#3 - Naomi Kimbell: From Missoula County Public Schools Trustee to Executive Director of Missoula International School

Naomi Kimbell:  From Missoula County Public Schools Trustee to Executive Director of Missoula International School

                                                                     Part 3

12.  June 8, 2004 – Letter to the Editor in the Missoulian by Rattlesnake resident/math professor David Patterson – Patterson’s letter explains that a lease of Prescott School had the potential to be financially devastating to the district.  His main reasoning was based on two premises: the low lease rate of the school to Missoula International School (The lease rate was $20,000 for the first 3 years and $30,000 for the last two years, which averages out over 5 years to be $1.19/per square foot!) and the enrollment-based funds that would be diverted from the public school system when students enroll in MIS. Patterson stated that if even 5 students enrolled in Missoula International School, due to its location, the school district would not receive any revenue from the lease, and could potentially lose tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in future years of the lease.  An additional quote from the letter reads:  “Alternative uses of Prescott that do not compete with the public schools should be explored first.  Any agreement to rent to a private school should be at a rate that provides clear benefit to the school district.”

*Note #1:  David Patterson’s letter details very succinctly the financial pitfalls of leasing a public school to a private school.  As the board failed to set aside a separate meeting to discuss the lease, as suggested by a minority member, the trustees, which included Trustee Kimbell (and the public), were denied the opportunity to deliberate these very important ideas, thus not fulfilling its fiduciary duties. 

*Note # 2:  Missoula International School has doubled in size since leasing Prescott School leaving no doubt that the district is losing the tens of thousands of dollars and could possibly stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of the 5 year lease.

13.  June 8, 2004 - monthly MCPS School Board Meeting - Agenda Item: Discussion and Ratification of Contract between MCPS and Missoula International School for the Lease of Prescott Elementary School - The motion was moved by Jenda Hemphill and seconded by Trustee Naomi Kimbell.  There were 5 affirmative votes for the ratification of the lease, including Kimbell’s, and 2 abstentions because of conflict of interest issues.  Trustee Carol Bellin first excuses herself from the vote as her son had once attended Missoula International School.  Subsequently, new Trustee, Toni Rehbein, excused herself from the vote as she said she was once on the board of Missoula International School.

*Note#1: Public records reveal that Trustee Rehbein was President in 1999 and 2000 of Missoula International School!

*Note #2: Trustees voted on the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School at the June 8, Board Meeting even though on the agenda to be discussed later in the evening was the litigation of the school closure decision.  The results of this litigation could potentially have reopened Prescott School!

14.  June 9, 2004 - Lease between MCPS for the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School was signed by Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of MCPS, Rosemary Harrison, Executive Director of Business Services, Bruce Moyer, and Board President of Missoula International School, Marta Pierpoint (The lease was ready to sign the day after the board meeting).  A phrase in the lease states, “The term of the lease shall be from August 1, 2004 through July 31, 2009.”  The term of the lease is for five years.

*Note:  MCPS was still in litigation in an Open Meeting Law lawsuit concerning the school closures when it went forward with the ratification of the lease of one of the schools involved in the closures!  A citizen knowledgeable about land issues has suggested that the attorney for the plaintiffs needed to issue a TRO  (this could be the wrong acronym) due to the district going forward with leasing Prescott School. The attorney did not attempt to issue a TRO

15.  July 13, 2004 - MCPS School Board Meeting - Agenda item:  Revisit 2004-2005 Preliminary Secondary Budget Decision of March 24, 2004                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               The  The school closure decision was again brought up before the school board due to a lawsuit addressing breaches of Montana Open Meeting Laws.  The board, with a new make-up because of spring elections as described above voted again to close the three schools with Trustee Kimbell voting with the majority, standing by her March 24, 2004 decision.  Motion passed 6-1 with Trustee Bellin opposed.

