Donna Barnes served on the Alpine School District Board for many years. Earlier this year, she spoke out in favor of a split for Alpine School District. Here are some of the key points she laid out:
We heard the term “economies of scale” several times in the meeting. Essentially, the term means the more you serve, the cheaper it is. As a board member, I heard this often and wondered how that broke out in actual dollars. I always heard we ran our district more economically than others, but I have not seen actual figures. The term “economies of scale” concerns business and supplies rather than schools and students. After an ASD board meeting, I often felt like I had attended a corporate meeting focusing on the bottom line rather than a school meeting focusing on student achievement.
Speaking about the Jordan/Canyons split, she said:
I was aware of some of the angst during the split, but today, if an employee of either Canyons or Jordan were questioned about the wisdom of the split, they would agree that it was the best thing that could have happened. Today, Canyons and Jordan School Districts outpace ASD teacher pay by almost $10,000 annually. A substitute teacher in Canyons makes around $200 per day; the rate is around $100 in Alpine.
She concludes that "we have reached a point where the district’s size has reached a point of diminishing returns. I could name several instances where the district’s size has made decision-making slow and cumbersome."
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