MCPS trustee resigns : Missoulian: News and Resources for Western Montana#comments
The above link is to a Missoulian article reporting on the resignation of Missoula County Public Schools Trustee Naomi Kimbell in 2004. Trustee Kimbell resigned as she accepted a position of executive director with the Missoula International School shortly after three school closures.
The article states, "Given that Missoula International School is an independent school, sometimes their interests are different from public schools." Kimbell said. "If I'm going to be a leader in public schools and in my new job, at some point both roles would come into conflict."
AND - MOST IMPORTANTLY THE ARTICLE STATES, "WHILE ON THE BOARD, KIMBELL WAS PART OF THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS TO CLOSE PRESCOTT AND ALSO TO RENT IT TO THE MISSOULA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL."
Two Missoula County Public Schools Trustees, Naomi Kimbell and current Board Chairwoman Toni Rehbein have very strong ties to Missoula International School. Due to these ties and for other reasons, prescottschoolmissoula calls the Prescott School/MIS (Missoula International School) lease "one of Missoula's biggest scandals involving one of Missoula's smallest schools".
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Missoula International School in Breach of Contract in leasing Prescott ...
This is a YouTube video regarding the poor maintenance by Missoula International School of the Missoula County Public School's Prescott School property was uploaded on January 11, 2011.
Missoula International School is in Breach of Contract as they have never taken adequate care of the grounds of Prescott School.
Missoula County Public Schools is equally at fault as they have never enforced this part of the lease as well as other parts of the lease.
One can read about the contract which Misosula International School has with Missoula County Public Schools on the YouTube video information which follows:
Missoula International School ratified a five year lease with Missoula County Public Schools in 2004. Again, in 2009, a second lease was ratified for three years with an optional extension of 5 more years if all agree on a price. Missoula International School has been in Breach of Contract since 2004 as this private school has not taken care of the 2.3 playground as specified in both lease agreements. The first lease states, "Lessee will provide maintenance of the lawn and grounds around the Premises according to the standards and requirements currently practiced by District."
The second lease states, "Lessee, at its expense, shall maintain all landscaping (including parking striping and weed control)...and, Maintenance of the lawn and grounds around the Premises shall be in accordance with the standards and requirements currently practiced by District." Neighbors have called the District many summers and complained that the lawn had not been watered in mid-July, some summers with record heat. The lack of watering has caused the lawn to die leaving many bare patches and has enabled the growth of an infestation of knapweed over the playground and the outside perimeters. The dreaded Missoula County "Purple Peril" has taken over at Prescott School. Lack of stewardship of school property by District officials for ignoring these and other complaints is inexcusable and officials need to be held accountable for their lack of action on this issue.
The hemorrhaging of funds from the district due to the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School is another problem as outlined in a letter to the editor by David Patterson in the Missoulian on June 8, 2004. If you have concerns about the lease and the lack of care to the Prescott playground please call the District at (406)-728-2400 and ask for Superintendent Apostle.
The maintenance of the grounds of Prescott School by Missoula International School is written into all three of the Prescott School/Missoula International School lease contracts.
Edited on November 3, 2013
Friday, May 25, 2012
Private school leases Prescott : Missoulian: News and Resources for Western Montana - July 20, 2004 Edition
The July 20th, 2004 edition of the Missoulian reported on the lease of Prescott School, a public school, to the private school, Missoula International School. (see link below)
Notice the lease price of $20,000/year for the first three years and $30,000 for the last two years of the lease; what a ridiculously low price! This lease price is lower than the lease price for the private school (St. Josephs) of Roosevelt School and the lease of Mount Jumbo School by Walla Walla College.
See page post titled "Is MIS taking MCPS to the Cleaners" and the page titled, "MIS' Sweetheart Lease" for more detailed information on the original lease ratified in 2004.
"The primary grades program has been so well received," she [Julie Lennox] said, "that the school has expanded to fifth grade this year, two years ahead of the original goal".
From the first day of the lease MIS is expanding into more grade levels due to leasing one of our public schools.
Prudent and loyal trustees would NOT have leased to the competition and would NOT have continued the lease with two lease extensions (the first for three years, the second for five years).
This lease is NOT a win-win situation as Marta Pierpoint states in the article. It is a win-lose situation, with MCPS, thus taxpayers and the neighborhood on the losing side. This lease has cost the district a staggering amount; a math professor estimated the loss just last year (2010-2011) at $500,000!
See earlier post titled, "Low rent will hurt, not help district" for explanation of earlier loses.
The article states, "For several years, MIS has searched for a building large enough to house its entire educational program, Lennox said." The later statement emphasizes that it is not easy finding a good location for a school. In other words, MIS could not have found a building in the private sector comparable with what Prescott offers at such a low price!!
