MCPS goes forward with approval of Prescott School/MIS lease in 2004 even though a lawsuit had been filed against MCPS asking the court to void the board's decision to close three schools, which included Prescott

Below one can read parts of a Missoulian article written on May 11, 2004 by Jane Rider reporting on the proposed lease of Prescott School by Missoula International School.

Prescott School Missoula would like to bring to light the fact that the Prescott School/MIS lease was approved during the time in which  a lawsuit was filed  by two Missoula residents against MCPS that alleged the district violated state open meetings law during its budget preparation process just days before the May 11, 2004 Board Meeting.

MCPS Trustees knew they had been served a lawsuit in which Prescott School was involved AND WENT AHEAD WITH LEASING DISCUSSIONS OF PRESCOTT WITH MISSOULA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL.

Prescott School Missoula discussed this situation with a citizen knowledgeable with land issues.  This citizen's opinion on this issue was that the correct course of action by the attorney for the plaintiffs, John Schonz (may not be correct spelling) , Molly Moody and Allen Oinnes, would have been to file a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop any lease negotiations.

Due to the fact that the attorney for the plaintiffs was not "on his game" the Prescott/MIS lease discussions went forward.

The title of the May 11, 20004 Missoulian article is -

"Spanish school eyes Prescott space"

Parts of the article follow -
 
- "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."

- "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."

- "Missoula International hopes to consolidate at one location in time for the start of the 2004-05 fall school year, Pierpoint said Monday."

- "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."

- "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."

 

 

GOOD SCHOOLS MISSOULA INC v. MISSOULA COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT NO, No. DA 07-0538., July 01, 2008 - MT Supreme Court | FindLaw

Click on the link below to read the Supreme Court document regarding the Good Schools Missoula lawsuit against Missoula County Public School District on the sale of Roosevelt School to the Catholic Schools Organization.

A link to this document is included on the Prescott School Missoula blog as there are many similarities (almost identical) with the lease of Roosevelt School to St. Joseph's School and the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School.

GOOD SCHOOLS MISSOULA INC v. MISSOULA COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT NO, No. DA 07-0538., July 01, 2008 - MT Supreme Court | FindLaw

The decision by the Supreme Court did not apply to the merits of the case, but with the procedure the litigants used in the case. The Supreme Court sided with the district in that they agreed that the litigants needed to go to the Missoula County Superintendent of Schools at the beginning of the lawsuit process.

Therefore one can conclude that because the Supreme Court did not rule in favor of Good Schools Missoula does not mean that it is a prudent decision to lease or sell a public school to a private school.

NO ROOSEVELT REPEAT - I.E. A SALE OF PRESCOTT SCHOOL TO MISSOULA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL!

Briefly, the decision to sell Roosevelt School was shortsighted and reckless.

During the discussions of the sale, a responsible and loyal trustee brought up that the state was about to approve all-day kindergarten.
Unfortunately,this fact was dismissed by the pro-sale trustees.

Shortly after the sale, the state did approve all-day kindergarten which then forced the need for 13 classrooms, almost exactly the number of classrooms that Roosevelt provided.  Consequently, the district had to spend millions of dollars on additions to other schools.

David Merrill dismisses his mandate when elected and voted to close Prescott School along with Rattlesnake Middle School and Mount Jumbo Schools on the evening of March 24th - 25th, 2004

When running for the MCPS school board in 2001, David Merrill stated that he was a proponent of re-opening Prescott School. Prescott School had been closed earlier that spring. In fact, he ran for the school board with two other people with the similar message, "re-open Prescott School" (Suzette Dussault and Colleen Rogers).  They sent out post cards with the three names that indicated that they believed in re-opening Prescott School.

Many believe that Merrill's position on the Prescott School issue was the reason for his victory at the polls and was indeed a mandate that he would support Prescott School that spring and in the future.

In a March 26, 2004, Missoulian article written by Jane Rider, the following statements can be found;

"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."

and -

"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."

and -

"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."

By changing his vote on the closing of Rattlesnake Middle School he also was ignoring his mandate received in his election in 200l to not close Prescott School.

Were there other forces in Merrill's life that played into his decision to close the three schools?

Prescott School Missoula had heard that David Merrill was playing a lot of tennis with administrator Larry Johnson. psm (Prescott School Missoula) understands that Merrill and Johnson were friends. Whether their friendship began before or after he ran for the school board is unknown and may not even be pertinent to the issue. 

One can construe from the above information, that perhaps there was some school politics being discussed while playing tennis and perhaps the school closures was a topic. 

Whether or not Larry Johnson was able to influence Merrill's vote on the school closures is unknown.  The possibility existed , however, to do so.

Perhaps it is a good idea to stay away from unnecessary socializing with administrators during controversial decisions to avoid questions coming up in citizen's minds.

Another point that needs to be reiterated is that the decision came at 1:30 a.m. after 7 hours of deliberation.  To not postpone the  school closure decision, especially due to its magnitude, was a huge mistake. It is quite apparent that Chairwoman Harrison wished to make the decision that night, which placed trustees under a lot of pressure to make a hurried and unwise decision.

The trustees were under extreme pressure and could not have been thinking clearly at that time, in the morning after that many hours. of heated discussion, contrary to what they may have been thinking at the time. 

In fact, some people may have asked that the discussions be postponed to another day, however, psm is unsure that that happened.