Message to my readers about my blog and my Facebook page "saveprescottschoolmissoula"

 Hello Readers to all who love Prescott School in Missoula!

When I began this blog many years ago I had no idea that Missoula County Public Schools would vilify, abandon, or give the private school, Missoula International School so much leeway to do so much damage to our school and to our public funds.

I did have to take a break from posting on this blog to turn more of my attention to family and other matteres. 

In 2023, after Missoula International School had left Prescott School for another school they remodeled on 3rd St.,  I again began to pay more attention to Prescott School. I saw the abnadonment and complete obsolescense of the building, both inside and out. 

Our family began, with the help of another volunteer, the 3 year clean up of the ouside landscape and the building itself.

I turned my outreach about Prescott School to a Facebook page, mosty due to the use of Iphone. It was easy to upload any pictures from iPhone to the Facebook page. The page on Facebook is "saveprescotschool". I posted some things prior to Missoula International School leaving Prescott School mostly about Covid issues which I simply shared from news sources.

The above  is my explanation of why there is a timeline gap on this Blogger page.

Thank you very much. We MUST SAVE PRESCOTT SCHOOL. We cannont let another private school determine the fate of our private school as they one did to Roosevelt School.

Thank you again!

Today marks a disastrous day for Prescott School and two other schools - The closure of Prescott by 5 of 7 MCPS Trustees!

 Today is March 25, 2024. Twenty years ago at 1:00a.m. in the morning 5 of 7 Trustees voted to CLOSE Prescott School! Rattlesnake Middle School located in the mid-Rattlesnake and Mt. Jumbo School located in East Missoula. All schools are located in the northeast area of Missoula, Montana. 

The children in this area were divided between the three schools in this way:

K-3rd at Mt. Jumbo School in East Missoula

4th-5th grades at Prescott School

and 

6-8 grades at Rattlesnake School 

One can see that closing these 3 schools had devasting consequences for the area's children, families, and the city. The closings effected the children educationally and socially - in other words harming their education for many reasons and forcing the children to take long bus rides.

NOTE: I forgot to post this to the blog on March 25, 2024! I believe that I was going to add some more content(which I could add many things but do not have the time at this point in time). 

So...I will post this on this date: June 21, 2025. This is still relevant of course! There has not been a sadder example of negligence of a popular and beloved school than what the district has allowed to happen to Prescott School!

Missoula International School is now out of our favorite neighborhood school - but.....

 Yeah! Missoula International School is OUT of Prescott School. The lease to MIS was a disaster from the beginning! Many of the issues with the lease have been covered in the posts of this blog.

I have not written a post for so...long! There were many other issues in my life so that it was not an option. 

However, after seeing the absolute malfeasance of the district this spring for the lack of maintenance I have decided to communicate with my blog readers.

I have taken many, many pictures this spring showing the complete lack of maintenance of Prescott School. It is so heartbreaking to see our beautiful school in such disrepair!

PSM - Prescott School Missoula (me:) will post some of these pictures soon, hopefully. I still have issues with time - or lack of time - due to my current obligations but will try to post more often!

Thank you so much for coming to this blog about one of the most wonderful and important schools in Missoula!

Pictures coming!

Montana State Tax document shows that former MCPS Trustee (and Board Chair) Toni Rehbein was the president of Missoula International School - Also shows Martha Newell as vice president

1998 MIS Montana Corporation Document with the names of Toni Rehbein and Martha Newell

October 2025, 

Since the beginning of the closure in lease in 2004, the Missoula County Public Schools has not rrestored our public school to the rightful benefiicaries. The MCPS school district has had many MCPS Superintendents follow the corrupt superintendent, Jim Clark. They also, by continuing the lease to Missoula International School are therefore just as corrupt. Additionally, there have been many MCPS maintenance directors after that of Gary Botchek, that are also equally corrupt by the very fact that they will not take care of the Prescott School building, in fact, abondoning our valuable resourse and beloved school. This is my first update to this blog post. Unfortunately, this is what I and many others have had to endure for about 25 years. I really do think that Missoula County Public Schools is one of the most corrupt school districts in the nation.

Missoula International School Montana Corporation documents from 1998 show that former Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees Chairwoman Toni Rehbein had served as the President of Missoula International School shortly before being elected to the MCPS Board in May of 2004.

Rehbein did not reveal the information above during the 2004 election cycle but finally fessed up to her prior ties to MIS only AFTER she had advocated for the lease at her first MCPS Board Meeting in May of 2004.

Additionally, one can also observe in the above photo of a MIS  Montana Corporation document that Martha Newell served as Vice President of Missoula International School during the same year.

