Prescott School News 2014 edition

Below is a copy of the latest "Prescott School News". Citizens are welcome and indeed encouraged to make copies and "spread the word" about what is going on with our wonderful Prescott School!

Prescott School News – 2014

Prescott School – Serving the Rattlesnake Valley since 1893 – We want our neighborhood school back!!

 Prescott School was built in the late 1893. The current Prescott School building was built in 1950-51 along with Jefferson and Washington Schools using a H.E. Kirkemo design. Tragically, in 2004, 4 of 7 MCPS Trustees voted to close Prescott along with Mt. Jumbo and Rattlesnake Middle Schools.  Only two months later Prescott was leased for 5 years to Missoula International School!  This procedure was fraught with corruption.   MCPS Trustee Naomi Kimbell voted for the closures (twice) and the lease.  She was hired only weeks later as Missoula International School’s executive director!  Another trustee, former Board Chair of MCPS - Toni Rehbein served as President and Vice President of Missoula International School and was elected shortly after to serve on the MCPS School Board.  In Rehbein’s first MCPS meeting (May 2004) she voiced support for the MIS/Prescott lease and has supported Missoula International School since then!  In 2004, trustees were warned that loses due to the lease could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars (Missoulian June 8, 2004).  In 2011, a math expert estimated that the district had lost $500,000 just in one year due to MIS enrollment increases (from 33 to 121 - and now at 161+!)and state funding formulas!  Over the years this lease has cost taxpayers millions of dollars! DISLOYAL SCHOOL DISTRICT OFFICIALS IGNORED THE WARNINGS AND APPROVED a 3 year lease extension in 2009 and another 5 YEAR extension in 2011 BRINGING THE LEASE EXPIRATION TO 2017!!  Update from 2012 Prescott School News – Unbelievably, instead of discussions to reopen Prescott, in the summer of 2012 a modular was built at Rattlesnake School at a cost of $250,000! MCPS ignored its own demographic report which predicted increases in enrollment! (Missoulian article 9-13-12). In the fall of 2013, the Missoulian reported that MCPS is sending elementary Rattlesnake students to Paxson – irresponsible when Prescott is so close! PRESCOTT SCHOOL WAS BUILT AND MAINTAINED FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS!  There are a myriad of possibilities for Prescott –  bring our 6^th, 7^th, and 8th graders back to the Valley, return Prescott to its K-8 configuration, etc!  We lost Lincoln School; let us also not lose Prescott School!!  Please write to the school district in support of reopening Prescott and against further leases or sale of Prescott School to Missoula International School (MIS). Request that Prescott be an ACTIVE member of the Property Studies Group and be included in any future MCPS plans Please write to the school district and let officials know your position of keeping Prescott School for public school students.  Prescott School is part of Missoula’s heritage!

 Contact the school district at: Missoula County Public Schools, 215 S. Sixth West, Misoula,MT 59801.Request that your letter be placed in an MCPS Board packet. For more information call Jeanne at 721-9027 and/or go to www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com.   Thank you!!