David Merrill dismisses his mandate when elected and voted to close Prescott School along with Rattlesnake Middle School and Mount Jumbo Schools on the evening of March 24th - 25th, 2004

When running for the MCPS school board in 2001, David Merrill stated that he was a proponent of re-opening Prescott School. Prescott School had been closed earlier that spring. In fact, he ran for the school board with two other people with the similar message, "re-open Prescott School" (Suzette Dussault and Colleen Rogers).  They sent out post cards with the three names that indicated that they believed in re-opening Prescott School.

Many believe that Merrill's position on the Prescott School issue was the reason for his victory at the polls and was indeed a mandate that he would support Prescott School that spring and in the future.

In a March 26, 2004, Missoulian article written by Jane Rider, the following statements can be found;

"The board's 4-3 vote at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, came after more than seven hours of discussion over the district's secondary and elementary budgets. Trustees Rosemary Harrison, Jenda Hemphill, David Merrill and Naomi DeMarinis voted in favor of the school closures and consolidation of Rattlesnake. Trustees Suzette Dussault, Carol Bellin and Colleen Rogers voted against."

and -

"Merrill had indicated earlier in a straw vote that he wouldn't support closing Rattlesnake Middle School, but after the lengthy and futile effort to find money elsewhere to close the budget gap, he stated he was willing to close the middle school."

and -

"I'm not comfortable putting this off," he said. "This has been a very difficult process. I don't think we should continue down this path of indecision. I'm willing to change my vote."

By changing his vote on the closing of Rattlesnake Middle School he also was ignoring his mandate received in his election in 200l to not close Prescott School.

Were there other forces in Merrill's life that played into his decision to close the three schools?

Prescott School Missoula had heard that David Merrill was playing a lot of tennis with administrator Larry Johnson. psm (Prescott School Missoula) understands that Merrill and Johnson were friends. Whether their friendship began before or after he ran for the school board is unknown and may not even be pertinent to the issue. 

One can construe from the above information, that perhaps there was some school politics being discussed while playing tennis and perhaps the school closures was a topic. 

Whether or not Larry Johnson was able to influence Merrill's vote on the school closures is unknown.  The possibility existed , however, to do so.

Perhaps it is a good idea to stay away from unnecessary socializing with administrators during controversial decisions to avoid questions coming up in citizen's minds.

Another point that needs to be reiterated is that the decision came at 1:30 a.m. after 7 hours of deliberation.  To not postpone the  school closure decision, especially due to its magnitude, was a huge mistake. It is quite apparent that Chairwoman Harrison wished to make the decision that night, which placed trustees under a lot of pressure to make a hurried and unwise decision.

The trustees were under extreme pressure and could not have been thinking clearly at that time, in the morning after that many hours. of heated discussion, contrary to what they may have been thinking at the time. 

In fact, some people may have asked that the discussions be postponed to another day, however, psm is unsure that that happened.