                

#2 - Naomi Kimbell: From Missoula County Public Schools Trustee to Executive Director of Missoula International School

Part Two

6.  April 27, 2004 - MCPS Finance and Operation Meeting - Agenda item - Request by the Missoula International School to lease Prescott Elementary School. - Background Information (listed with agenda):  Missoula International School has submitted a letter indicating an interest in renting all or part of Prescott School for the 2004-2005 school year.  Attached is a copy of the letter for discussion.  Administration recommendation:  None at this time. Also in question was whether MCPS needed to issue a formal RFP (Request for Proposal).  An RFP was deemed prudent by Bruce Moyer, the Business Director, and he recommended a 2-3 month time span.  While discussing the potential lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School, Trustee Kimbell’s comment and question were:  “Ms. Kimbell would like to move forward with leasing Prescott School to the Missoula International School.  She asked if they would maintain the building and grounds.”  It was stated that Missoula Catholic Schools maintains the buildings and grounds, including custodial, at the Roosevelt facility.

*Note:  There is a discrepancy between the MIS letter and district records as to the length of time requested for a lease.  As listed above in #4 the Missoula International School sent a letter on April 21^st to the MCPS offices expressing interest in leasing Prescott School for a minimum of two years.  The district records as stated above state that the private school requested a lease for the 2004-2005 school year.  This discrepancy would have not been noticed by citizens that did not receive a packet for the meeting.  In fact, a citizen asking the district for a copy of the MIS letter a few years later and was surprised at this discrepancy as she had printed a flyer with erroneous information because of it.  This discrepancy was perhaps unintentional; however it conveys that the private school wanted a longer term lease than described in district records.  

7.  May 4, 2004 - Missoula County Public Schools School Board Election – There was three open seats on the ballot.  Two incumbent trustees who voted against the closures, Trustees Suzette Dussault and Colleen Rogers, ran but were not re-elected. Another incumbent trustee, David Merrill, who voted for the closures, chose not to run for re-election.  Marlene Hutchins also ran unsuccessfully for a position.  Three citizens who ran as a team were newly elected to the board: Toni Rehbein, Joe Toth, and Scott Bixler.  *Note:  Trustee Merrill ignored a mandate of keeping neighborhood schools open established when first elected, as he was elected to re-open Prescott School in 2001!

8.  May 11, 2004 - Missoulian article by Jane Rider – “Trustees to discuss renting to Missoula International School at meeting tonight.”

9.  May 11, 2004 – monthly MCPS School Board Meeting – Reorganization of Board of Trustees – Sentences from the minutes state:  “Trustee Bellin nominated Trustee Kimbell for the Chair position based on her experience in the process of involving the public.  Kimbell declined the nomination to be chair of the Board.  She thanked Bellin for the vote of confidence. Bellin concerned about having Harrison as chair again given litigation pending and processes involving public. Said she is concerned about propriety of chair actions in regard to e-mail sent to school full of teachers with false information about Bellin’s positions about issues on which she was voting.  Bellin asked Harrison to abstain from the position.  Harrison was elected chair of the Board for the next year.”

10.  May 11, 2004 - monthly MCPS School Board Meeting - Agenda Item:  Request of Missoula International School to Lease Prescott Elementary School – The school board discussed renting Prescott School to Missoula International School.  Trustee Bellin urged the trustees to allow 6 weeks for the RFP process.  Bellin moved to offer RFP’s with return date of three weeks time and two weeks time for consideration by the Board and public input, Kimbell seconded the motion. Quotes by Trustee Kimbell from the minutes state:  “Kimbell said would be July meeting when Board would be making a decision and that would truly be too long to expect MIS to wait.  Maybe school district could do different advertising of RFP and move quickly.” and Kimbell asked if a motion should include a special meeting date of Tuesday, June 15, 2004. and “Kimbell said do not believe making decision two days after the June 8 meeting is much different from making a decision at the June 8 meeting.  Kimbell in favor of making decision by June 8.  Believe it would become obvious very quickly if there will be any dissention about leasing to MIS.” and “Kimbell said Moyer brought up good point of difference between market values and value for having a school in our building.  Want to do whatever makes sense for our District.  If there were other interested parties, probably would have heard from them by now.”  The minutes also state:  “Bruce Moyer, Director of Business Services recommended that the Board and administration offer RFP’s to educational institutions only with a time line so that response and analysis may be presented at June 8 meeting.”

