Vote to keep Prescott open scheduled for Monday - News - The Times-Tribune

Prescott School Misoula came across this article on the Web. 

Another Prescott School under attack.  Hopefully, the Prescott School in Scranton does not experience the same fate as the Prescott School in Missoula. 

Maybe Dwight, Jim, Pam, and the gang from the Office can go to meetings to support the Scranton Prescott.



Vote to keep Prescott open scheduled for Monday - News - The Times-Tribune

Missoula International School hopes to renew lease on Prescott School building - Missoulian article from July of 2011

Why did Trustees ignore many facts about what was happening in the Rattlesnake Valley and in Missoula in general when they extended the lease for 5 more years?

Why did Trustees not take into account Missoula demographics (the district's has its own demographic report - see link on the top of the home page of Prescott School Missoula) - which pointed out that elementary enrollment was on the rise?

Trustees did not take into account that Rattlesnake School, just up the road was at capacity.  This was painfully apparent to Rattlesnake principal, Jerry Seidensticker as he needed 11 para educators last school year as many classes were over the state limit for class size standards.

Trustees did not take into account the HUGE subdivision on E. Broadway (115 Units), which was sure to house elementary children, the Silvertip Apartments.  News of these apartments was in the papers several times prior to this vote.

Since Trustees approved the extension of the Prescott School/Missoula International School lease for 5 years MCPS has had to --

Consider busing Rattlesnake School kids to Paxson, which as it turns out did NOT have rooms available for the Rattlesnake students.

The fact that Paxson was also close to capacity was revealed at a meeting at Paxson with the Rattlesnake parents.  The principal of Lewis and Clark stated at the meeting that one room in Paxson would need to be used for a L&C kindergarten class and the other rooms were actually being used for MCPS programs such as deaf education. 

Additionally, doesn't Paxson need a little wiggle room in regard to classroom space?  Paxson will soon be dealing with capacity issues also as Trustees Harrison, Hemphill, Bixler, Toth, and Rehbein voted to sell Roosevelt School (Roosevelt area students now attend Paxson) in 2005.

And most importantly, MCPS has BUILT AN EXPENSIVE MODULAR AT RATTLESNAKE SCHOOL THIS SUMMER (2012)!!

The district's outright and blatant favoritism of a private school over a public school is inexcusable and is grounds for the resignation of ALL MCPS Trustees as called for by Prescott School Missoula in a earlier post. 

All Missoula taxpayers are paying for an approximately $250,000 unnecessary modular because of the decision made at the meeting which is discussed in the article linked to below.

SO MUCH MORE TO SAY-- SO LITTLE TIME ----




Missoula International School hopes to renew lease on Prescott School building  (link to article is work in progress)

Jacobs Decision - Features a complaint by Rosemary Harrison which actually sheds light on problems with the district's and Harrison's mishandling of the 2004 school (including Prescott) closures

Below is a link to the document "Jacobs Decision" which features a complaint by former Board Chairwoman Rosemary Harrison against former Trustee Teresa Jacobs after the 2005 school board elections. 

Ironically, the state's investigation reveals that there was no wrongdoing by Teresa Jacobs and indeed shows problems with the process by which Board Chair Harrison and the MCPS school district closed three northeast Missoula schools.

After reading this document psm believes that people will see the extent of the problems with the process of closing Prescott, Mt. Jumbo, and Rattlesnake Middle Schools in 2004.

http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/content/pdf/2recentdecisions3-cfp/Jacobsdecision.pdf

Rosemary Harrison, former MCPS Trustee and Board Chair- Prescott School's (and Roosevelt School's) worst enemy

Rosemary Harrison voted several times to close Prescott School

In 2001, 2003 and again in 2004, Rosemary Harrison, former Missoula County Public Schools Board Chairwoman, voted to close Prescott School. After the School Board elections in 2001 and 2003, the vote was reversed by pro-neighborhood school Trustees. Harrison, unfortunately, finally succeeded in her quest to close Prescott School in 2004.

Rosemary Harrison is most likely (there are others that are close) Prescott School's worst enemy.

