Naomi Kimbell - From MCPS Trustee to MIS's Executive Director after votes for Prescott closure and MIS lease in 2004!!

NOTE: This page was written was written in approximately 2008, however, is still of utmost importance in understanding the corruption and shenanigans of Missoula County Pubic Schools on the Prescott School/Missoula International School lease beginning in 2004. The scenario described in this document is most likely, in the opinion of Prescott School Missoula, a case of a vote(s) for a job.
 
Preview:  The following dates and information reveal the relationship between former Missoula County Public School Trustee Naomi Kimbell and the Missoula International School, the current tenant of Prescott School.  As the district has now obtained an appraisal of Prescott School (September 29, 2008) and is discussing the lease of the school and perhaps a future sale, the information in this document becomes more relevant.  The question to ask is this:  Were trustees using sound reasoning, professional demographic information, and simple common sense and to help them with the decision-making process during the closing of three northeast Missoula schools and the subsequent leasing of Prescott School in 2004?   Or perhaps other less honorable factors and possible illegal actions played a role in the outcome of this closure/lease scenario, which if so, would ultimately serve to weaken the argument for continuing the lease of Prescott School past 2009 (term of expiration) and indeed the sale of Prescott School.

 

Summary:  While serving on the Missoula County Public School Board of Trustees, Trustee Naomi Kimbell, joining three fellow trustees, voted to close three schools on March 24, 2004:  Rattlesnake Middle School and Prescott School located in the Rattlesnake Valley, and Mount Jumbo School located in East Missoula (vote was 4-3).  At the June 8, 2004, School Board meeting Trustee Kimbell joined three fellow trustees and voted to lease Prescott School to the private Spanish emersion school, Missoula International School (vote was 4-1 with 2 abstaining).  The closure issue was repeated at the July 13th Board meeting in response to an Open Meeting Law lawsuit filed within a month after the March school closures and, Kimbell voted again to close the three schools joining five fellow trustees with three new board members , with a 6-1 outcome favoring closure.   Subsequently, as reported in a Missoulian article August 3, 2004, Kimbell became employed as executive director of Missoula International School, ultimately taking advantage of her 3 votes on this issue.  A quote from the above article states, “While on the board, Kimbell was part of the decision-making process to close Prescott School and also to rent it to the Missoula International School.”

 

Time Line:

1.  May 2002 - Naomi DeMarinis (later Naomi Kimbell) was elected to the Missoula County Public School Board.  In 2003 the Prescott School closure issue went before the school board with Kimbell voting for the closure prior to the May School Board election; however after the election she joined other pro-Prescott trustees and a new trustee, changed her mind, and voted against the closure (vote was 5-2).

 

2.  March 25, 2004 – Four of seven trustees including Trustee Naomi DeMarinis (Kimbell) voted to close Rattlesnake Middle School, Prescott School, and Mt. Jumbo School at l:30 a.m. (vote was 4-3).

 

3.  Lawsuit filed against Missoula County Public Schools due to Open Meeting Law violations by plaintiffs Molly Moody and Allan Oines (date unknown - however plaintiffs filed within 30 days after the March 24, 2004 closure decision.)

 

4.  April 21, 2004 – Missoula International School sent a letter to the district requesting to lease school space.  Sentences in the letter read, “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.  MIS would welcome the opportunity to discuss the terms and conditions of leasing Prescott Elementary with the Finance and Operations committee and /or the MCPS Board of Trustees.  We look forward to reaching an agreement that benefits MCPS, MIS, and the Missoula community.” 

*Note:  Leasing public school space to a private school does NOT benefit the public school system as private schools are in direct competition with public schools.  Additionally, a lease- especially a long term lease- harms the Missoula community as it diminishes classroom capacity throughout the school district making the school unavailable when needed for Rattlesnake Valley children and other district needs.  However, a lease definitely benefits MIS, as they lease a valuable school, which the private school could NEVER have obtained in the private sector.

 

5.  April 27, 2004 - MCPS Finance and Operation Meeting - Agenda item - Request by the Missoula International School to lease Prescott Elementary School. - Background Information (listed with agenda):  Missoula International School has submitted a letter indicating an interest in renting all or part of Prescott School for the 2004-2005 school year.  Attached is a copy of the letter for discussion.  Administration recommendation:  None at this time. Also in question was whether MCPS needed to issue a formal RFP (Request for Proposal).  An RFP was deemed prudent by Bruce Moyer, the Business Director, and he recommended a 2-3 month time span.  While discussing the potential lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School, Trustee Kimbell’s comment and question were:  “Ms. Kimbell would like to move forward with leasing Prescott School to the Missoula International School.  She asked if they would maintain the building and grounds.”  It was stated that Missoula Catholic Schools maintains the buildings and grounds, including custodial, at the Roosevelt facility.