*Note #1: The RFP process was changed from Moyer’s earlier recommendation at the April meeting of 2-3 months.  Minutes of this meeting reveal statements made to support a time period of 1 to 2 months but finally whittled down to only 2 weeks!  Motion passed unanimously.

*Note #2:  The above quotes illustrate that Trustee Naomi Kimbell thought it was best to rush the lease process and lease Prescott School at a low rate to an educational institution rather than obtaining market value.

*Note #3:  The Finance and Operations Committee meeting was to be held on May 25, 2004, however, in a rush to bring the issue to the June 8 board meeting, the F&O meeting was changed to June 1, 2004.

11.  June 1, 2004 – Finance and Operation Committee Meeting – Agenda item:  Results of Request for Proposal (RFP) for Prescott School - There were no comments by Naomi Kimbell mentioned in the minutes.  The minutes read, “The F&O Committee recommends that the contract lease for Prescott School be ready for presentation to the Trustees for discussion and ratification at the June 8 Board meeting.”  A recommendation by Trustee Carol Bellin to include in the lease that the District had the option to cancel the lease if other District programs have the need for use of this building was ignored by Kimbell and other trustees.

*Note: While discussing All-Day Kindergarten during a November 2006 Property Ad Hoc meeting, Superintendent Clark stated that Prescott School was tied to a lease and would not be available for this program! 

#1 - Naomi Kimbell: From MCPS Trustee to Executive Director of Missoula International School

Note: Prescott School Missoula has decided to publish this document titled, "Naomi Kimbell: From MCPS Trusee to Executive Director of Missoula International School" which was written in approximately 2009.  The document was written during the discussions of the FIRST extension of the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School.

This information is important to understanding why Missoula International School is located in Prescott School and why Naomi Kimbell could have been the most important MCPS Trustee in the 2004 closure of three northeast schools.  Did Naomi Kimbell have prior knowledge of her future employment with Missoula International School before her votes on the school closures and on the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School? Although many citizens have concluded in their own minds that the answer is yes, this subject has never been legally addressed.

                                                              Part One

Naomi Kimbell: From MCPS Trustee to Executive Director of Missoula International School

Preview: The following dates and information reveal the relationship between former Missoula County Public School Trustee Naomi Kimbell (2002-2004) and the Missoula International School. As the district has now obtained an appraisal of Prescott School and is in the process of extending the lease to Missoula International School, the information in this document becomes more  relevant. The public expects trustees to use sound reasoning skills, common sense, and professional demographic information to help guide them in their decision-making regarding school closures. Was this the case in the process of closing Prescott Elementary School along with two other northeast Missoula schools and the subsequent leasing of Prescott in 2004? Or, did other less honorable factors and perhaps illegal actions take precedence in the outcome of this closure/lease scenario? Since there are questions regarding past and present trustee actions, there needs to be a moratorium on any property decisions regarding Prescott School including the extension of the lease or selling the school.

Beginning Summary:  While serving on the Missoula County Public School Board, Trustee Naomi Kimbell voted to close three schools on March 24, 2004: Rattlesnake Middle School, Prescott Elementary School in the Rattlesnake Valley, and Mount Jumbo Elementary School in East Missoula (vote was 4-3). At the June 8, 2004, School Board meeting Trustee Kimbell voted to lease Prescott School to the private Spanish-immersion school, Missoula International School (vote was 4-1 with 2 abstaining).

The closure issue was repeated at the July 13^th Board meeting, complying with an Open Meeting Law lawsuit filed a month after the March school closures, with the addition of three new board members. Once again, Kimbell voted to close the three schools, this time with a 6-1 outcome favoring closure. Subsequently, as reported in a Missoulian article August 3, 2004, she became employed as executive director of Missoula International School, ultimately taking advantage of her 3 votes on this issue. A quote from the article states,

"While on the board, Kimbell was part of the decision-making process to close Prescott School and also to rent it to the Missoula International School."

Time Line:

1.  2002-2003 - In May 2002 Naomi DeMarinis (later Naomi Kimbell) was elected to the Missoula County Public School Board. In 2003 the Prescott School closure issue went before the school board with Kimbell voting for the closure prior to the May School
Board election; however, after the election she joined other pro-Prescott trustees, along with a new trustee, and changed her mind voting to re-open the school (vote was 5-2).