The Prescott School/MIS lease is no doubt a sweetheart lease in addition to a "buddy lease".
Click on link below for Missoulian the July 20th, 2004 edition in which the article reporting on the lease appears.
Private school leases Prescott : Missoulian: News and Resources for Western Montana
Notice the lease price of $20,000/year for the first three years and $30,000 for the last two years of the lease; what a ridiculously low price! This lease price is lower than the lease price for the private school (St. Josephs) of Roosevelt School and the lease of Mount Jumbo School by Walla Walla College.
See page post titled "Is MIS taking MCPS to the Cleaners" and the page titled, "MIS' Sweetheart Lease" for more detailed information on the original lease ratified in 2004.
"The primary grades program has been so well received," she [Julie Lennox] said, "that the school has expanded to fifth grade this year, two years ahead of the original goal".
From the first day of the lease MIS is expanding into more grade levels due to leasing one of our public schools.
Prudent and loyal trustees would NOT have leased to the competition and would NOT have continued the lease with two lease extensions (the first for three years, the second for five years).
This lease is NOT a win-win situation as Marta Pierpoint states in the article. It is a win-lose situation, with MCPS, thus taxpayers and the neighborhood on the losing side. This lease has cost the district a staggering amount; a math professor estimated the loss just last year (2010-2011) at $500,000!
See earlier post titled, "Low rent will hurt, not help district" for explanation of earlier loses.
The article states, "For several years, MIS has searched for a building large enough to house its entire educational program, Lennox said." The later statement emphasizes that it is not easy finding a good location for a school. In other words, MIS could not have found a building in the private sector comparable with what Prescott offers at such a low price!!
The Prescott School/MIS lease is no doubt a sweetheart lease in addition to a "buddy lease".
Click on link below for Missoulian the July 20th, 2004 edition in which the article reporting on the lease appears.
Private school leases Prescott : Missoulian: News and Resources for Western Montana
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
2006 Missoulian article on lasting friendship of former Prescott School students
Neighborhood Schools tend to foster strong friendships and sometimes even lifelong friendships. This post is about a Missoulian article reporting on the highlights of a life time friendship between four people who attended Prescott School located in the lower Rattlesnake.
It is the position of Prescott School Missoula that Prescott School be used for it's intended purpose - a school for public school children, then Prescott School can once again foster life long frienships among children in the neighborhood as did these four children.
The title of the article about the four Rattlesnake Valley friends is, "
A cute picture courtesy of Nancy Boyer Heyer and colored by Kurt Wilson/of the Missoulian accompanies the article.
Some quotes from the article are -
"It was the night of Dec. 12, 1956. They were supposed to be quiet - not a creature was stirring, after all - but they were only third-graders."
and -
"They had to tell us to hush so many times, we were so fussy and loud," said Nancy Heyer, who was Nancy Boyer back then. "But when our time came, we just came to life, flitting across the stage in our tutus for all we were worth."
and -
"The girls - Nancy, Linda Baker Malingo, Colleen Baldry Davis and Mary Lynn Barrows - were already friends from the lower Rattlesnake, but that night as fairies fixed them in a universe that lives to this day. "
and -
"Fifty years later, three of them still share an orbit of friendship that lets them move through the years of their lives knowing they'll always realign."
and -
"You know, there was no way to know it back then, but something was cemented in place back then that has held us all in place," Colleen Davis said recently by phone from Sandy, Utah. "I really can't imagine my life without them now."
and -
"They started as the Sugar Plums, and that name is still with them when they get together for their yearly visits. But they've also been called the Golden Girls upon their be-hatted arrivals in Las Vegas, and with their maiden names all starting with B, Nancy, Linda and Colleen will always be the Three Bs."
and -
"The girls grew up in a different, more laid-back Missoula, a time, Nancy said, when "downtown was the mall."
and -
"They'd often gather at reunions, and they generally got together if one or more of them was in Missoula. They traded Christmas cards, and all three remember getting together at the Western Montana Fair."
and -
"Still, a decade or so ago, conversations started turning to the possibility of the Sugar Plums gathering for a trip. They talked about a handful of locations, including everyone coming home to Montana, ...
and -
"The trips proved a bonding mechanism as strong as that December night when the girls flitted about as pastel fairies and first fell under the magical spell called friendship. "
and -
"They are tied by memory to their old Rattlesnake Valley neighborhood. They knew one another's parents, and what they did. They know the children and the husbands. They know, literally, all the secrets, so there's no more need for them."
and -
"They are friends who are literally golden," Nancy said. "You need nothing from them except what and who they are. They offer laughter and compassion. They are keepers."
and -
"They once were 8. Now they're women of a certain age. They once wore tutus and, if it came down to it, they would wear them again. Even now, their hats are often the pastel colors of their long-ago fairy costumes."
and -
"In their small, third-grade way, the girls brought a shimmering light into the world when they passed across the stage 50 years ago. Unlike many, they nurtured that light, shielded it, kept it alive through the years."
and -
It is the position of Prescott School Missoula that Prescott School be used for it's intended purpose - a school for public school children, then Prescott School can once again foster life long frienships among children in the neighborhood as did these four children.
