Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees were once again irresponsible in extending the lease to Missoula International School of Prescott School in 2011, which is located in the lower Rattlesnake Valley of Missoula, Montana.
Why?
Here is a list of just a few of the many reasons why the Prescott School/MIS lease extension was an irresponsible decision by MCPS Trustees -
Financial reasons -
2004 - From the beginning, in 2004, citizens which have included a math professor, have stated the lease of Prescott School by Missoula International School would hurt the district financially (see June 8, 2004 Letters to the editor in the Missoulian by David Patterson- "low rent will hurt the district, not help"). In this 2004 letter it states that the district could stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the state funding formula if even a small amount of growth occurred for MIS.
2011 - In a letter via email to all Trustees dated July 9, 2011, the math professor mentioned above, David Patterson discussed his continued reservations with the lease in financial terms. In this letter he describes the large financial loss to the district due to the lease just as he had warned about in 2004. psm(prescottschoolmissoula) will quote a paragraph from the letter which is truly astounding,
"Here it is, 7 years later and MIS enrollment has more than tripled to 121 in K-12 [Note - he must mean K-8]. I'm guessing that the vast majority of these students are from the MCPS area, therefore costing MCPS more than $500,000 annually in ANB funds. What is the return for MCPS? Less than $60,000 annually less the cost of MCPS funded repairs and maintenance (plus the costs saved of not educating those 100+ students, but wouldn't MCPS want those students?) Why then does MCPS enter into such an agreement?"
Ignored the Will of the People - Trustees ignored the will of the people. A petition requesting that MCPS Trustees extend the lease on a short term basis and that Prescott not be sold. This petition was signed by approximately 1,500 citizens. Many of the pages of this petition were placed in MCPS Board packets so that all Trustees had knowledge of it in 2008. This petition was also discussed in a public comment during the 2011 lease discussions and a copy of the petition signatures was given to Superintendent Apostle after the extension vote, however, was discussed with him prior to the vote. Trustees extended the lease in 2008 for three years and again in 2011, bringing the extension of this lease to eight years. The original lease in 2004 was for five years, ( the length which was questioned by responsible Trustees and citizens). Therefore, the lease of one of our most popular public schools by a private school totals (5+8) is thirteen years!! Thirteen years in which Rattlesnake Valley residents could have been attending their neighborhood school, a school built specifically for them, not private school students.
Overcrowding at Rattlesnake School - see February Missoulian article regarding busing Rattlesnake Valley students to Paxson due to the overcrowding and capacity issues at Rattlesnake School. The principal at Rattlesnake School stated at a meeting that the overcrowding had been a problem for the last three years - a situation of which MCPS Trustees must have had knowledge.
Lack of Maintenance to Grounds of Prescott School in violation of the lease, thus a Breach of Contract (The district also bears some responsibility in this as they have not enforced the lease.). See YouTube video - type in "Breach of Contract and Missoula International School" or go to the 5-27-12 post on this blog to play the video.
Trustees not following Montana's Trust Law as specified in the Montana Constitution and which many citizens believe apply to School Board Trustees (one citizen has stated that is why the term "Trustees" is given to School Board members). The duties of Prudence and Loyalty were not being followed by MCPS Trustees.
Not using the district's own demographic study in which it clearly states that the elementary student population will increase in the five year period of the most recent lease extension, that is from 2012 - 2017. The demographic study cost the district thousands of dollars, only to be ignored by Trustees when making facility decisions.
Missoula County Public Schools in Breach of Contract due to engaging in maintenance and repairs for MIS. The lease states states that MIS is responsible for these tasks.
For example, MCPS employees did carpentry, electrical, and painting tasks on the gym at Prescott School - see YouTube video.
psm can think of more reasons, however, this is fast becoming quite a long post. The above reasons for not extending the lease needed to be heeded by the Trustees in 2011, however they were not. These Trustees were irresponsible and need to be voted out of office. psm will go as far as stating the Trustees that voted for the lease need to resign their positions due to lack of responsible leadership.
Edited on November 3, 2013
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