Why We Need to Keep Prescott School - a flyer from 2007 - is just as relevant today as it was then

Why We Need to Keep Prescott School

The following are some of the many reasons to keep Prescott School:

 

The most basic reason – to provide a neighborhood school for the children in the Rattlesnake Valley.  Prescott could house students from over-crowded schools, returning to Missoula’s 1960’s model of utilizing all of our neighborhood schools.  

 

The school playground provides open space for the neighborhood residents providing room for sports, exercising dogs, sledding, and a play area for children!!

 

Prescott School is in good shape as per an appraisal in 2003.  The current school building was built solidly in 195l (the same year as Washington and Jefferson Schools).  H.E. Kirkemo, a well-respected Missoula architect designed the three schools.

 

A neighborhood school allows Rattlesnake children to walk and bike to school.

 

Prescott School provides a gathering place and community center for the neighborhood for meetings, events, voting, school and neighborhood parties, gym sports and activities, adult education, etc.  Schools are the heart of a neighborhood.

 

Leasing or selling Prescott to a private school denies local children a public school.

 

The Rattlesnake area is growing! Applegrove and Lily Court subdivisions, apartments on E. Broadway, and other building is adding to the growth.

 

The land on which Prescott resides was purchased from the Missoula Real Estate Assoc. for a school in 1893(!) making Prescott School a valuable Missoula historic asset.  Prescott School may be the oldest elementary school in Missoula. Note: Whittier is older than Prescott.

 

Rattlesnake School is at or close to capacity – Rattlesnake school has 22 classrooms, which are at this time all being used (!)- Parents have complained of large class sizes.

 

MCPS officials have talked about bussing lower Rattlesnake students to Lowell School. Lowell School is a great neighborhood school; however, it is not in ours.

 

Missoula demographics point to an increase in elementary enrollment as the children of the baby boomers begin their family formation and child-rearing years.

The birthrate in Missoula has increased since 1998.  Missoula’s central neighborhoods are transitioning as retirees move out and young families move in. “Missoula County school enrollment in early grades did not decline because “young families can’t afford to live in Missoula”; it has largely declined because of  shifting age demographics in the population. (Demographic information by Dr. Larry Swanson).

 

 

This document was created in approximately 2007 - however, the information is as relevant today as it was then.

Tomorrow two classes will be held in a modular at Rattlesnake School as Missoula International School students will be beginning classes in a beautiul public school building, Prescott School, located just one mile from Rattlesnake

Another year, the beginning of five in the latest lease extension, in which one of our favorite public schools will be occupied by a private school. 

The public school is Prescott School, located in an idyllic setting in the lower Rattlesnake. This Prescott School is the second at this location.  The first was built in the late 1890's when Missoula was a fledgling new city.  The current school was built in 1950-51 along with Jefferson and Washington. 

Many times these two schools are included with the year of Prescott's construction for a reason - MCPS Trustees cannot vilify it without vilifying the other two buildings.

The private school leasing Prescott School is Missoula International School. If one drives by Prescott at 1100 Harrison St. you will see new playground equipment installed on the south side of the playground. 

One has to ask - why is MIS spending so much money on capital improvements (the playground equipment is brand new so must have cost thousands of dollars). Why is MIS spending so much money remodeling the inside of a leased school?  Does MIS have inside information from disloyal Trustees - Toni Rehbein in particular - a former officer for MIS - that another lease extension will be approved?

As stated in other posts, it is not prudent to allow a lessee to have such leeway in making changes to a leased public school. A lease is essentially a mode to allow the district to make money on a school building while not in use. (See other posts which state we are losing millions of dollars on this lease) When it is again in demand, such as the current school year, the school building is supposed to be move-in ready for public school students.  This is not what is happening at Prescott School.

It is time for MIS to begin the process of finding a new location for their school.

The modular at Rattlesnake School is only a temporary stop-gap measure to deal with the increased enrollment now and in future years.  See post in which is a link to the district's own commissioned demographic study which shows a huge spike in elementary enrollment in the next 5 years with significant numbers in projected enrollment in subsequent years following the spike.

What we have in Missoula is disloyal MCPS School Board Trustees that have given major favors to private schools.

The nightmare continues as we watch our Rattlesnake students walk into the modular classrooms on their first day of school tomorrow on August 26, 2012.