The title of the article about the four Rattlesnake Valley friends is, "
"A lasting bond: Fifty years after taking the stage, old Missoula friends remain close" by Michael Moore of the Missoulian
Click on the following link-
A lasting bond: Fifty years after taking the stage, old Missoula friends remain closeA cute picture courtesy of Nancy Boyer Heyer and colored by Kurt Wilson/of the Missoulian accompanies the article.
Some quotes from the article are -
"The
Prescott Elementary School sugar plum
fairies pose for a photograph before their Christmas pageant in 1956. The four,
Mary Lynn Barrows, Colleen Baldry, Nancy Boyer and Linda Baker, were
third-graders at the time and three of the girls have maintained a 50-year
friendship." For most of the winter's
night, the four 8-year-old girls stood behind the curtain, waiting to play
their roles as sugar plum fairies in the Christmas pageant at Prescott
Elementary School."
and -
and -
"It was the night of Dec. 12, 1956. They were supposed to be quiet - not a creature was stirring, after all - but they were only third-graders."
and -
"They had to tell us to hush so many times, we were so fussy and loud," said Nancy Heyer, who was Nancy Boyer back then. "But when our time came, we just came to life, flitting across the stage in our tutus for all we were worth."
and -
"The girls - Nancy, Linda Baker Malingo, Colleen Baldry Davis and Mary Lynn Barrows - were already friends from the lower Rattlesnake, but that night as fairies fixed them in a universe that lives to this day. "
and -
"Fifty years later, three of them still share an orbit of friendship that lets them move through the years of their lives knowing they'll always realign."
and -
"You know, there was no way to know it back then, but something was cemented in place back then that has held us all in place," Colleen Davis said recently by phone from Sandy, Utah. "I really can't imagine my life without them now."
and -
"They started as the Sugar Plums, and that name is still with them when they get together for their yearly visits. But they've also been called the Golden Girls upon their be-hatted arrivals in Las Vegas, and with their maiden names all starting with B, Nancy, Linda and Colleen will always be the Three Bs."
and -
"The girls grew up in a different, more laid-back Missoula, a time, Nancy said, when "downtown was the mall."
and -
"We used to just
walk down to Woolworth's and drink cherry Cokes and eat fries," she said.
"A girl could go anywhere she wanted. We were always going down to the
Rialto to see a movie."
and -
and -
"They stayed good friends
through grade school, but by the time they went to Hellgate High, Mary Lynn had
moved off to Washington, D.C. The Three Bs stayed close, but other girls and -
more importantly - boys entered their world, too.:
and -
and -
"They'd often gather at reunions, and they generally got together if one or more of them was in Missoula. They traded Christmas cards, and all three remember getting together at the Western Montana Fair."
and -
"Still, a decade or so ago, conversations started turning to the possibility of the Sugar Plums gathering for a trip. They talked about a handful of locations, including everyone coming home to Montana, ...
and -
"The trips proved a bonding mechanism as strong as that December night when the girls flitted about as pastel fairies and first fell under the magical spell called friendship. "
and -
"There is something about
old friends, the girls say, that makes all the difference."
and -
and -
"They are tied by memory to their old Rattlesnake Valley neighborhood. They knew one another's parents, and what they did. They know the children and the husbands. They know, literally, all the secrets, so there's no more need for them."
and -
"They are friends who are literally golden," Nancy said. "You need nothing from them except what and who they are. They offer laughter and compassion. They are keepers."
and -
"They once were 8. Now they're women of a certain age. They once wore tutus and, if it came down to it, they would wear them again. Even now, their hats are often the pastel colors of their long-ago fairy costumes."
and -
"Maybe all this strikes
you as impossibly, improbably sentimental. Colleen Davis would agree with you."
and -
and -
"In their small, third-grade way, the girls brought a shimmering light into the world when they passed across the stage 50 years ago. Unlike many, they nurtured that light, shielded it, kept it alive through the years."
and -
"We are in each
other's everyday lives," Colleen said. "Even when we're far away,
we're never far away. If one of them needed me, I would be there yesterday.
They would do the same for me. All these years later, we just love each
other."
