Herriman is the first - and perhaps only - city to challenge the constitutionality of an upcoming vote that excludes west-side cities from weighing in on a potential Jordan School District split.

Cottonwood Heights, Sandy, Draper, Midvale, Alta and east-side unincorporated areas are slated to vote Nov. 6 whether to break off from the state's largest school district and form their own.

Many residents in Herriman, a booming southwestern suburb, say because the west-side cities are part of the Jordan District and would be affected by any split, they too are entitled to vote. And, among the more than 50-plus pages of court documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court, is an emergency request for permanent injunction to halt the fall referendum.

"Registered voters in the Jordan School District . . . will be shut out of this democratic process," according to the suit filed against County Clerk Sherrie Swensen and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert. "It is constitutionally impermissible to grant the voters on the east side the right to vote to create a new school district not only for themselves, but also to create a new school district for the west side."

Herriman Mayor Lynn Crane said the question should be focused on schoolchildren, not politics.

"It's unfortunate that the interest of children has given way to politics and money," Crane said. "There may be some benefits from dividing the district, but none of those are issues about which we're talking."

Not so, countered Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore, who is confident the courts will not delay the November vote.

"This has never been about politics. It's been about equity, so all students share an equal opportunity in education," he said. "It's always been about the kids. The best way to provide a better education for both kids on the west side and the east side is to have smaller districts to provide more local control and more local input."

But Crane said dividing the district will do nothing to reduce building and classroom sizes nor enhance student achievement. He wants east-side cities to wait until fairness questions, involving both economics and voting, can be answered.

The lawsuit cites a feasibility study that shows 57 percent of the nearly 80,000 students in the district live on the west side, and that number will leap to 65 percent by 2012.

The district would need to bond for $585 million over the next 10 years just to satisfy west-side growth, the suit alleges. And that would require a new west-side district to raise homeowner taxes by hundreds of dollars in the first year of operation (2009).

"It's likely to have as much detrimental effect as positive effects," Crane said.

Herriman thought it was going to enjoy broad support for the suit from its west-side allies, but now finds itself alone. West Jordan voters will decide this fall whether to form their own district in Utah's fourth most-populous city. South Jordan could hold a similar vote next year. And Riverton decided it would rather work with legislators to equalize funding for school buildings or spread costs across the county than sue to stop the east-side vote.

With that support now gone, the suit could end up costing Herriman more than originally anticipated. The council initially set aside $15,000 for the litigation, but Crane said the city would proceed even at twice that cost.

"It is a disappointment," Crane said. "As we started the initiative, our neighbors were all solidly for [the suit]. They have their own reasons, and I can't question those. But it is a disappointment that we're left hanging in the south end of the valley."

Farther north, Taylorsville, which could face a similar vote next year if the movement to splinter the Granite School District resurfaces, still backs Herriman. It wants the courts to rule against the split and set a precedent that would stop the issue from recurring in the state's second-largest district.

"The issue has implications for Taylorsville citizens, and we're still concerned with what's going on," Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall has said.

As far as Crane is concerned, he doesn't want to be seen as a "doomsday guy," but, he added, "this issue affects a lot of people."

sgehrke@sltrib.com