The nightmare continues as we watch St. Joseph's School students walk into our former Roosevelt School as our other neighborhood public schools are packed to the brim.

Former Prescott School teacher Dan Rude named international president of Sons of Norway

Missoula Son of Norway named international president

The above link is to a Missoulian article dated October 27, 2008, reporting on former Prescott School teacher Dan Rude and his involvement in the Sons of Norway organization. As reported in the article, Dan Rude was a long-time teacher at Prescott School. 

Quotes from the article follow - 

"These were the beginnings of one Norwegian family in America. Now, their grandson lives in Missoula and values this heritage so much he has risen through the ranks of the largest Norwegian cultural organization outside Norway to become the international president of the Sons of Norway."

"For the past 40 years, Rude has been a teacher in Missoula, working for 12 of those years at Franklin School, and 28 at Prescott School. After retiring, the 65-year-old Rude got more involved in Sons of Norway and now receives a stipend for his work as international president, a mantle he assumed last month."

It's great that Dan has risen so high in the Sons of Norway organization.

Prescott School Missoula would like to thank Dan Rude for his many years of teaching at Prescott School.

Chart reveals MIS' dramatic increase in enrollment since leasing Prescott School undermining MCPS and is costing millions for Missoula taxpayers

Below is a chart showing the increase in enrollment for Missoula International School. 

Missoula International School Enrollment History*

Year	P	K		1	2	3	4	5	6	7		8		Total	Inc.
2002-2003		14		6										20
2003-2004		19		9	5									33	13
2004-2005		19		12	ß11à		ß7à							49	16
2005-2006		20		12	10	7	9	3	3					64	15
2006-2007		14		ß65à (no grade breakdown)										79	15
2007-2008		20		13	16	16	8	8	5	8		2		96	17
2008-2009		ß38à			ß25à		ß20à		ß15à					98	2
2009-2010		13		17	22	9	11	11	6	4		3		96	-2
2010-2011		24		11	17	23	10	14	13	4		5		121	25
2011-2012
2012-2013

 *The above enrollment information was obtained from the Missoula County Superintendent of Schools office on Spruce St. in downtown Missoula.

*2011-2012 information forth coming

Missoula International School began leasing Prescott School in 2004. The lease was approved for a 5 year term. (MCPS Trustees must have been in a generous mood [with our public facility] so they lengthened the term MIS requested by three years)

Even though citizens, including a professional working in the field of mathematics, warned MCPS Trustees that assisting a private school was not in the best interests of the school district and would cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars if the enrollment of MIS grew the Trustees approved the ratification of a lease.

As one can see from the chart, MIS enrollment has increased substantially, thus the loses to the district have also increased dramatically with each passing year, as each student brings approximately $4,000. to $5,000 to the district.  See June 8th, 2004 letter to the editor in the Missoulian by David Patterson for the warning to school district Trustees. This letter as well as a public comment by Patterson was ignored by MCPS Trustees in 2004. Another email letter to MCPS Board of Trustees and to Superintendent Alex Apostle before the 2011 extension discussions warned Trustees of a $500,000/year loss due to the lease.  This warning was ignored by all Trustees and the superintendent, in addition to the Director of Business Services, Pat McHugh.

When the increase in MIS enrollment and the loss of state funding is brought up by responsible citizens during MCPS Board Meetings one may hear Trustees stating that private school enrollment in Missoula is less than in other cities OR the increase in enrollment at MIS is because the students are transferring from other private schools. These comments are either not relevant to the lease issue or there is no supporting data for the statement.

Two extensions of Prescott School by MIS were approved by MCPS Board of Trustees, one in 2009 and one in 2011. The first extension in 2009 was for 3 years and the second extension in 2011 was for 5 years!

MCPS poised to lose $2.5 million due to lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School

Last year, 2011, the MCPS Trustees and administration made a very expensive decision.  This decision was the 5 year extension of the lease of Prescott School to the Missoula International School.

Information regarding a potential gigantic monetary loss if the school district went forward with the lease extension was sent to all MCPS Trustees and the superintendent before the vote via an email from David Patterson. David is employed by the University of Montana as a math professor, therefore, he has professional knowledge regarding numbers issues.