Sunday, May 20, 2012
May 11, 2004 Missoulian article - "Spanish school eyes Prescott space"
On March 25, 2004, Prescott, Mount Jumbo, and Rattlesnake Middle Schools were closed after only 48 days of deliberation. Almost immediately, MCPS received a letter from Missoula International School expressing interest in leasing Prescott School. The district changed the date of a committee meeting in order to rush the process. One question that seems to rise to the surface periodically: Was Prescott School closed to make it available to Missoula International School? This idea seems plausible as this was not the first lease of a MCPS public school to a private school. The district had experience with this type of transaction as it leased Roosevelt School to St. Joseph's School. Rumors had surfaced even before Roosevelt was closed that St. Joseph's would be occupying the school. Other questionable actions took place which prescottschoolmissoula plans to address in future blog posts. Some past and present Trustees have believed and still believe that doing favors for private schools is NOTa good idea. Many citizens disagree and believe this behavior is disloyal and imprudent on the part of School Board Trustees. Below is the May 11, 2004 Missoulian article by Jane Rider discussing the possible lease of Prescott by MIS.
Spanish school eyes
Prescott space
JANE RIDER of the Missoulianmissoulian.com |
Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 12:00 am |
Spanish school eyes
Prescott space
JANE RIDER of the Missoulianmissoulian.com |
Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 12:00 am |
Missoula
International School has expressed interest in leasing Prescott Elementary
School to consolidate its operations at one building.
The
issue was discussed at Missoula County Public Schools' Finance & Operations
Committee meeting last month. The committee recommended the administration
continue talks with the international school and seek a legal opinion as to
whether the district needs to issue a formal "request for proposals"
before considering the deal.
MCPS
Chairwoman Rosemary Harrison said Monday the Montana School Boards
Association's legal counsel advised that the district isn't legally required to
solicit other proposals, but the board is expected to consider that option
officially at its board meeting Tuesday night.
Missoula
International School is a nonprofit Spanish immersion school that serves
children from preschool through third grade. The school currently instructs
about 70 students at two locations. It owns a building at 518 South Ave. W.,
where the preschool and kindergarten classes are currently held. In addition,
it leases space from the University Congregational Church on University Avenue
to instruct students in first, second and third grades.
"Our
mission is to nurture strong minds and open hearts in young children,"
said Marta R. Pierpoint, MIS board president. "We are unique in this area
in that we are the only elementary school within a thousand miles pursuing
authorization from the International Baccalaureate Organization."
The IBO
is an internationally acclaimed educational organization that provides a
foundation for academic excellence among international schools, she said.
Missoula
International hopes to consolidate at one location in time for the start of the
2004-05 fall school year, Pierpoint said Monday.
"We
have been exploring all options to bring our school to one location," she
said.
Though
there are many buildings available in Missoula, few of them offer classrooms
and play space, she said. Prescott became a possibility after MCPS' school
board voted 4-3 on March 24 to close the lower Rattlesnake elementary school,
along with Mount Jumbo Elementary and Rattlesnake Middle School, to help
balance the 2004-05 elementary budget.
The
district's plan calls for relocating most of the Rattlesnake middle-schoolers
to Washington Middle School and transforming Rattlesnake Middle School into a
K-5 elementary school in the upper Rattlesnake that would serve students who
normally would have attended Mount Jumbo and Prescott.
Harrison
said if the school board decides Tuesday not to seek more "requests for
proposals" to lease out Prescott, the district's next step would be to begin
discussions with Missoula International to determine how much it would be
willing to pay in rent, insurance and utilities.
But
looming over any action is a lawsuit filed last week by two Missoula residents
against MCPS that alleges the district violated state open meetings law during
its budget preparation process this spring. The lawsuit asks the court to void
the board's decision to close the three schools.
If
successful, the lawsuit would require the district to gather more public input
and provide citizens and trustees with greater access to district budget team
meetings, more options and decision-making documents that school administrators
considered early on before recommending how to balance the 2004-05 budget.
Reporter
Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com
Friday, May 18, 2012
Suspects sought in Rattlesnake arson | KPAX.com | Missoula, Montana
Suspects sought in Rattlesnake arson | KPAX.com | Missoula, Montana
This is a link to a report of a fire on August 24, 2010 on the Prescott School grounds.
This is a link to a report of a fire on August 24, 2010 on the Prescott School grounds.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Three schools closed on April 25, 2004 - Missoulian article
Let's start at the very beginning...the day three of Missoula's popular neighborhood schools were closed. At 1:00 a.m. on the morning of April 25, 2004, after seven hours of heated deliberation, Missoula County Public Schools voted 4 to 3 to close three public schools in the north east corner of our city, Prescott School and Rattlesnake Middle School in the Rattlesnake Valley and Mount Jumbo School in East Missoula. Below is the Missoulian article regarding the meeting. The following day reverberations from this tragic decision could be felt throughout Missoula. The closure process by MCPS trustees and administrators took place only 48 days prior to the decision and had only begun wreaking havoc in Missoula's school system.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Jumbo, Prescott schools closed
JANE RIDER of the Missoulianmissoulian.com | Posted: Friday, March 26, 2004 12:00 am | Loading…
Amber Winkler, a student teacher at Mount Jumbo Elementary School, goes over multiplication problems with her third-grade class on Thursday. Early Thursday morning, the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees voted to close Prescott and Mount Jumbo elementary schools.
