Re-opening Prescott School - Let the conversation begin

Realistically, Prescott School need never have been closed. 

A Trustee on the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees said to Prescott School Missoula the night of the closure decision, March 24, 2004, before the meeting that there was enough money to cover the budget shortfall without closing any schools.  

Prescott School Missoula is of the opinion that there were other underlying reasons for the closures. 

One of these reasons, in psm's opinion, was to open the door for the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School, which occurred shortly after the closures.  The lease scenario was begun with a MIS letter to the district in April, only a month after the closures. Prescott School Missoula believes this is the first public document; there may have been private conversations between MCPS officials and MIS representatives before the MIS letter was sent to the district. 

The Prescott School closure and MIS lease tragedy happened and continues to this day.  We cannot turn back the clock. 

We can, however, look to the future.  And that future is one in which Prescott School is returned to it's rightful owners - the public school children of Missoula County Public Schools.

Let's kick out Missoula International School.  That is, let us NOT renew the lease when it expires in 2017.  The lease has always undermined the school district. Leasing Prescott to MIS forced MCPS to build a modular at Rattlesnake School due to the increase in Rattlesnake enrollment - which MCPS Trustees knew about before extending the lease in 2011.

Let us begin the conversation.  Let us figure out how much the real cost would be to re-open Prescott.  We always get the run around by school administrators saying that it would cost too much. 

Prescott School Missoula believes that re-opening our school could be at a reasonable cost.  For instance, we do not need a separate principal at first, this job could be shared with the principal of Rattlesnake School until the enrollment increased.

There are a myriad of possibilities.  Volunteers could be used for various jobs.  Other remedies could be applied to problems as they spring up.

Whatever the cost, it is doubtful that it would equal the funds we are losing leasing our school to a private school, which was estimated to be $500,000 in one year by a professional mathematician.

Let us begin the conversation of re-opening Prescott School after the MIS/Prescott lease expires in 2017.  Let's make the plans now so we can look forward to using our beloved Prescott School once again.