 

*Note:  There is a discrepancy between the MIS letter and district records as to the length of time requested for a lease.  As listed above in #4 the Missoula International School sent a letter on April 21st to the MCPS offices expressing interest in leasing Prescott School for a minimum of two years.  The district records as stated above state that the private school requested a lease for the 2004-2005 school year.  This discrepancy would have not been noticed by citizens that did not receive a packet for the meeting.  In fact, a citizen asking the district for a copy of the MIS letter a few years later and was surprised at this discrepancy as she had printed a flyer with erroneous information because of it.  This discrepancy was perhaps unintentional; however it conveys that the private school wanted a longer term lease than described in district records. 

 

6.  May 4, 2004 - Missoula County Public Schools School Board Election – There was three open seats on the ballot.  Two incumbent trustees who voted against the closures, Trustees Suzette Dussault and Colleen Rogers, ran but were not re-elected. Another incumbent trustee, David Merrill, who voted for the closures, chose not to run for re-election.  Marlene Hutchins also ran unsuccessfully for a position.  Three citizens who ran as a team were newly elected to the board: Toni Rehbein, Joe Toth, and Scott Bixler.  *Note:  Trustee Merrill ignored a mandate of keeping neighborhood schools open established when first elected, as he was elected to re-open Prescott School in 2001!

 

7.  May 11, 2004 - Missoulian article by Jane Rider – “Trustees to discuss renting to Missoula International School at meeting tonight.”

 

8.  May 11, 2004 – monthly MCPS School Board Meeting – Reorganization of Board of Trustees – Sentences from the minutes state:  “Trustee Bellin nominated Trustee Kimbell for the Chair position based on her experience in the process of involving the public.  Kimbell declined the nomination to be chair of the Board.  She thanked Bellin for the vote of confidence. Bellin concerned about having Harrison as chair again given litigation pending and processes involving public. Said she is concerned about propriety of chair actions in regard to e-mail sent to school full of teachers with false information about Bellin’s positions about issues on which she was voting.  Bellin asked Harrison to abstain from the position.  Harrison was elected chair of the Board for the next year.”

 

9.  May 11, 2004 - monthly MCPS School Board Meeting - Agenda Item:  Request of Missoula International School to Lease Prescott Elementary School – The school board discussed renting Prescott School to Missoula International School.  Trustee Bellin urged the trustees to allow 6 weeks for the RFP process.  Bellin moved to offer RFP’s with return date of three weeks time and two weeks time for consideration by the Board and public input, Kimbell seconded the motion. Quotes by Trustee Kimbell from the minutes state:  “Kimbell said would be July meeting when Board would be making a decision and that would truly be too long to expect MIS to wait.  Maybe school district could do different advertising of RFP and move quickly.” and Kimbell asked if a motion should include a special meeting date of Tuesday, June 15, 2004. and “Kimbell said do not believe making decision two days after the June 8 meeting is much different from making a decision at the June 8 meeting.  Kimbell in favor of making decision by June 8.  Believe it would become obvious very quickly if there will be any dissension about leasing to MIS.” and “Kimbell said Moyer brought up good point of difference between market values and value for having a school in our building.  Want to do whatever makes sense for our District.  If there were other interested parties, probably would have heard from them by now.”  The minutes also state:  “Bruce Moyer, Director of Business Services recommended that the Board and administration offer RFP’s to educational institutions only with a time line so that response and analysis may be presented at June 8 meeting.” *Note: The RFP process was changed from Moyer’s earlier recommendation at the April meeting of 2-3 months.  Minutes of this meeting reveal statements made to support a time period of 1 to 2 months but finally whittled down to only 2 weeks!  Motion passed unanimously.

 

*Note #1:  The above quotes illustrate that Trustee Naomi Kimbell thought it was best to rush the lease process and lease Prescott School at a low rate to an educational institution rather than obtaining market value.

*Note #2:  The Finance and Operations Committee meeting was to be held on May 25, 2004, however, in a rush to bring the issue to the June 8 board meeting, the F&O meeting was changed to June 1, 2004.

 

10.  June 1, 2004 – Finance and Operation Committee Meeting – Agenda item:  Results of Request for Proposal (RFP) for Prescott School - There were no comments by Naomi Kimbell mentioned in the minutes.  The minutes read, “The F&O Committee recommends that the contract lease for Prescott School be ready for presentation to the Trustees for discussion and ratification at the June 8 Board meeting.”  A recommendation by Trustee Carol Bellin to include in the lease that the District had the option to cancel the lease if other District programs have the need for use of this building was ignored by Kimbell and other trustees.

 

*Note: While discussing All-Day Kindergarten during a November 2006 Property Ad Hoc meeting, Superintendent Clark stated that Prescott School was tied to a lease and would not be available for this program! 

 

11.  June 8, 2004 – Letter to the Editor in the Missoulian by Rattlesnake resident/math professor David Patterson – Patterson’s letter explains that a lease of Prescott School had the potential to be financially devastating to the district.  His main reasoning was based on two premises: the low lease rate of the school to Missoula International School (The lease rate was $20,000 for the first 3 years and $30,000 for the last two years, which averages out over 5 years to be $1.19/per square foot!) and the enrollment-based funds that would be diverted from the public school system when students enroll in MIS. Patterson stated that if even 5 students enrolled in Missoula International School, due to its location, the school district would not receive any revenue from the lease, and could potentially lose tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in future years of the lease.  An additional quote from the letter reads:  “Alternative uses of Prescott that do not compete with the public schools should be explored first.  Any agreement to rent to a private school should be at a rate that provides clear benefit to the school district.”