Some important quotes from the email letter follows:

"In 2004, I expressed serious reservations to the Board about the lease that MCPS was proposing to enter into with Missoula International School. I felt the amount of rent was so small as to constitute a subsidy to a private school. The potential loss to MCPS of ANB dollars was large.  I suggested that the rent be tied to enrollment, but I was assured by one board member that MIS would not be getting much bigger."

and -

"Here it is, 7 years later and MIS enrollment has more than tippled to 121 in K-12 [psm is quite sure Patterson meant 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?"

and -

"One reason seems to be that there are no alternative renters for the building.  To my knowledge, MCPS has never seriously marketed the building to find other possible renters, but let's accept that premise, for now.  However, we must also consider what other alternatives MIS has.  Is there any other comparable facility in Missoula for anything near this price?  Could MIS finance and maintain a new building at this cost?  Clearly the answers are no and no. The lease price must recognize this fact."

and the closing statement -

"I ask the Board members approach the consideration of this lease as a business proposition with a single objective: what is best for the MCPS students and the MCPS system?"

NO TRUSTEE TOOK THIS LETTER SERIOUSLY AND DID NOT CONSIDER THE WARNINGS OF HUGE FINANCIAL LOSSES TO THE DISTRICT AS A RESULT OF EXTENDING THE LEASE IN JULY OF 2011.

If you multiply the projected annual loss as stated above by Patterson, the district is poised to lose $2.5 million in the 5 year span of the lease. 

Every taxpayer in Missoula needs to be aware of this loss and to speak against further lease extensions to Missoula International School or any other private school. Remember that we have disloyal School Board Trustees on the MCPS Board, including the former Missoula International School President, now the MCPS Board Chairwoman, Toni Rehbein. All of our MCPS Trustees need to be replaced as they place our school district second to private schools.

Prescott School was built and maintained for more than a century for public school children. Our wonderful Prescott School needs to re-open so that it can be used by it's the rightful owners, the public school children.

Prescott School a valuble modernist building - See column titled "Preserve modernist buildings at UM "

Preserve modernist buildings at UM

Rafael Chacon wrote a guest column on April 4, 2008 for the MIssoulian regarding the modernist buildings on the University of Montana campus (Link above). Chacon explains the value these 1950's buildings have for our society and why they need to be preserved.

Chacon also mentions several architects that contributed to the modernist buildings on the campus.

One of the architects mentioned is H.E. Kirkemo. Kirkemo was the architect for Prescott School. Thus Prescott School needs to be well maintained so that it can serve a lasting legacy to Kirkemo far into the future. Kirkemo also designed Jefferson and Washington, as all three schools are the same design except for the size. He may have designed other school buildings in the district as well.

Missoula International School is now in the process of remodeling some upstairs classrooms. The notion that Missooula International School, a private school leasing Prescott School, can have such leeway in remodeling our public school is utterly absurd and reveals corruption within our school district. What history is being lost in this process? What damage is being done to the school building? The public is being left out of the process and are left in the dark about what changes are taking place in our valuable Prescott School building. (Again - no building permit on the outside of the Prescott School building)


Some quotes from the guest column follow in addition to the above link for more information:

"The International style triumphed in America during the euphoric, post-World War II building boom, a time when a renewed nation demonstrated its industrial and economic might in all types of commercial, civic and domestic buildings. Modern aesthetics called for sleek, Cubist-inspired designs as well as new, more utilitarian applications of industrial materials, including brick, glass, concrete, cut stone and polished metal. The streamlined, pared-down look of intersecting planes and asymmetrical boxes, flat roofs and glass curtain walls came primarily from French architect Le Corbusier but also from the German Bauhaus. The Nazis closed down that progressive Berlin school in 1933 and its leading architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe came to America as exiles. Leading American architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson embraced the movement."

However, some of these "50-somethings" are worth including in an expanded nomination that does justice to this chapter in our history. They are the works of important architects such as Missoula modernists Fox, Ballas and Barrow and Kalispell's Brinkman and Lenon; as well as our best modern architect, H.E Kirkemo.

Classmates - a website of former Prescott students

Check out this site (see link below) to see a list of former Prescott School classmates. Prescott School students from in the 1950's to more recent years have signed up on this site.

Prescott School has been a favorite school for many students, teachers, and parents.

Prescott needs to re-open as a school for public school children so that neighborhood children in the Rattlesnake, as opposed to private school students, can again attend our beloved Prescott.