2. March 24, 2004 - Trustee Naomi DeMarinis (later Naomi Kimbell) voted to close Rattlesnake Middle School, Prescott Elementary School, and Mt. Jumbo Elementary School at 1:30 a.m. (vote was 4-3). North side residents reeled in disbelief as the
decision was made after only 48 days of deliberation. Many people thought the small cost savings, if any, did not justify the major disruption the decision would cause.

3. March 25, 2004 - Missoulian article by Jane Rider - "Jumbo, Prescott schools closed" - A statement regarding Naomi Kimbell's [DeMarinis] comments - "Trustees then bogged down in nearly two hours in what was DeMarinis [Kimbell] called "stream-of-consciousness budgeting" in which they attempted to find various places to trim to produce a balanced budget." Trustee Suzette Dussault states in the article. "The decision tonight is enormously harmful to our kids. It's not in the long-term interest of the district."

Note: The meeting to close the three schools began at 7:00 p.m. and ended at 1:00 a.m., a six hour meeting! Many citizens think that three hours is the maximum time limit on meetings to allow for good decision-making.

4. April 21, 2004 - Missoula International School sent a letter to the district requesting to lease school space. Sentences in the letter read, "MIS understands that some educational space may be available in the Missoula County School District. Specifically, MIS is interested in leasing Prescott Elementary School for a minimum of two years. MIS would welcome the opportunity to discuss the terms and conditions of leasing Prescott Elementary with the Finance and Operations committee and /or the MCPS Board of Trustees. We look forward to reaching an agreement that benefits MCPS, MIS, and the Missoula community." The letter also states, "MIS owns a building at 518 South Avenue West where the preschool and kindergarten classes are currently held. In addition MIS leases space from the University Congregational Church on University Avenue where the first, second, and third grades are taught."

Note #1:  There is a discrepancy between the MIS letter and district records as to the length of time requested for a lease.  As listed above in #4 the Missoula International School sent a letter on April 21^st to the MCPS offices expressing interest in leasing Prescott School for a minimum of two years.  The district records as stated above state that the private school requested a lease for the 2004-2005 school year.  This discrepancy would have not been noticed by citizens that did not receive a packet for the meeting.  In fact, a citizen asking the district for a copy of the MIS letter a few years later and was surprised at this discrepancy as she had printed a flyer with erroneous information because of it.  This discrepancy was perhaps unintentional; however it conveys that the private school wanted a longer term lease than described in district records.  

Note #2: Leasing public school space to a private school does NOT benefit the public school system as private schools are in direct competition with public schools. Additionally, a long-term lease without an opt-out provision harms the Missoula community as it diminishes classroom capacity throughout the school district making the school unavailable when needed for public school children or other district needs. A lease definitely benefits MIS, however, as they have use of a valuable school, which the private school could NEVER have obtained in the private sector. Moreover, the huge upgrade in MIS facilities has undoubtedly contributed to the doubling of MIS enrollment (from 70 to 140 students, benefiting MIS), however, diminishing district monies due to per-student state funding.

5. April 24. 2004 - A lawsuit was filed against Missoula County Public Schools due to Open Meeting Law violations during the budgeting process for the closures by plaintiffs Molly Moody and Allan Oines (filed 30 days after the March 24, 2004 closure decision).

                                                             End of Part 1

  

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Note:  As this is quite a long document in an attempt to provide a more detailed account of the closure/lease issue in 2004, psm has decided to divide the document into six parts.

Just thinking.... (in 2012)

Doesn't it seem a little odd that Missoula International School swooped in to write a letter expressing interest in Prescott School so soon after it closed. The MIS letter and request was addressed at the first possible (given that the issue had to be placed on an agenda) Finance and Operations Committee Meeting after the closures. Doesn't it also seem odd that they were the only entity to inquire about the school in writing? (Perhaps there were other entities interested in the Prescott space of which the public is unaware.)  The above circumstances and others tend to make one think about the possibility that the closure was a set up for the future lease of Prescott School to MIS.  Moreover, was the closure of Roosevelt a set up for the future lease of Missoula Catholic Schools? Roosevelt was leased to the Catholic Schools shortly after it's closure. Additionally, both of these schools leased the perfect school to fit their needs. With disloyal Trustees on the MCPS School Board willing to lease a public school to a private school this scenario seems a possiblility. Again, just thinking.....

