How many days since that fateful day of March 25, 2004 at 1 a.m. when the MCPS Board of Trustees closed Prescott School

Often I have wondered how many days, not years, since our beloved Prescott School was closed.

In the wee hours of the morning of March 25, 2004, after many people had left the meeting at the South Avenue administration building, the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees voted to close THREE schools in the northeast section of our city. 

The schools: Rattlesnake Middle School and Prescott School in the Rattlesnake Valley, and Mount Jumbo School in East Missoula.

If one goes to www.daycalc.appspot.com  one can find out this information.

According to the above website it has been 4,920 days since that disastrous vote that closed Prescott School which so negatively effected our city, our neighborhood, and our students.

Again, it has been 4,920 days since the closure of Prescott School in Missoula.

Where are the people who closed Prescott School and then leased it to the private Missoula International School?

Where are the people who were responsible for closing our most treasured Prescott School?
Remember - the people, the Missoula County Public Schools Trustees, are by name:

Board Chairwoman - Rosemary Harrison
Trustee Jenda Hemphill(aka Jenda Cummings) later Board Chairwoman
Trustee Toni Rehbein (aka Toni Smartt) and later Board Chairwoman
Trustee Scott Bixler
Trustee Joe Toth

The above Trustees voted in the July, 2004 MCPS Board Meeting. This meeting was the SECOND vote on the Prescott School closure issue.

The Missoula County Public Schools Trustees who voted on March 24 to close the school were)(only a 48 day process!)

Rosemary Harrison (see above)
Jenda Hemphill (see above)
Naomi Kimbell (aka Naomi DeMarinis)
and
David Merrill

Trustees who did not vote for the closure were: Suzette Dussault, Colleen Rogers, and Carol Bellin.

As one can see only four MCPS Trustees can radically transform  a neighborhood, a school district, and the city as a whole. It is quite apparent that there needs to be a tweaking of the process of school closures and also for school sales.

To get back to the topic on where the Trustees who voted for the closure of Prescott School are today -

Without too much research I believe that most of the people listed are still in Missoula. Rosemary Harrison is now a realtor, Scott Bixler was and still is I believe, working for the Forest Service, Joe Toth was and still is, I believe, working as a fireman. Jenda Hemphill, I have heard, unfortunately, has a disease, which I won't mention here. Naomi Kimbell, I believer is writing like her father did before her. And, I will have to see if I can find out where David Merrill works.

The point is that all of these people are now leading their own lives away from their past school board duties and none are taking responsibility for the troubles which they have caused. None are being held accountable for our crowded schools, for the busing of half of our school children due to the school closures for which they voted, for all the increased infrastructure building, etc. Wouldn't it have been just as easy to be cautious and NOT to have closed the schools, not to have sold a school, and not to have leased a school to a private school? Yes, but politics got in the way.

And politics is still in the way - One of the above Trustees was voted out of office, and soon after helped to start the Missoula Education Foundation. This foundation works closely with the school district. All the better to be close to MCPS business, including being part of the bond committee) and to manipulate outcomes of decision making. This Trustee also has children and grandchildren - so is his/her hands in school business affecting her grandchildren. Do they attend a school with the International Baccalaureate program is instituted by MCPS for example?

All things to consider so that lessons can be learned for future decisions.