So what now?

Sandy officials - judging from a City Council meeting Tuesday night - are split over whether to put the idea to voters in November. Two members of the City Council want to go to the ballot now, and two others want to study it more.

Three other members of the council didn't attend the meeting.

“I don't want to wait,” said Dennis Tenney, a member of the council.

“Our area is being swallowed up by a huge school district,” added Bryant Anderson, another councilman. “I feel we are losing any say in what's happening.”

On the opposite side - and they are joined by Mayor Tom Dolan - are elected officials who want to take a more cautious approach.

“We've just been informed today” of a study that shows the benefits of a three-city district, said Councilman Chris McCandless.

Councilman Steve Smith also wants to move more cautiously.

The cities would have to move quickly to put the issue to voters in November. Ballot language must be turned in to the Salt Lake County Clerk by Aug. 31.

If officials wanted a voted, Dolan prefers to “put it on another ballot next year.”

Why is there a push to move now?

Because the Jordan School District could quash the rosy financial picture.

The school district can issue another $211 million in bonds for building schools on the west side at any time. If that bonding went out before the cities voted for a new district, the trio would take their portion of the bonding when they left. It's a move that would put the new district in the red for decades, and, for practical purposes, kill the idea before it got started.

The district is reportedly going to issue about $15 million in bonds in the next year.

“I would be very disappointed if the district went out and bonded for $200 million this year,” Dolan said.

Added Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights, “If the Jordan School District puts a large bond on November, we should fight it vocally.”

Of note: Walker heads up a legislative committee that is studying changes to the bill that made it possible for cities to form their own school districts.

With the bonding that's already in place, the three cities would have to pay some $15 million next year toward the debt. That amount would decrease annually until the existing bonds are paid off.

That repayment on the already issued bonds doesn't kill talk of an east-side school district. Per pupil funding would grow to $6,149 in the new district. The current funding is $6,085.

Those figures come from a study by Mike Bennett, paid for by Sandy and Cottonwood Heights.

The new three-city district would have a stable student population. In the next decade it would grow by 687 students to reach a total of 29,500.