115-unit affordable housing complex opens in Missoula

115-unit affordable housing complex opens in Missoula

Contact Trustees to Support Prescott School re-opening as a Public School Once Again!

There is nothing quite as important to a neighborhood as a public school close by so that children can walk or bike to school.  The entire neighborhood, both young and old alike, have a bond to the school and participate in school and other activities together. A public school adds a sense of well-being to the lives of the people living in the neighborhood. There are so many attributes of a neighborhood school, too many to list here in this blog post. More and more research is collaborating around the fact that smaller schools are superior to their larger counterparts in providing a good educaion.

Prescott School is the perfect neighborhood school for lower and upper Rattlesnake Valley students as it is located in such a wonderful place, nestled at the base of Mt. Jumbo with many natural and cultural icons close by for students and teachers to take advantage of, which they have for more than a century. Greenough Park, Rattlesnake Creek, Mount Jumbo, the Wilma Theatre, the museum, etc.  The building itself offers students and teachers a warm and inviting atmosphere with added character and charm.

In 2004, tragically, Prescott was closed and leased to a private school, Missoula International School. The original lease was for 5 years, with additional 3 and 5 year lease extensions being approved - for a total of 13 years!

In the next 5 years, until Missoula International School's lease is expired, Missoula school officials and community members can make sure that Prescott School is returned to Missoula's public school children. It was for them that Prescott was built and maintained for over 100 years (2 buildings).

Please contact Missoula County Public School Trustees and let them know that Prescott is a school for public school students and that you would like to see Prescott School re-opened as soon as possible, (after the lease has expired for the Missoula International School which is in 5 (!) years.

Contact information:

Missoula County Public Schools
Board of Trustees and
Superintendent Apostle
215 S. Sixth West
Missoula, MT   59801

The contact information online is:
publiccomment@mcps.k12.mt.us

For a list of all Trustees go to www.mcps.k12.mt.us. Under the heading "School Board" scroll down to "Contact information" and click on the link.

edited - August 15, 2013

MCPS Trustees irresponsible in extending Missoula International lease of Prescott School in 2011

Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees were once again irresponsible in extending the lease to Missoula International School of Prescott School in 2011, which is located in the lower Rattlesnake Valley of Missoula, Montana.

Why?

Here is a list of just a few of the many reasons why the Prescott School/MIS lease extension was an irresponsible decision by MCPS Trustees -

Financial reasons -

2004 - From the beginning, in 2004, citizens which have included a math professor, have stated the lease of Prescott School by Missoula International School would hurt the district financially (see June 8, 2004 Letters to the editor in the Missoulian by David Patterson- "low rent will hurt the district, not help").  In this 2004 letter it states that the district could stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the state funding formula if even a small amount of growth occurred for MIS.

2011 - In a letter via email to all Trustees dated July 9, 2011, the math professor mentioned above, David Patterson discussed his continued reservations with the lease in financial terms. In this letter he describes the large financial loss to the district due to the lease just as he had warned about in 2004. psm(prescottschoolmissoula) will quote a paragraph from the letter which is truly astounding,

"Here it is, 7 years later and MIS enrollment has more than tripled to 121 in K-12 [Note - he must mean K-8]. I'm guessing that the vast majority of these students are from the MCPS area, therefore costing MCPS more than $500,000 annually in ANB funds. What is the return for MCPS? Less than $60,000 annually less the cost of MCPS funded repairs and maintenance (plus the costs saved of not educating those 100+ students, but wouldn't MCPS want those students?)  Why then does MCPS enter into such an agreement?"