Photo by JOSH PARKER/Missoulian
The Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees voted early Thursday morning to close Prescott and Mount Jumbo elementary schools and to turn Rattlesnake Middle School into a 360-student elementary school.
Trustees also instructed school administrators to retain the district's fifth-grade band and orchestra, its two elementary school art teachers and its one gifted-and-talented teacher.
The move means the district has closed all but $110,000 of a projected $860,000 shortfall in the elementary budget. Trustees instructed the board to cut the remainder from the district's discretionary funds.
The district's next step is to begin plans to relocate 345 students to MCPS's other middle schools by the fall of 2004-05. Principals have already begun meeting with small groups to begin that conversation, said MCPS Superintendent Jim Clark.
"I want to expand that," he said. "I want to include parents, kids, teachers and principals."
Four potential options for disbursement (see related story, A2) were provided to parents earlier this month, but Clark said the district will entertain other options as it gathers public input at community meetings.
Either the school board or administration will ultimately decide how to configure the district's middle school population. Clark said he will recommend the board direct administration to make that final decision. He expects community meetings to begin after spring break.
The board's 4-3 vote at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, came after more than seven hours of discussion over the district's secondary and elementary budgets. Trustees Rosemary Harrison, Jenda Hemphill, David Merrill and Naomi DeMarinis voted in favor of the school closures and consolidation of Rattlesnake. Trustees Suzette Dussault, Carol Bellin and Colleen Rogers voted against.
The vote came after an earlier motion to close Prescott School and ship its students to Mount Jumbo failed, also on a 4-3 vote. Bellin, Rogers and Merrill voted for that motion; Dussault, DeMarinis, Harrison and Hemphill voted against.
Trustees then bogged down in nearly two hours of what DeMarinis called "stream-of-consciousness budgeting," in which they attempted to find various places to trim to produce a balanced budget.
During the evening, Prescott Principal Cindy Christensen made an emotional plea to the board to move ahead with closing Prescott, where enrollment has declined to just 128 students, expressing how emotionally and educationally difficult the threat of closure has been on the school's staff and students in recent years.
"This is not what's best for kids," Christensen said. She also argued that the school population has shrunk to a size of diminished energy.
Finally, Larry Johnson, the district's assistant superintendent for personnel and special services, asked trustees if they would support a package of some of the proposals offered by the administration. Specifically, Johnson asked if the board could accept a package that closed Prescott School, moved those students to Mount Jumbo, but kept Rattlesnake as a middle school.
Hemphill asked whether the board could restore the art, music and gifted-education programs - all of which were on the chopping block - if it moved ahead with the original recommendation to close both Prescott and Mount Jumbo and reconfigure Rattlesnake as a K-5 school. That, finally, was the essence of the motion that passed the board.
Merrill had indicated earlier in a straw vote that he wouldn't support closing Rattlesnake Middle School, but after the lengthy and futile effort to find money elsewhere to close the budget gap, he stated he was willing to close the middle school.
I'm not comfortable putting this off," he said. "This has been a very difficult process. I don't think we should continue down this path of indecision. I'm willing to change my vote."
Johnson noted earlier in the evening that if the board waited past the March 24 deadline to make a budget decision, it would reduce his ability to recruit the best and brightest teachers at area job fairs.
"I think the outcome is the best we can do, given the resources we have," Clark said later Thursday, while visiting Rattlesnake Middle School to answer questions from staff and students.
"After all the discussion and all of the agonizing over this, the majority of the board came to the realization that there just weren't other viable options to look at. That's a discouraging thing, but that is just a reflection of 10 years of cutting into that budget," he said.
The elementary budget also includes the expectation that Missoula residents will pass a $142,193 operating levy, which will be placed on the May 4 election ballot. If the levy passes, the owner of a home with a market value of $150,000 would pay about $5.70 more in school property taxes.
The preliminary elementary budget approved Thursday left out the closure of Lowell Elementary School, the privatization of printing or courier services, and the elimination of any central library positions. The board initially considered these items for reduction early in the budget process, but removed them after public input and board discussion.
Also during the late-night budget session, the 11-member board approved a tentative high school budget that included a $150,000 beverage contract and about $300,000 from a building reserve levy that would offset costs currently paid for from the general fund. The actual amount of the building reserve levy that voters will be asked to approve will be $450,000 annually for seven years. Passage of that levy will increase the property taxes on a home with a market value of $150,000 by about $10.92.
