Former Prescott School student shares wonderful memories of Prescott in the late 1990's/early 2000's

 

Below is an email sent to the MCPS school district sent to the Facebook page, "Save Prescott School. It is a must read! Such wonderful memories about the Carnival and the poetry class with Sheryl Noethe, etc. Katie Gregory feels the same way many of us do  - we must save Prescott School!

TO: MISSOULA COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS OFFICIALS AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES

FROM: Jeanne Joscelyn, Prescott School Missoula advocate

RE: Comment in praise of Prescott School with a picture from a former student, Katie Gregory

 DATE: June 30, 2026

 Dear Missoula County Public Schools officials and Trustees,

 Please read this great post on the Facebook page of “Save Prescott School”.

 The sentiments below expressed by Katie Gregory are typical of most students that attended Prescott School throughout the 135 years of the school. Prescott School has been one of most popular schools if not the most popular school (and some students’ favorite school), within the MCPS school district. (This is before the Missoula International School inappropriately leased the school for about 20 years.) Many people would like Prescott School to be reopened as a school for public school children as was intended when it was built.

 Thank you!

 Below is the post -

(I had permission from Katie to share this with the district.)

 Katie Gregory

Prescott Elementary is a huge part of my family's history. My mother went here, my siblings went here, and I was lucky enough to walk those same halls. Even though it was only 4th and 5th grade, I have so many fond memories of this school.

I loved the awesome hallway library, playing tetherball, and trading Pokémon cards on the playground. In the winter, we spent all our time racing down the epic sledding hill. It breaks my heart to hear that the building is sitting vacant today.

Does anyone else remember the annual Carnival Night? It was the absolute best! Getting to whip-cream someone in the face, doing musical chairs to win a cake, and running from classmates so you wouldn’t get thrown into the carnival "jail." Those nights, along with the outdoor challenges to win ribbons, are things I will never forget.

And who could forget the legendary 5th-grade all-night sleepover before we moved up to Rattlesnake Middle School? They would lay the gym mats all over the floor for us, and the school band would literally play all night long while we stayed up!

I wanted to share this photo from around 1999/2000 to remind everyone of the magic that happened inside those classrooms. This was taken during a poetry workshop with the amazing Sheryl Noethe (pictured in the back left with glasses), who taught us language through poetry and sign language! On this day, she brought in a guest musician to jam on the guitar and inspire our writing.