Why We Need to Keep Prescott School - a flyer from 2007 - is just as relevant today as it was then

Why We Need to Keep Prescott School

The following are some of the many reasons to keep Prescott School:

 

The most basic reason – to provide a neighborhood school for the children in the Rattlesnake Valley.  Prescott could house students from over-crowded schools, returning to Missoula’s 1960’s model of utilizing all of our neighborhood schools.  

 

The school playground provides open space for the neighborhood residents providing room for sports, exercising dogs, sledding, and a play area for children!!

 

Prescott School is in good shape as per an appraisal in 2003.  The current school building was built solidly in 195l (the same year as Washington and Jefferson Schools).  H.E. Kirkemo, a well-respected Missoula architect designed the three schools.

 

A neighborhood school allows Rattlesnake children to walk and bike to school.

 

Prescott School provides a gathering place and community center for the neighborhood for meetings, events, voting, school and neighborhood parties, gym sports and activities, adult education, etc.  Schools are the heart of a neighborhood.

 

Leasing or selling Prescott to a private school denies local children a public school.

 

The Rattlesnake area is growing! Applegrove and Lily Court subdivisions, apartments on E. Broadway, and other building is adding to the growth.

 

The land on which Prescott resides was purchased from the Missoula Real Estate Assoc. for a school in 1893(!) making Prescott School a valuable Missoula historic asset.  Prescott School may be the oldest elementary school in Missoula. Note: Whittier is older than Prescott.

 

Rattlesnake School is at or close to capacity – Rattlesnake school has 22 classrooms, which are at this time all being used (!)- Parents have complained of large class sizes.

 

MCPS officials have talked about bussing lower Rattlesnake students to Lowell School. Lowell School is a great neighborhood school; however, it is not in ours.

 

Missoula demographics point to an increase in elementary enrollment as the children of the baby boomers begin their family formation and child-rearing years.

The birthrate in Missoula has increased since 1998.  Missoula’s central neighborhoods are transitioning as retirees move out and young families move in. “Missoula County school enrollment in early grades did not decline because “young families can’t afford to live in Missoula”; it has largely declined because of  shifting age demographics in the population. (Demographic information by Dr. Larry Swanson).

 

 

This document was created in approximately 2007 - however, the information is as relevant today as it was then.