The board did vote to eliminate seven high school teaching positions, which schools are expected to absorb mostly through retirements. Clark said Thursday that building principals and academic department heads will meet to decide how best to disburse those cuts across the district's four high schools.
Originally, the administration had proposed eliminating golf, tennis and swimming and some sophomore sports, but those cuts came off the table after public and trustee input, and after the district learned it would receive additional special education revenues that reduced the need for those cuts.
Public comments after the two budget decisions early Thursday morning did reveal deep division remains on the board.
"The decision tonight is enormously harmful to our kids," Dussault said. "It's not in the long-term interest of the district."
Added Rogers: "I don't think we know the ramifications of the decision. Š We'll be right back here next year, making cuts."
Harrison provided the counterpoint: "I really do feel that we have made a good decision, and that makes me feel glad," she said.
Some trustees and members of the public who stayed until the end of the meeting called for greater public involvement in the budgeting process. They noted that the budget team that crafted the recommendations presented to the board included district officials and principals, but no members of the board or the public. Bellin said she hoped that next year the district would not have "an exclusive administration-only budget team."
For his part, Clark told the board, "I want you to know how much I've struggled with this. And I don't think you know that." He called it "the most difficult budget issue I've ever had."
Reporter Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com
Copyright 2012 missoulian.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Jumbo, Prescott schools closed
JANE RIDER of the Missoulianmissoulian.com | Posted: Friday, March 26, 2004 12:00 am | Loading…
Amber Winkler, a student teacher at Mount Jumbo Elementary School, goes over multiplication problems with her third-grade class on Thursday. Early Thursday morning, the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees voted to close Prescott and Mount Jumbo elementary schools.
Photo by JOSH PARKER/Missoulian
The Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees voted early Thursday morning to close Prescott and Mount Jumbo elementary schools and to turn Rattlesnake Middle School into a 360-student elementary school.
Trustees also instructed school administrators to retain the district's fifth-grade band and orchestra, its two elementary school art teachers and its one gifted-and-talented teacher.
The move means the district has closed all but $110,000 of a projected $860,000 shortfall in the elementary budget. Trustees instructed the board to cut the remainder from the district's discretionary funds.
The district's next step is to begin plans to relocate 345 students to MCPS's other middle schools by the fall of 2004-05. Principals have already begun meeting with small groups to begin that conversation, said MCPS Superintendent Jim Clark.
"I want to expand that," he said. "I want to include parents, kids, teachers and principals."
Four potential options for disbursement (see related story, A2) were provided to parents earlier this month, but Clark said the district will entertain other options as it gathers public input at community meetings.
Either the school board or administration will ultimately decide how to configure the district's middle school population. Clark said he will recommend the board direct administration to make that final decision. He expects community meetings to begin after spring break.
The board's 4-3 vote at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, came after more than seven hours of discussion over the district's secondary and elementary budgets. Trustees Rosemary Harrison, Jenda Hemphill, David Merrill and Naomi DeMarinis voted in favor of the school closures and consolidation of Rattlesnake. Trustees Suzette Dussault, Carol Bellin and Colleen Rogers voted against.
The vote came after an earlier motion to close Prescott School and ship its students to Mount Jumbo failed, also on a 4-3 vote. Bellin, Rogers and Merrill voted for that motion; Dussault, DeMarinis, Harrison and Hemphill voted against.
Trustees then bogged down in nearly two hours of what DeMarinis called "stream-of-consciousness budgeting," in which they attempted to find various places to trim to produce a balanced budget.
During the evening, Prescott Principal Cindy Christensen made an emotional plea to the board to move ahead with closing Prescott, where enrollment has declined to just 128 students, expressing how emotionally and educationally difficult the threat of closure has been on the school's staff and students in recent years.
"This is not what's best for kids," Christensen said. She also argued that the school population has shrunk to a size of diminished energy.
Finally, Larry Johnson, the district's assistant superintendent for personnel and special services, asked trustees if they would support a package of some of the proposals offered by the administration. Specifically, Johnson asked if the board could accept a package that closed Prescott School, moved those students to Mount Jumbo, but kept Rattlesnake as a middle school.
Hemphill asked whether the board could restore the art, music and gifted-education programs - all of which were on the chopping block - if it moved ahead with the original recommendation to close both Prescott and Mount Jumbo and reconfigure Rattlesnake as a K-5 school. That, finally, was the essence of the motion that passed the board.
Merrill had indicated earlier in a straw vote that he wouldn't support closing Rattlesnake Middle School, but after the lengthy and futile effort to find money elsewhere to close the budget gap, he stated he was willing to close the middle school.
I'm not comfortable putting this off," he said. "This has been a very difficult process. I don't think we should continue down this path of indecision. I'm willing to change my vote."