 Ignored the Will of the People - Trustees ignored the will of the people.  A petition requesting that MCPS Trustees extend the lease on a short term basis and that Prescott not be sold.  This petition was signed by approximately 1,500 citizens.  Many of the pages of this petition were placed in MCPS Board packets so that all Trustees had knowledge of it in 2008. This petition was also discussed in a public comment during the 2011 lease discussions and a copy of the petition signatures was given to Superintendent Apostle after the extension vote, however, was discussed with him prior to the vote. Trustees extended the lease in 2008 for three years and again in 2011, bringing the extension of this lease to eight years. The original lease in 2004 was for five years, ( the length which was questioned by responsible Trustees and citizens). Therefore, the lease of one of our most popular public schools by a private school totals (5+8) is thirteen years!! Thirteen years in which Rattlesnake Valley residents could have been attending their neighborhood school, a school built specifically for them, not private school students.

Overcrowding at Rattlesnake School - see February Missoulian article regarding busing Rattlesnake Valley students to Paxson due to the overcrowding and capacity issues at Rattlesnake School. The principal at Rattlesnake School stated at a meeting that the overcrowding had been a problem for the last three years - a situation of which MCPS Trustees must have had knowledge.

Lack of Maintenance to Grounds of Prescott School in violation of the lease, thus a Breach of Contract (The district also bears some responsibility in this as they have not enforced the lease.). See YouTube video - type in "Breach of Contract and Missoula International School" or go to the 5-27-12 post on this blog to play the video.

Trustees not following  Montana's Trust Law as specified in the Montana Constitution and which many citizens believe apply to School Board Trustees (one citizen has stated that is why the term "Trustees" is given to School Board members). The duties of Prudence and Loyalty were not being followed by MCPS Trustees.

Not using the district's own demographic study in which it clearly states that the elementary student population will increase in the five year period of the most recent lease extension, that is from 2012 - 2017. The demographic study cost the district thousands of dollars, only to be ignored by Trustees when making facility decisions.

Missoula County Public Schools in Breach of Contract due to engaging in maintenance and repairs for MIS. The lease states states that MIS is responsible for these tasks.
For example, MCPS employees did carpentry, electrical, and painting tasks on the gym at Prescott School - see YouTube video.
psm can think of more reasons, however, this is fast becoming quite a long post. The above reasons for not extending the lease needed to be heeded by the Trustees in 2011, however they were not. These Trustees were irresponsible and need to be voted out of office.  psm will go as far as stating the Trustees that voted for the lease need to resign their positions due to lack of responsible leadership. 



Edited on November 3, 2013

Prescott School is needed by Missoula County Public Schools!

Prescott School is needed by Missoula County Public Schools.  There is no doubt that Missoula's school system,and more specifically the Rattlesnake Valley, needs Prescott School, sooner rather than later. 

Prescott School was never intended to house a private school which it is unfortutuately now doing.

All of Missoula's public schools were built and maintained for our public school students.  Dangerous and sinister things, perhaps unintended (?) happen when a school district leases a public school to a private school. In some prescott school missoula posts one will find that one university professor estimated MCPS would stand to loses hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the lease as it would negatively effect the school district's funding from the state.

Additionally, Dr. Larry Swanson's demographic report alludes to a large increase in elementary enrollment for the district. 

A quote from the report states: "Elementary school enrollment fell from a peak in 1991 at 3,871 to a low of 3,186 in 2008 - a decline of 685 students.  This is expected to climb back to nearly 3,900 in 2017 and then begin a gradual decline before leveling out sometime after 2030.

MCPS Trustees had access to this report last year in 2011 when they voted to extend the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School, howver, chose to ignore it.  This vote was a complete breach of trust by these Trustees.

Missoula International School also was given a 5 year lease.  This also increases the breach of trust by MCPS Trustees as according to the demographic report the years leading up to 2017 are years of large growth in the elementary student age group.

The need for Prescott School is made all the more obvious by the district's decision to build a 2-room modular at Rattlesnake School to help alleviate a capacity problem that was also known at the time of the MIS/Prescott lease discussions.

At the top of the page is a link to the demographic study by Dr. Larry Swanson commissioned by Missoula County Public Schools.
In other words, the school district Trustees have ignored and are continuing to ignore the advise for which they paid.











Dr. Larry Swanson's demographic report for Missoula County Public Schools