parking was overflowing. People got parking tickets because there was nowhere to park. The district had too many personnel due to its large size that it could not support everybody parking there. So the next year they decided to have a meeting for all of the teachers at the expo center. They bussed everybody there and it was very expensive. Many of the teachers complained because there’s no way for all of us to meet together as a district due to our large size.”

“I would like to see an east and west split. There are usually problems going all the way across the district to the other side for meetings. Teachers have to drive long distances. I feel like this would be way more cost-effective if we were to split into two different districts.”