#2 - Naomi Kimbell: From Missoula County Public Schools Trustee to Executive Director of Missoula International School

Part Two

6.  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 21^st 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.  

7.  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!

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

9.  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.”

10.  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 dissention 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 #1: 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 #2:  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 #3:  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.

11.  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!