It is difficult not to notice the address of Martha Newell - the 900 block of  Taylor - only a couple of blocks from Prescott School.

As Martha Newell's home is so close to Prescott School it does make one wonder if there were actions taken behind the scenes by Martha Newell in order to help secure the lease of Prescott School to the Missoula International School in 2004. 

Of interest - Martha Newell is the partner of the former mayor of Missoula, Mike Kadas.

Of consequence is that there are more MIS Montana Corporation documents AFTER 1998 with the names of Toni Rehbein and Martha Newell (and, by the way, one or more with the name of Julie Lennox with Toni Rehbein - the long-time headmaster of Missoula International School).

Prescott School Missoula is of the opinion that more people need to know that former Missoula County Public Schools Trustee (and Board Chair) was the president (and vice president) of Missoula International School shortly before she was elected to the MCPS Board. 

For the reason mentioned, that is that more Missoula citizens need to know about Trustee Rehbein's ties to MIS,  PSM looked into how this post can remain at the top of the blog while still posting new posts. In the article, "How to Set a Post Always on Top in Blogger" the explanation states that one needs to set the date of the post to a future date. Changing a blog's date to one that has yet to come keeps the blog post at the top of that page, at least until the date you set passes. PSM has set the date at 7/11/20. It was originally published on 8/16/14. 

I would like to encourage more people to start a blog and write about their experiences with Missoula County Public Schools. 
I'm sure there are a lot of good things going on in our schools , however, our family experienced a horrific school closure fraught with corruption in 2004 and I believe that MCPS corruption still permeates MCPS to this day. PSM was also witness to much that went on during the sale of Roosevelt School to St. Josephs School in 2005. Many of the same people or people that are connected to the same people that were involved with the closures are still making important (and in PSM's opinion corrupt) facility and program decisions negatively impacting Missoulians lives.

Post title and content edited - December 16, 2015

Edited also in October of 2025

LINK TO MISSOULIAN ARTILE - Missoula International School unveiling new facility long ago - When will this happen??

https://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-international-school-unveils-designs-for-massive-new-school-building/article_e7c714af-820d-5989-8ad6-24514d2df2ed.html

LINK - Founder of Missoula International School's letter to the editor

https://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/on-a-positive-note-thankful-for-years-of-mis/article_f6b9b591-42e4-51b3-9d2a-00d6368da2fc.html


Above is a link to a letter to the editor written by Meg Langley, founder of the Missoula International School.

Meg is writing that she is thankful for the many years that the school she founded is still around.
She is pointing out the fact that MIS (Missoula International School) began at her house in 1995(as I'm writing this I forgot the exact year and I don't want to go back to the article - (ha!) she is proud that her school is still thriving.

Point of Fact - This letter by Meg Langley followed a letter to the editor written by Jeanne Joscelyn that laid out the history of  Prescott School going and even mentioned the founding of Missoula and the 150th anniversary of our city. In Joscelyn's letter, she encouraged the reopening of Prescott School.

2015 Letter to Missoulian - Re: Prescott School History and request to reopen Prescott

Throughout this year Missoula is celebrating its 150^th birthday.

In its early days a sawmill, Missoula Mills, was built near the Clark Fork, diverting water from Rattlesnake Creek.

Not far from this landmark and Missoula’s beginnings, is another, Prescott School.

In conjunction with Missoula’s centennial, in 1983, the Rattlesnake PTA published a booklet about the history of the area’s schools. Bonnie Malingo compiled Information on Prescott School, some of which follows.

“1891 marked the year a school was provided to meet Missoula’s growing pains in the Rattlesnake Valley.”   The original Prescott School started as the East Side School in 1891 in a grocery store on the corner of Harrison and Vine.

In 1893, the school district purchased land for $500 from the Missoula Real Estate Association on which to build another East Side School ( current location at 1100 Harrison) costing $4,000.

“In 1902, the Daily Missoulian reports, ‘East Side School was to be named Prescott School.’”

In 1948, Superintendent Porter, showed preliminary drawings of a newly proposed school building for Prescott. “In the spring of 1951 the new Prescott School was ready for occupancy.”

For many years, Prescott served 1-8^th grades. A variety of grade configurations were also used depending on the circumstances.

Prescott, a special school to many, was closed and leased in 2004 to the private Missoula International School. The lease will expire in 2017.  MCPS needs to reopen Prescott for its proper use of educating our public school students. Enrollment both in the Rattlesnake and city-wide is increasing and our schools are at capacity.

The section on Prescott history in the booklet mentioned above ends with the following sentence, “In closing, one of the finest things one can experience at Prescott is the tremendous interest and support from the parents and the public in the area.”

Jeanne Joscelyn

Prescott and neighborhood school advocate