Missoula International School's Sweetheart Lease or "Is MIS Taking MCPS to the Cleaners?"

This document appears in the Prescott School Missoula posts as:

 

"Is MIS taking MCPS to the Cleaners?" 

with a few minor changes. The document was written in 2008, during discussions of the first lease extension, however, it is still relevant as the sweetheart lease continues to this day. For the "pages" portion of this blog an additional title is being given to the document  -

"Missoula International School's Sweetheart Lease"  

 

 

On this page one can read about the sweetheart lease rate MCPS approved for MIS for the first five years, from 2004-2009. After the five year lease expired, MCPS increased the lease rates (a follow-up on the subsequent lease rates will be forthcoming when time permits) in two lease extensions, 2009-2013, a three year extension, and 2013-2017, a five year extension. The lease extension rates, however, were also sweetheart deals and never made up for the massive loses to the district as MCPS students flocked to the private MIS, thus taking with them the state funding which follows each student. (See David Patterson's June 8th, 2004 letter for explanation on this issue.)

The document reads -

Is MIS taking MCPS to the cleaners, MIS being Missoula International School and MCPS being Missoula County Public Schools? 

Is MCPS approving sweetheart lease rates for MIS going back to the original lease in 2004?  After gathering the information needed from various sources and doing the math there is no question that the answer is a resounding “Yes!” 

That is, you and I, the taxpayers of Missoula County are getting stuck with the bill for the operation of a private school, Missoula International School, which has leased Prescott School since 2004, a school built and maintained for public school children.

On March 24, 2004, Missoula County Public School Trustees voted to close three schools in northeast Missoula: Rattlesnake Middle School (grades 6-8), Prescott Elementary School (grades 4&5) in the Rattlesnake Valley, and Mount Jumbo School (grades K-3) in East Missoula. 

Subsequently, on June 8, 2004, school board trustees voted to lease one of the closed schools, Prescott Elementary School, to Missoula International School, a private Spanish-emersion school.

Let’s take a look at the lease rate. The current lease rate for MIS of Prescott School is extremely low. The square footage includes 24,240 square feet for the Prescott School building itself, in addition to a 950 square foot modular which is situated to the north of the school building, with a total of 25,190 square feetof school space. The lease rate was $20,000 for the first three years (2004-‘06) and $30,000 for the second two years (2007-’09) for the 5 year lease. That is, the lease rate for the first three years was $.79 per square foot and $ 1.19 per square foot for last two years. The average lease rate for the 5 year lease is $.95 per square foot. In comparison, the lease rate for Roosevelt School to St. Joseph’s Catholic School was $l.75 square foot and for Mount Jumbo School the lease rate to Walla Walla College is presently $2.25 per square foot (information from an administrator via a trustee). In other words, the lease price for Prescott School during the first three years to MIS was almost one-third the price of the Mount Jumbo lease and one-half the price of the Roosevelt lease. This inconsistency shows favoritism toward Missoula International School by MCPS trustees. Who wouldn’t want to keep this sweetheart deal?!

The lease also included the 2.3 acre playground, and a gym, a kitchen, 8 classrooms, several smaller rooms, offices, rest rooms on every floor, etc. etc. etc. Also included were some classroom furniture. An unbelievable sweetheart lease!  MIS was handed a ready-to-go school in order to expand - what disloyal MCPS Trustees  in 2004 (and in prior and subsequent years)!

 

On June 8^th of 2004 a letter to the editor was printed in the Missoulian by a citizen that pointed out the financial problems of leasing a public school to a private school. The conclusion was that the school district was poised to lose tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars if the lease was approved. Nevertheless, the lease was approved at the June 8, 2004 School Board meeting by the majority of the elementary school trustees (5-0 with two abstaining) and ratified in a lease document the next day, June 9^th.

See earlier blogpost featuring this letter to the editor, titled, "Low rent will hurt, not help the district" by David Patterson on this blog - Prescott School Missoula. Below is a quote from the letter:

"The price is ridiculously low-about what you would pay to rent a moderately large house in Missoula. Such a low rent would amount to a subsidy to a private school which competes for students with our public schools. Because of Montana’s enrollment-based school funding formula, if the International School adds just five additional students because of this move, then the rental loses more than it gains for the school district. If the International School expands further, the loss to the public schools could run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars."

 In a letter from MIS dated April 21, 2004 it states,

 

 “At the present time MIS serves approximately seventy students at two locations. MIS owns a building at 518 South Avenue West where the preschool and kindergarten classes are currently held. In addition, MIS leases space from the University Congregational Church on University Avenue where the first, second and third grades are taught. As you can imagine it has been difficult on staff as well as parents to have two locations. For some time MIS has been searching for space sufficient to house the entire school. Though there are many buildings available in Missoula, few of them offer classrooms and play space. MIS understands that some educational space may be available in the Missoula County School District. Specifically, MIS is interested in leasing Prescott Elementary School for a minimum of two years.”

As one can see from this letter, the move to Prescott School was definitely a giant improvement in facilities for the private school, courtesy of MCPS.

Again the question - Is MIS taking MCPS to the cleaners? The answer as one can deduce from the above information is, yes, MIS is taking MCPS to the cleaners by leasing Prescott School. That is, you and I, the Missoula County taxpayers, are subsidizing MIS. 

An extension of the document for the "pages" portion of the blog is looking into who is responsible for this giganitic lease mistake. Just who are the Trustees that have been responsible for the closure and lease decisions of Prescott School?

They are -

Closure Trustees - MCPS Board Chairwoman, Rosemary Harrison, Trustee Jenda Hemphill, Trustee Naomi Kimbell, Trustee David Merrill. Trustees Suzette Dussault, Colleen Rogers, and Trustee Carol Bellin voted against the closures. Both Dussault and Rogers were defeated in the May 2004 school board elections. Merrill chose not to run for re-election.

Second Closure Trustees due to Open Meetings lawsuit - MCPS Board Chairwoman Rosemary Harrison, Trustee Jenda Hemphill, Trustee Naomi Kimbell, Trustee Toni Rehbein, Trustee Scott Bixler, and Trustee Joe Toth.  Trustee Carol Bellin voted against the school closures twice.

Original Lease Trustees - Board Chairwoman Rosemary Harrison, Trustee Jenda Hemphill, Trustee Naomi Kimbell, Trustee Scott Bixler, and Trustee Joe Toth.  Trustee Carol Bellin abstained from the vote as her son had attended the MIS pre-school. After Trustee Bellin announced that she was abstaining from the lease vote Trustee Toni Rehbein abstained as well stating her child also had ties to MIS. (Would Rehbein have abstained had Bellin not? We do not know, however, Rehbein had advocated for the lease in her first meeting as a trustee the previous month, May of 2004).

First Extension Lease Trustees - Trustee Jenda Hemphill, Trustee Scott Bixler, Trustee Joe Toth, Trustee Joseph Knapp, (Prescott School Missoula needs to double check the trustees names for this vote).

Second Lease Extension Trustees - Trustee Scott Bixler, Trustee Joseph Knapp, (Trustee Joe Toth was absent), Trustee Michael Smith, (Prescott School Missoula needs to double check the trustees names for this vote). **Editors note on November 25, 2013 Trustee Shelly Wills also voted for the lease extension. The minutes of the July 2011 Board Meeting do not list the names of the trustees that voted for the lease which leaves it up to citizens to figure this information out.

*psm apologizes for any errors in spelling or grammar on this page.