Johnson noted earlier in the evening that if the board waited past the March 24 deadline to make a budget decision, it would reduce his ability to recruit the best and brightest teachers at area job fairs.
"I think the outcome is the best we can do, given the resources we have," Clark said later Thursday, while visiting Rattlesnake Middle School to answer questions from staff and students.
"After all the discussion and all of the agonizing over this, the majority of the board came to the realization that there just weren't other viable options to look at. That's a discouraging thing, but that is just a reflection of 10 years of cutting into that budget," he said.
The elementary budget also includes the expectation that Missoula residents will pass a $142,193 operating levy, which will be placed on the May 4 election ballot. If the levy passes, the owner of a home with a market value of $150,000 would pay about $5.70 more in school property taxes.
The preliminary elementary budget approved Thursday left out the closure of Lowell Elementary School, the privatization of printing or courier services, and the elimination of any central library positions. The board initially considered these items for reduction early in the budget process, but removed them after public input and board discussion.
Also during the late-night budget session, the 11-member board approved a tentative high school budget that included a $150,000 beverage contract and about $300,000 from a building reserve levy that would offset costs currently paid for from the general fund. The actual amount of the building reserve levy that voters will be asked to approve will be $450,000 annually for seven years. Passage of that levy will increase the property taxes on a home with a market value of $150,000 by about $10.92.
The board did vote to eliminate seven high school teaching positions, which schools are expected to absorb mostly through retirements. Clark said Thursday that building principals and academic department heads will meet to decide how best to disburse those cuts across the district's four high schools.
Originally, the administration had proposed eliminating golf, tennis and swimming and some sophomore sports, but those cuts came off the table after public and trustee input, and after the district learned it would receive additional special education revenues that reduced the need for those cuts.
Public comments after the two budget decisions early Thursday morning did reveal deep division remains on the board.
"The decision tonight is enormously harmful to our kids," Dussault said. "It's not in the long-term interest of the district."
Added Rogers: "I don't think we know the ramifications of the decision. Š We'll be right back here next year, making cuts."
Harrison provided the counterpoint: "I really do feel that we have made a good decision, and that makes me feel glad," she said.
Some trustees and members of the public who stayed until the end of the meeting called for greater public involvement in the budgeting process. They noted that the budget team that crafted the recommendations presented to the board included district officials and principals, but no members of the board or the public. Bellin said she hoped that next year the district would not have "an exclusive administration-only budget team."
For his part, Clark told the board, "I want you to know how much I've struggled with this. And I don't think you know that." He called it "the most difficult budget issue I've ever had."
Reporter Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com
Copyright 2012 missoulian.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
School daze | Features | Missoula Independent
Click on the link below to read an article on the 2004 Missoula School closures writted by Keila Szpalier of the Missoula Independent (now with the Missoulian).
School daze Features Missoula Independent
Keila Szpalier did such an excellent job in her article reporting on the proposed school closures in 2004. As this article is quite long, I've decided to post just some of the many interesting quotes and information.
"On March 24, school board trustees will vote on how to balance the budget. Five years ago, the administration asked the board—with three of the same elementary trustees—to solve similar budget problems by closing Emma Dickinson and Roosevelt elementary schools, and once again, the administration is recommending school closures to manage deficits."
and -
"Lowell, Prescott and Mount Jumbo are on the chopping block not because closures are part of a long-range plan, not because the proposed closures have been subjected to careful scrutiny and found beneficial, not because the administration believes busing children to larger central schools results in higher quality education, not even because the school district expects to realize long-term financial gain from school closures. It doesn’t. In Missoula, schools close in response to red ink."
and -
"In 1999, the administration gave board trustees just two weeks to review the option of closing Emma Dickinson."
and -
"Not Missoula. One administration proposal is that children from Lowell, Prescott and Mount Jumbo be bused up to Rattlesnake Middle School. Children currently at Rattlesnake Middle School would be bused elsewhere. There is no clear plan for their distribution."
and -
and -
School daze Features Missoula Independent
Keila Szpalier did such an excellent job in her article reporting on the proposed school closures in 2004. As this article is quite long, I've decided to post just some of the many interesting quotes and information.