If you have attended Prescott School you may wish to sign up as well!

www.classmates.com/places/school/Prescott...School/17415081

Julie Lennox and/or other administrators of Missoula International School and MCPS Chairwoman Toni Rehbein - "Partners in Crime?"

A short biographical sketch of Julie Lennox follows -

"Julie received a B.A. in Liberal Arts with an EVST emphasis and a B.A. in Elementary Education with High Honors from the University of Montana. She completed her M.A. in Educational Leadership in 2011. Julie has been with MIS as a professional educator and MIS alumni parent since its founding in 1995."

Below is a link to information on the administration of the Missoula International School where the above paragraph was taken.

www.mismt.org/admin.html
Both Julie Lennox, the "Head of School" of the Missoula International School and MCPS Chairwoman Toni Rehbein have a lot in common. 

As stated in the MIS information, Julie Lennox has been associated with the Missoula International School since it's beginning in 1995. 

Chairwoman Toni Rehbein has also been associated with Missoula International School since the early days of the school. Rehbein finally fessed up to this important information in a MCPS committee meeting after she had repeatedly advocated for the Prescott School/Missoula International School lease during her first MCPS Board Meeting in May of 2004.

Montana Corporation Annual Report documents for 1998 and 2000 show that Toni Rehbein was President and Vice President of Missoula International School,respectively.  There was a short time span between serving on the MIS Board and being elected to the MCPS Board of Trustees. 

Julie Lennox has been at most if not all of the MCPS meetings when the issue of the Prescott School/MIS lease is discussed. Lennox's picture was in the newspaper in 2004 when Prescott was in the process of being leased to MIS. Board Chairwoman Toni Rehbein has many times advocated for the lease throughout her time on the MCPS Board. 

Many of the Prescott School/Missoula International School lease decisions have not made sense. Citizens have come forward, such as a math professor who has said that the lease is extremely costly for the district (hundreds of thousands of dollars are being lost due to the lease due to the state funding fomula).

Another person who is very well versed in land issues has  stated in that the lease violates Montana's Trust Laws. 

Demographics in addition to new subdivisions also point to the need of Prescott by MCPS. (See Prescott School is Needed by MCPS post)

The district even went so far as to construct a modular (which is in the process as we speak) at Rattlesnake School to deal with overcrowding.

The overcrowding issue at Ratttlesnake School was known when the district extended the lease in 2011 for 5 more years.

In other words the lease and the extensions (2 extensions) as stated above do not make sense, but it keeps being extended....

Something seems to be going on behind the scenes between the leadership of MIS, perhaps Julie Lennox, and Toni Rehbein and others in the district. 

Before one and perhaps more MCPS Meetings in which the Prescott/MIS lease is discussed the first thing Rehbein does is look to see if her MIS friends are in the audience and waves to them (this can be seen on MCAT tapes of the Board Meetings). Others have witnessed winks from Rehbein to her MIS friends.

This physical evidence seems to indicate that there were conversations before Board Meetings regarding the lease  between MIS officials (perhaps Julie Lennox as she is Head of School), and Toni Rehbein to keep Prescott School in the hands of Missoula International School.

Since 2004, there have been discussions in MCPS Committee Meetings regarding the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School. MIS representatives have voiced their plans for their school and the Prescott School building many times over the years.  

The process usually went this way:  MIS would write a letter discussing their desire to either continue leasing or to buy Prescott School. Soon after, the MCPS Board would place this item for discussion on a Committee agenda, either the Finance and Operations Committee or the Property Ad Hoc Committee.  It seems entirely possible that this was a set up between the two parties.  For minority Trustees on the School Board it was almost impossible to place a desired issue on the agenda of a MCPS meeting. 

Additionally, one only has to observe and read about the preferential treatment MIS receives from the district (see above paragraph). 

The playground is never up to district standards in terms of care.

The MCPS school district helps with painting using district personnel - both in Breach of Contract.

It would be nice to see Rehbein and other Trustees take care of their own constituents as well as they do for MIS!  However, disloyalty is the name of the game since 2004 (and even earlier for Roosevelt School).

 Observation over an eight year period seems to indicate that MIS officials, perhaps Julie Lennox and others, and Toni Rehbein are perfect, "partners in crime". 

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