Of course, Harrison had to have others to help her in her closure quest.  These were: Trustee Jenda Hemphill, Superintendent Jim Clark, Trustee David Merrill, and Trustee Naomi Kimbell (see prior posts regarding Naomi Kimbell's role in the school closure decision and her subsequent employment with MIS as executive director), and Prescott principal, Cindy Christensen. 

In the second vote to close the three schools due to a lawsuit against Harrison, etc. and Clark, more help for Harrison's closure quest came with Trustee Toni Rehbein, now Board Chair (see prior posts regarding her role in the leasing of Prescott School to a school for which she had served as president shortly before being elected to the MCPS Board of Trustees, Missoula International School), Trustee Scott Bixler, and Trustee Joe Toth.

There are other district officials that have been hostile towards Prescott School, however, the individuals above stand out most prominently.

Quotes from the Missoulian article about the closures follow:

"Public comments after the two budget decisions early Thursday morning did reveal deep division remains on the board.
"The decision tonight is enormously harmful to our kids," Dussault said. "It's not in the long-term interest of the district."

Added Rogers: "I don't think we know the ramifications of the decision.  We'll be right back here next year, making cuts."

Harrison provided the counterpoint: "I really do feel that we have made a good decision, and that makes me feel glad," she said.

Some trustees and members of the public who stayed until the end of the meeting called for greater public involvement in the budgeting process.

They noted that the budget team that crafted the recommendations presented to the board included district officials and principals, but no members of the board or the public.

Bellin said she hoped that next year the district would not have "an exclusive administration-only budget team."

Below is a link to a Missoulian article on the 2004 school closures for which she voted as the Chairwoman of the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees.

Jumbo, Prescott schools closed

(Prescott School Missoula is working on including the link (that works) for this post.)
 


 

Margo Jerrim, former Prescott School teacher, featured in Missoulian article -- "WESTERN MONTANA LIVES: Teacher driven by fairness, humor, patience"

Below is a link to a Missoulian article reporting on the life of Margo Jerrim, a former popular and long-time Prescott School teacher.  Margo taught at Prescott School until it was closed in 2004and then taught at Rattlesnake School.

Below are quotes from the September 30th, 2012 article:

Given that she was a Missoula schoolteacher, and for a time president of the Missoula elementary school teachers union, the lives she touched were counted by the hundreds.

“She had a great sense of humor, and she was so patient,” said Dan Rude, who co-taught with Jerrim for many years when Missoula’s Prescott School was still open.

“She always had the right thing to say at the right moment,” he said. “She could really calm a room or conversation – she was good at settling tension.”

***

Click the link to the Missoulian article below -

WESTERN MONTANA LIVES: Teacher driven by fairness, humor, patience

Check out Missoula Mom blog

Prescott School Missoula found this link, "Missoula Mom" on the Web.   It is a creation of Missoulian employees, Tyler Christensen and Sherry Devlin.

One article mentions Cindy Christensen (relative of Taylor's ?), past principal of Prescott School, and other principals in the Missoula County Public Schools.  The article mentions the turnover for these principals in recent years.

Click on the link below.
missoulamom.com/?tag=principal

The link to the Missoulian article reporting on the principal turnover subject did not work for me, however, perhaps there was a glitch psm did not understand.

Margo Jerrim, former long-time popular Prescott School teacher passed away in October of 2010

Margo Jerrim, a popular and long-time Prescott School teacher died on October 20, 2010.

After Prescott School was closed in 2004, Margo then taught at Rattlesnake School.

Margo held Prescott School in such high esteem that her family held her memorial service in the Prescott gym. The gym was beautifully decorated and filled with people who loved Margo, including her fellow Prescott School and Rattlesnake School teachers, other school staff, in addition to her devoted family.

One teacher at the memorial stated that the teachers at Prescott School were a tight knit group and would meet in frequent social gatherings. Such is the pull of Prescott School, a popular school located in the lower Rattlesnake for more than a century.

Prescott School Missoula would like to give our condolences to the family of Margo Jerrim.

An article about Margo was published in the September 30th, 2012 issue of the Missoulian and is featured in another Prescott School Missoula blog post.

Below is an obituary published in the Billings Gazette.

http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/article_8b470880-926d-5a52-b2f5-01a2f2dc06c2.html