MIDVALE - After listening to various schools and districts list their reasons for not liking the latest high school realignment plan for around 2 1/2 hours, UHSAA board of trustees member Teresa Theurer summed it all up as succinctly as she possibly could on Tuesday.
    "This," said the representative from the state school board, "is just really hard. That's a horrible quote, I know, but it is just really, really hard."
    Some 14 entities (some schools combined forces) got 10 minutes apiece to address their concerns to the trustees, who will not officially meet again until June 10, when the whole thing will be finalized. The plan will go into effect the 2009-10 school year.
    No motions were made and no votes taken during the meeting, so the plan posted on the UHSAA's Web site (www.uhsaa.org) on April 21 hasn't changed.
    However, Morgan principal Ken Adams informally announced that the 3A members on the board will put Judge Memorial and Juan Diego in the 3A "North" region and Park City and Wasatch in the "East" region. He said that after Juan Diego principal Galey Colosimo and Judge principal Rick Bartman had asked for those exact changes in separate hearings.
    The other 12 presenters did not receive that kind of instant gratification, but generally the board seemed sympathetic to their causes, too many to list in detail here. How sympathetic won't be known for sure
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until June 10.
    "I hope that we can look at some individual schools that have some concerns that are specific to their schools," Theurer said. "I would love to be able to see us help them so that they can build their sports programs and be able to become more competitive."
    The common themes of the day were competitiveness and reducing travel costs, but as Theurer noted, many times those conflict.
    For instance, Hillcrest principal Sue Malone told the trustees her "unique school in a unique situation" cannot compete in 5A, especially in a region with heavyweight neighbors Alta, Jordan and Brighton, due to shrinking enrollment and other socioeconomic factors, and asked to be moved to 4A, or into a different 5A region, slightly increased travel notwithstanding.
    Granger, Cyprus, Murray and West, all ticketed for 5A, also asked Tuesday or in previous hearings to stay in 4A, citing both travel costs and competitiveness.
    "Sending West and Murray outside the Salt Lake Valley [to a mostly Davis County region] won't bode well with the State Legislature," Salt Lake School District superintendent McKell Withers reminded the trustees.
    Cottonwood principal Garrett Muse let the trustees know his school's actual numbers suggest it should be in 4A, but noted the Colts (also ticketed for 5A) "will go where we are assigned."
    Craig Hammer appeared on behalf of the Washington County School District and said the district will equalize the enrollments of Dixie, Pine View, Snow Canyon and Desert Hills high schools to around 1,050 each through boundary changes so that those schools can be in the same region and classification. However, it was acknowledged that the 3A enrollment ceiling of 999 would have to be bumped up to 1,099 to get those schools in 3A, and such an increase has been resisted before.
    drew@sltrib.com
   
   
    * The Class 3A committee announces it will put Judge Memorial and Juan Diego in the North region and move Park City and Wasatch to the East region.
    * Five regions in 5A is too many, several schools said.
    * Several schools and districts say the new plan will cause them to travel way too much, while others say they won't be competitive moving up a classification.