 

*Note #1:  David Patterson’s letter details very succinctly the financial pitfalls of leasing a public school to a private school.  As the board failed to set aside a separate meeting to discuss the lease, as suggested by a minority member, the trustees, which included Trustee Kimbell (and the public), were denied the opportunity to deliberate these very important ideas, thus not fulfilling its fiduciary duties. 

*Note # 2:  Missoula International School has doubled in size since leasing Prescott School leaving no doubt that the district is losing the tens of thousands of dollars and could possibly stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of just the life of the 5 year lease.

 

12.  June 8, 2004 - monthly MCPS School Board Meeting - Agenda Item: Discussion and Ratification of Contract between MCPS and Missoula International School for the Lease of Prescott Elementary School - The motion was moved by Jenda Hemphill and seconded by Trustee Naomi Kimbell.  There were 5 affirmative votes for the ratification of the lease, including Kimbell’s, and 2 abstentions because of conflict of interest issues.  Trustee Carol Bellin first excuses herself from the vote as her son had once attended Missoula International School.  Subsequently, new Trustee, Toni Rehbein, excused herself from the vote as she said she was once on the board of Missoula International School.

 

*Note#1: Public records reveal that Trustee Rehbein was President in 1998 and 1999 and Vice President in 2000 of Missoula International School!

*Note #2 Trustees voted on the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School at the June 8, Board Meeting even though on the agenda to be discussed later in the evening was the litigation of the school closure decision.  The results of this litigation could potentially have reopened Prescott School!

 

13.  June 9, 2004 - Lease between MCPS for the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School was signed by Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of MCPS, Rosemary Harrison, Executive Director of Business Services, Bruce Moyer, and Board President of Missoula International School, Marta Pierpoint (The lease was ready to sign the day after the board meeting).  A phrase in the lease states, “The term of the lease shall be from August 1, 2004 through July 31, 2009.”  The term of the lease is for five years.

*Note:  MCPS was still in litigation in an Open Meeting Law lawsuit concerning the school closures when it went forward with the ratification of the lease of one of the schools involved in the closures!

 

14.  July 13, 2004 - MCPS School Board Meeting - Agenda item:  Revisit 2004-2005 Preliminary Secondary Budget Decision of March 24, 2004                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          The school closure decision was again brought up before the school board due to a lawsuit addressing breaches of Montana Open Meeting Laws.  The board, with a new make-up because of spring elections as described above voted again to close the three schools with Trustee Kimbell voting with the majority, standing by her March 24, 2004 decision.  Motion passed 6-1 with Trustee Bellin opposed.

 

15.  July 20, 2004 - Missoulian article written by Daryl Gadbow about the lease of Prescott School to the Missoula International School titled, “Private school leases Prescott. Missoula International plans to add fourth and fifth grades.”  The article was written one and one-half months after the lease was signed on June 9, 2004 (See #12 above). 

 

16.  August 3, 2004 - Missoulian article written by Betsy Cohen titled, “MCPS trustee resigns; Kimbell says new job could cause conflict of interest.”  The article discusses Kimbell accepting a new job as executive director of Missoula International School and that Kimbell thought it was best to resign from the MCPS school board for conflict of interest reasons.  Quotes from the article state, “While on the board Kimbell was part of the decision- making process to close Prescott and also to rent it to the Missoula International School.” and “Her resignation takes effect August 12th, two days after the board finalizes the 2004-2005 budget at its August 10th Meeting.”  Kimbell is also quoted as saying, “Given that Missoula International School is an independent school, sometimes their interests are different from public schools.  If I’m going to be a leader in public schools and in my new job, at some point both roles would come into conflict.  My interest is in being fair to both.”

 
17.  August 10, 2004 - monthly MCPS School Board Meeting - Board accepts resignation of K-12 Trustee Naomi Kimbell and Declare Her Position on the Board Vacant - Kimbell receives glowing reports and thank yous from many board members who joined her in voting for the school closures and for the Prescott School-Missoula International School lease.  Kimbell also received flowers from the board and a hug from Superintendent Jim Clark.  Quotes from the minutes from pro-closure trustees include:  From Trustee Jenda Hemphill, “Your integrity and honesty and no doubt that you were putting the children
first (wording of minutes). Most open-minded board member on this board.  You helped us in some rough places.”  And from Board Chairwoman, Rosemary Harrison,

 “An ethical, wonderful person.” 



NOTE: This page post for Prescott School Missoula was written in approximately 2008 and has been distributed to Missoula County Public Schools officials in a Board packet at the same approximate time. This page is one of the most important aspects of the Prescott School/Missoula International lease as it shows, the the opinion of psm the total corruption involved in this lease since 2004.

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