The complaint follows the March 25, 2004, MCPS Board decision to close 3 northeast schools, Rattlesnake Middle School, Prescott School, and Mt. Jumbo School.
On the front page of the lawsuit on the right it states:
"COMPLAINT and PETITION TO SET ASIDE SCHOOL BOARD'S ACTIONS and TO COMPEL THE BOARD TO COMPLY WITH MONTANA'S RIGHT TO KNOW LAWS."
On page 2 and number 12 one will read, "Prior to the vote Chairwoman Harrison did allow one person to comment on the preliminary budget as finally presented to and voted on by the Board prior to the Board's vote. That person was an acting principal at Prescott Elementary School and therefore an employee of the district."
Another pertinent paragraph (13) from the complaint follows:
"Chairwoman Harrison was asked by members of the public to allow them to comment before the vote was taken. Chairwoman Harrison refused the public's request. Chairwoman Harrison did not allow any member of the public to comment on the approved preliminary budget UNTIL AFTER the Board had voted to approve the preliminary budget."
One is able to see in the above two paragraphs of the complaint that the process to close the three schools was fraught with corruption.
The complaint does not mention the name of the principal at Prescott School. The principal in 2004 of Prescott School was Cindy Christensen.
Citizens who are interested in why Prescott School was closed and why it is now leased to Missoula International School would most likely be interested in this information.
It was said that Prescott School principal Cindy Christensen was emotional to the point of crying during her solo public comment calling on the closure of Prescott School.
Another source of information regarding Cindy Christensen and her comments at the March 25th, 2004 school board meeting and suppporting the above comment is the March 26th, 2004, edition of the Missoulian is a front page article written by reporter Jane Rider , titled, "Prescott, Mount Jumbo closed" (the title actually needed to include Rattlesnake Middle School).
Quotes from the article pertaining to Cindy Christensen follow:
"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."
and -
"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."
Note from Prescott School Missoula - As psm had a child attending Prescott School during the closures psm can attest that Prescott School was a wonderful school and the fact that enrollment was down did not "diminish the energy" as Christensen states above.
If there was any diminished energy it would have come from the principal herself - as she was not for the school remaining open she would have would not have been a positive influence- in fact - psm had been told she was a negative influence and remained in her office talking on the phone quite a lot of the time (most likely to opponents of Prescott).
Note: The link to the Missoulian article from March 26, 2004, above in which one will be able to read additional information on the school closures will be up as time permits. psm has had technical difficulties in linking the article to this blog.
As one can see by the lawsuit material in addition to those from the Missoulian article reporting on the closures one comes away with the reality that Cindy Christensen was a proponent of the closure and went even futher to assist in the closure of not only Prescott, but Rattlesnake Middle School and Mt. Jumbo School.
It appears that Cindy Christensen, the Prescott principal in 2004 was disloyal to her school by siding with the administration who was calling for the closure of Prescott and the two other schools.
It is not a stretch to conceptualize that Chairwoman of the Board Rosemary Harrison and Prescott principal Cindy Christensen planned in advance of the meeting to allow for Christensen to speak for the school closures even though others were not allowed.
If only Prescott School had had a loyal and steadfast principal that stood by her through thick and thin perhaps the tragedy of the closure could have been averted.
Cindy Christensen did indeed throw Prescott School under the bus.
At this time Cindy Christensen is the principal of Russell School. Russell School, just won an award.
Just think, if Christensen would have stood by her school, perhaps it could have been Prescott School that received that award.
No comments:
Post a Comment