Board President J. Dale Christensen earlier this week said he was polling board members and would put the matter on Tuesday's meeting agenda if a majority wanted to discuss board compensation again. Placing an item on the agenda does not necessarily mean the board will reverse course, he said.

His decision Wednesday to revisit the issue came just weeks after the part-time board quadrupled its salary and offered members the option of taking cash in lieu of health insurance. Board members approved the gigantic raise - worth nearly as much as $27,000 - at a July 10 meeting attended by almost no members of the public.

Since the vote, the district has been barraged with negative feedback, primarily focused on the fact that board members now can forgo insurance and receive the equivalent in dollars: $17,456. As of Wednesday, no member of the board had opted to swap health coverage for cash. Whether that will change Tuesday's discussion remains unclear.

"I think there's a message there, but will it make an impact?" Christensen said. "I don't know."

If a board member did choose to take home the insurance money on top of a $12,000 annual salary, the compensation would nearly equal the salary of a first-year teacher in the Jordan School District.

Although board members do not pay monthly premiums for their insurance, teachers do.

Board member Randy Brinkerhoff had voiced concern during the July meeting about the compensation boost, and is happy the matter will be revisited.

"I'm not as concerned with [the salary] as I am with the insurance portion of it," he said Wednesday. "I just don't believe that I agree with the decision to do the payout."

Sandy resident Robyn Bagley also is pleased the issue will be discussed again.

"[School board membership] has always been a position of community service," said Bagley, who has had two children graduate from Jordan schools. "I don't really understand where this sense of entitlement has come from."

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* JULIA LYON can be contacted at jlyon@sltrib.com or 801-257-8748.