Smaller Schools and Districts

Tag: resistance to dividing districts

  • Lessons learned from the Jordan/Canyons Split

    Lessons learned from the Jordan/Canyons Split

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    Seth Cox

    The Deseret News posted an insightful article into the process of dividing a large district. Some of the highlights: Tracy Cowdell, a board member of Jordan School District at the time “initially voted against the Jordan/Canyons school district division. His ties to the Jordan School District run deep. His father worked for the storied district…

  • Stand and Deliver

    Stand and Deliver

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    Seth Cox

    In 1988, a movie called Stand and Deliver recounted the story of a math teacher who helped a group of would-be high school drop outs to instead take and pass calculus. The final scene of the movie showed the teacher walking down the hall after hearing that many of them passed the AP exam. As…

  • How do Props 11 & 14 affect the “LOVPg” area?

    How do Props 11 & 14 affect the “LOVPg” area?

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    Seth Cox

    Much of the focus of this election cycle has been on the areas that are voting on Prop 11 (Lehi, American Fork, Highland, Alpine, Cedar Hills, & Draper-Suncrest) and Prop 14 (Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Cedar Fort, & Fairfield). Many people in these areas are excited about the possibility of creating their own school district…

  • Recent News on ASD Split

    Recent News on ASD Split

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    Seth Cox

    Part of the mission of this blog is to maintain a record of how the school district split issue has evolved over time. Some recent articles may be of interest to readers: Alpine School District split townhall On Sept 23, a meeting was hosted by 2 ASD board members: Sarah Beeson (Lone Peak cluster) and…

  • Poll Presentation to Pleasant Grove

    Poll Presentation to Pleasant Grove

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    Seth Cox

    On Aug 20, the group Stronger Together presented to the Pleasant Grove City Council the results of their poll that was conducted in July. Before looking at the slides, here are some things that should be known about the poll Here are some of the screenshots of the slides with some commentary. Again, the biggest…

  • Opposition to Splitting

    Opposition to Splitting

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    Seth Cox

    Recently, Stronger Together (a group that was formed to oppose the Orem Prop 2 split) has created 2 Political Issues Committees (PICs): One to oppose the West District initiative and the other to oppose the Central. This Lehi Free Press article has some important information I highly suggest reading first. Key takeaways: The best part…

  • Opposite Approaches to Reconfiguration

    Opposite Approaches to Reconfiguration

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    Seth Cox

    Two recent articles of note that demonstrate two different approaches to dividing the Alpine School District: First, we have a hopeful, forward-thinking opinion piece by Skyler Beltran: Let us not allow fear to take over. “There is no good side or bad side to this issue,” he says. “There are always pros and cons to…

  • Administrative Costs per Pupil Compared to District Size in Utah 2013-2014

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    Seth Cox

    These most recent statistics compiled from the Utah Taxpayers Association “School Spending Report: Fiscal Year 2013-2014,” April 2015 verifies the conclusions of my previous study comparing administrative costs per student to size of district (with the possible change of the number from 1000 to 2000 in student population). This graph shows that while the smallest…