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Show Simple District Boundary Problem Frustrates School Community Council a state guarantee system of funding for capital outlays, indirectly making the state 'responsible for the budget. Perhaps the most promising proposal came near the end of the :meeting. A member of the audience suggested that the two districts work out an agreement that would allow residents of the area in question to vote in Park City School Elections,, even though they would still technical-1 technical-1 ly belong to the South Summit District. This proposal, coupled with the pending legislation on the new budgeting system, would take care of the two most pressing problems of the present situation budgeting and disenfranchise-ment disenfranchise-ment of the residents. Superintendent Goodworth later told the Record the board was exploring the possibility of such an agreement, with the assistance of Rick Prince. Goodworth said such a solution would only be temporary. "Ultimately," he said, "we would like to see the boundary lines changed," he said. "Maybe the legislature will be more receptive to changing the boundary boun-dary lines in a few years." Any solution, even a temporary ' one, is not likely to be found in the near future, said Sen. Clyde. "I can't believe the legislature would be so naive," he said. Sen. Clyde assured Van Wagoner Wa-goner and the rest of the audience that such action would certainly be possible, if not likely. "I've fought this battle so many times, I'm gun shy," he said. "There is always a nucleus of people in the legislature who want to reorganize and consolidate consoli-date the two remaining counties that have multiple districts." Rick Prince, husband of school board member Ann Prince, said he felt the legislature would preserve the separate districts in the county if representatives from the Park City and South Summit boards presented a united plan. They would be much more likely to merge the districts if the boards presented separate proposals pro-posals and appeared to be squabbling over the issue, he said. Clyde again responded that there would be no guarantee that the legislature would accept even a united plan. "You'd still be exposing yourselves to forces that have been trying to reorganize for years," he said. Part of the problem could be alleviated, said Clyde, by a bill presently pending before the lepislature which would institute size of Park City automatically assume responsibility for the education of residents in any property annexed by the city. Presently, annexed areas only become part of the towns's school board automatically if the town is a Class 1 area, such as Salt Lake. Park City is a Class 2 town. Such a law would have limited benefit in the stale as a whole, however, since all but two counties in Utah Summit and Sanpete have county-wide school districts. 2. Change the district boundary lines. Goodworth told the Marsac audience that counties have power to consolidate school districts, but they can't change boundary lines on existing ones. Power to change boundary lines is reserved for the state legislature. According to Sen. Clyde, both these alternatives, if presented to the state legislature, would likelly invite another attempt to consolidate consoli-date the three Summit County Districts into one. Clyde estimated estima-ted that such a bill has been proposed "30 times" in the past. 3. Accept consolidation, or "reorganization," and try to preserve some autonomy for the three districts. Goodworth ex-. ex-. pressed concern that the county would lose money in consolidation, consolida-tion, however. Small school funds would be lost, he said, because the district would be too large to be eligible, and the county would receive a single "weighted pupil unit," used to compute the amount of state aid to be allotted, instead of three separate units for each district. All three speakers at the meeting agreed that, according to feedback, they have received, the residents of Summit County do not want to have the three districts consolidated. Under the current set-up, Park City, South Summit and North Summit arc the fourth, fifth and sixth richest school districts in the state, in terms of money spent per student. Wayne Van Wagoner, husband hus-band of unsuccessful school board candidate Pat Van Wagoner, expressed disbelief that the state legislature would impose such a reorganization plan on the county against the clear wishes of its residents. More than 100 students attending attend-ing Park City schools are not legally part of the Park City School District. Forty-eight of the students live within the Park City town limits in the Thaynes Canyon, Prospector Square, Holiday Ranch and Park Meadows developments. The remainder live in the Highland Estates, Silver Creek and Hidden Cove complexes. Their parents cannot vote in Park City School Board Elections and, although the local board is reimbursed, their school taxes go to the South Summit School District. It is a seemingly simple problem, but the answer isn't as simple as it would seem. The problem was discussed in detail last Thursday evening at the monthly meeting of the Park City Community School Council in the Marsac School playroom. Because of technicalities in the laws and the political climate of Utah's State Legislature, any move to change the boundary of the districts invites consolidation of the three Summit County School Districts South Summit, North Summit and Park City into one district. This was the message of State Sen. Robert Clyde and Superintendent Superin-tendent Richard Goodworth and Scott Edrington of the Park City and South Summit Districts. For two hours, the three described the history of the problem, finances involved and possible solutions, which all contained drawbacks. Based on an apportionment scheme put together between 1915 and 1918, residents of these developments are legally part of the South Summit School District. The property, then undeveloped, undevelo-ped, except for nine miles of Union Pacific Railroad track, was given to South Summit to equalize the assessed value of the two districts. According to Superintendent Edrington, the number of students stu-dents just within the Park City limits in the South Summit District has increased five-fold since 1972. Tax revenue for capital outlays has increased from $700 to over $25,000. The two school boards have met every year since 1972 to work out arrangements for reimbursing the Park City District for the cost of educating the students, including includ-ing a controversial South Summit bond issue to pay part of the costs of the new high school. With the area growing at such a rapid rate, however, South Summit has felt more and more each year that the money "ought to follow the students," said Goodworth. The two boards have been trying to find a solution to the problem since 1972. They felt that now was the time to have a public meeting to inform the public in detail and seek ideas for possible solutions from them. According to Superintendent Goodworth, there are three possible solutions to the problem: - 1. Change the laws through the state legislature so that towns the |