Letter to the Editor - June 9, 2008 - This post is an older letter to the editor not the February 3, 2026 (I believe this was posted because of the more recent letter)

Letters for Monday, June 9, 2008

Leasing undermines school system

Prescott School is again in the cross hairs of school officials.

Prescott's five-year lease to Missoula International School, ratified in 2004, expires in 2009. An appraisal of Prescott, not yet completed, was to also assist in determining a lease price if the board decided to continue to lease rather than sell.

Therefore, it was surprising that a lease extension was approved at a meeting last week, without a price, to be voted on at the June 10 board meeting. About 400 people have signed a petition against a sale and for a short-term lease of Prescott School. However, trustees have proposed to lease until 2012.

The current lease valuation process was not based on solid numbers and favored MIS with respect to term and price. Instead of extending the lease now, school officials need to issue a new request for proposal so as to procure the best price for the district.

I have nothing against private schools. However, leasing to MIS has undermined the school system. Because of per-child state funding we may have subsidized MIS $250,000 so far due to its growth and low rent. Trustees may also be violating their oath of office, which insists on loyalty to the district.

More troubling is if a trustee was a former officer of MIS, as was Board Chairwoman Toni Rehbein, who held the positions of president and vice president from 1998 to 2000. Rehbein abstained from voting for the lease, although she did voice support for a lease to MIS before the vote and extension or sale thereafter.

A responsible course of action is to offer a one- or two-year lease (using a request for proposal) to a non-competing entity until the district re-opens Prescott School for students or for other district needs.

Jeanne Joscelyn, Missoula

Letter to the editor regarding Prescott School in the Rattlesnake Valley published on February 3, 2026

February 2026 

A letter to the editor was published in the February 3, 2026 edition of the Missoulian newspaper. 

This is the first post I have placed on the blog for quite some time for which I apologize! I hope to remedy this soon.

For more recent updates and information from the last two to three years please go to my Facebook page - Save Prescott School Missoula. (Copy and paste was used to print from the internet)

Thank you!

 "This year Prescott School will celebrates its 135th birthday (established in 1891). Prescott School has been an important and popular part of the Rattlesnake Valley's education because of its location at the base of Mount Jumbo and its smaller size creating a warm environment for learning.

Prescott School has been used for a variety of grade levels depending on the need at the time. 

Prescott School was closed in March 26, 2004, and was immediately leased to Missoula International School, for almost 20 years.

MCPS is now suggesting, by way of a private firm, that Prescott will take millions to reopen and a sale could happen.Rattlesnake citizens reject the idea of selling our treasured school. We are busing 1/3 of our students to another school hand have already sacrificed Lincoln School. We request that deferred maintenance problems be solved with a priority list, volunteer help, and grants, where needed.

Please support Prescott School and contact the MCPS district at publiccomment@mcpsmt.org. My blog is (which needs work) www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com 

and a Facebook link is Saveprescottschoolmissoula. "

Jeanne Joscelyn, Missoula

2015 Letter to Missoulian - Re: Prescott School History and request to reopen Prescott

Throughout this year Missoula is celebrating its 150^th birthday.

In its early days a sawmill, Missoula Mills, was built near the Clark Fork, diverting water from Rattlesnake Creek.

Not far from this landmark and Missoula’s beginnings, is another, Prescott School.

In conjunction with Missoula’s centennial, in 1983, the Rattlesnake PTA published a booklet about the history of the area’s schools. Bonnie Malingo compiled Information on Prescott School, some of which follows.

“1891 marked the year a school was provided to meet Missoula’s growing pains in the Rattlesnake Valley.”   The original Prescott School started as the East Side School in 1891 in a grocery store on the corner of Harrison and Vine.

In 1893, the school district purchased land for $500 from the Missoula Real Estate Association on which to build another East Side School ( current location at 1100 Harrison) costing $4,000.

“In 1902, the Daily Missoulian reports, ‘East Side School was to be named Prescott School.’”

In 1948, Superintendent Porter, showed preliminary drawings of a newly proposed school building for Prescott. “In the spring of 1951 the new Prescott School was ready for occupancy.”

For many years, Prescott served 1-8^th grades. A variety of grade configurations were also used depending on the circumstances.

Prescott, a special school to many, was closed and leased in 2004 to the private Missoula International School. The lease will expire in 2017.  MCPS needs to reopen Prescott for its proper use of educating our public school students. Enrollment both in the Rattlesnake and city-wide is increasing and our schools are at capacity.

The section on Prescott history in the booklet mentioned above ends with the following sentence, “In closing, one of the finest things one can experience at Prescott is the tremendous interest and support from the parents and the public in the area.”

Jeanne Joscelyn

Prescott and neighborhood school advocate