"On March 24, school board trustees will vote on how to balance the budget. Five years ago, the administration asked the board—with three of the same elementary trustees—to solve similar budget problems by closing Emma Dickinson and Roosevelt elementary schools, and once again, the administration is recommending school closures to manage deficits."
and -
"Lowell, Prescott and Mount Jumbo are on the chopping block not because closures are part of a long-range plan, not because the proposed closures have been subjected to careful scrutiny and found beneficial, not because the administration believes busing children to larger central schools results in higher quality education, not even because the school district expects to realize long-term financial gain from school closures. It doesn’t. In Missoula, schools close in response to red ink."
and -
"In 1999, the administration gave board trustees just two weeks to review the option of closing Emma Dickinson."
and -
"Lowell, Prescott and Mount Jumbo are on the chopping block not because
closures are part of a long-range plan, not because the proposed closures have
been subjected to careful scrutiny and found beneficial, not because the
administration believes busing children to larger central schools results in
higher quality education, not even because the school district expects to
realize long-term financial gain from school closures. It doesn’t. In Missoula,
schools close in response to red ink."
and -
"Keith Fank, who has two children at Chief Charlo, fails to understand how Missoula has a brand new jail but can’t support its schools. He wouldn’t like to see his children bused across town, and he does not support the closure of schools in other neighborhoods: “Kids should get to go to school with kids in their neighborhood and kind of grow up with them instead of getting shuffled because somebody can’t handle the books.”"
and -
and -
"The
school district simply raises taxes to accommodate transportation to and from
school, because it can. The social and environmental costs of busing aren’t a
priority for the administration."
Edited on December 17th, 2013
Edited on December 17th, 2013
Friday, May 4, 2012
Toni Rehbein's ties to Missoula International School
At the heart of the Missoula International School lease of Prescott School is the underlying fact that the current Board Chairwoman of Missoula County Public Schools, Toni Rehbein, once served on the Board of Missoula International School shortly before her election to the MCPS Board in 2004.
According to Montana Corporation Annual Reports from the years of 1998 and 2000, Toni Rehbein served as President and Vice President of Missoula International School, respectively. (Montana Corporation Annual Reports are available to the public from the Secretary of State's office in Helena.)
Rehbein ran for a seat on the MCPS Board in 2004, winning the election in May of that year.
We know by remarks by Scott Bixler at a December 2004 Board Meeting that he had been asked the previous year to serve on the Board. Therefore, we can presume that Toni Rehbein had been contemplating running for a MCPS Board seat sometime in 2003 or perhaps earlier, as Rehbein, Bixler and Joe Toth ran as a team. The time span is quite short, that is, from 2000 to 2003, in which Toni Rehbein was serving on the MIS Board to running for a seat on the MCPS Board.
It is highly likely that one of the reasons, if not THE reason for her decision to run for a seat on the MCPS Board was to help secure Prescott School for use by the private Missoula International School.
In a later post one will see Toni Rehbein's first words as a MCPS Trustee. Hint: They have to do with the leasing of Prescott School by Missoula International School.
Update on June 21, 2013:
Prescott School Missoula overlooked a missing piece regarding the the Missoula International School Montana Corporation Annual Reports. Prescott School Missoula did not mention at the time of this page's original post date (May 4th, 2012) that Trustee Toni Rehbein was the President of Missoula International School in not only the year mentioned above, 1998, but also in the year of 1999. For three consecutive years Rehbein served as an officer of Missoula International School. This indicates deep ties to Missoula International School for now former Chairwoman of the MCPS Board of Trustees - a school for which she advocated over and over during her tenure on the MCPS Board thus displaying disloyalty to MCPS.
Edited on August 15, 2012, June 24, 2013
According to Montana Corporation Annual Reports from the years of 1998 and 2000, Toni Rehbein served as President and Vice President of Missoula International School, respectively. (Montana Corporation Annual Reports are available to the public from the Secretary of State's office in Helena.)
Rehbein ran for a seat on the MCPS Board in 2004, winning the election in May of that year.
We know by remarks by Scott Bixler at a December 2004 Board Meeting that he had been asked the previous year to serve on the Board. Therefore, we can presume that Toni Rehbein had been contemplating running for a MCPS Board seat sometime in 2003 or perhaps earlier, as Rehbein, Bixler and Joe Toth ran as a team. The time span is quite short, that is, from 2000 to 2003, in which Toni Rehbein was serving on the MIS Board to running for a seat on the MCPS Board.
It is highly likely that one of the reasons, if not THE reason for her decision to run for a seat on the MCPS Board was to help secure Prescott School for use by the private Missoula International School.
In a later post one will see Toni Rehbein's first words as a MCPS Trustee. Hint: They have to do with the leasing of Prescott School by Missoula International School.
Update on June 21, 2013:
Prescott School Missoula overlooked a missing piece regarding the the Missoula International School Montana Corporation Annual Reports. Prescott School Missoula did not mention at the time of this page's original post date (May 4th, 2012) that Trustee Toni Rehbein was the President of Missoula International School in not only the year mentioned above, 1998, but also in the year of 1999. For three consecutive years Rehbein served as an officer of Missoula International School. This indicates deep ties to Missoula International School for now former Chairwoman of the MCPS Board of Trustees - a school for which she advocated over and over during her tenure on the MCPS Board thus displaying disloyalty to MCPS.
Edited on August 15, 2012, June 24, 2013
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