New West article from 2006 regarding a lawsuit against MCPS in the sale of Roosevelt School

Occasionally, Prescott School Missoula is compelled to include news about Roosevelt School.

Three of the five Trustees that voted to sell Roosevelt continue to serve on the MCPS School Board. These Trustees are: Board Chairwoman Toni Rehbein, Trustee Scott Bixler, and Trustee Joe Toth. The other two Trustees that voted to sell Roosevelt are former Board Chairwoman Rosemary Harrison and Trustee and fomer Board Chairwoman Jenda Hemphill (she became Board Chairwoman after Harrison was voted out of office in 2005).
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 Quotes from the New West article follow:

"Good Schools Missoula, Inc., a new organization advocating for quality schools in Missoula County, has filed a lawsuit against the Missoula County Public School District and several of its School Board trustees. The group claims the trustees are individually liable for the financial discrepancies resulting from the breach of their fidiciary duties in the lease and sale of Roosevelt School."

and -

"What we're doing is trying to hold the school trustees accountable for selling Roosevelt School below its market value," Funsch said. "(The district) didn't even accept the highest offer for Roosevelt Public School."

and -

"The group also stated that the sale of Roosevelt School will increase property taxes, a reduction in opportunities for children who attend school in District 1, increased classroom congestion and reduced resources. Increased class sizes, children having to be bussed to distant facilities, traffic increases and increased workload for teachers are also negative impacts listed within group's lawsuit."

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What happened with the loss of Roosevelt School is similar to what is happening at Prescott School. The Catholic Schools were leasing Roosevelt School at a reduced rate and subsequently was sold at a reduced rate - thus the term "sweetheart sale".

Prescott School is now being leased and has been leased at reduced rates - thus also taking advantage of a sweetheart lease deal.

Additionally, one has to account for the massive loses due to MCPS children attending our leased and now sold (in the case of Roosevelt School) treasured neighborhood public school buildings that are now occupied by private schools.  See prior posts regarding a math professors warning and page titled "MIS Sweetheart Lease" at the top of the home page.

Many believe that neither the Catholic School system nor MIS could lease nor could have bought (in the case of Roosevelt) comparable facilities at the price MCPS has/had given them had they gone into private sector real estate. 

The lawsuit went to the Supreme Court, however, the Court ruled  only on procedures, not the merits of the complaint. The Court did not rule in favor of Good Schools Missoula.

The link to the article on the Good Schools Missoula/Catholic Schools lawsuit is below -

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/missoula_organization_wants_roosevelt_school_sale_voided_school_board_trust/

Savings from closing both Mt. Jumbo and Prescott Schools in 2004 is $116,626

In the Budget Work Session packet for April17, 2008, it shows that the MCPS school district saved only $116,667 for the fiscal year of 2004-2005 by closing Mt. Jumbo in East Missoula and Prescott School in the lower Rattlesnake.  

Such a tragedy, such turmoil, such a waste of energy, for so many families, students, and staff, for so little savings.

Prescott School Missoula is still in shock over this information.  This bit of news never made it to the papers - at least none that psm saw.

The information is not broken into the savings for each of the two schools.  Mt. Jumbo housed K-3 grades and Prescott housed 4-5 grades, therefore, the savings from the closure from Prescott School was a smaller percentage than just dividing the figure by half. Let's say the savings of closing Prescott School was a third of that figure which comes out to be approximately $38,000 (round it to $40,000)!

It's even more shocking when one looks over the MCPS Board and Committee agendas and minutes and reads again and again the huge amount of money the district is spending on so many less important things.

School infrastructure is the most important building block of a school system. Then comes teacher and then books (all three are imporant no matter what order they are placed).  Trustees have their priorities mixed up.

Of course $116,626 is a lot of money, however, when we are talking about the running of two very important schools it is so very little. 

And keep in mind that a math professor estimated that the district loses $500,000 annually on leasing Prescott School to Missoula International School.

Prescott School Missoula hopes others will be as upset about this bit of financial news as much as psm is.

This information provides fuel for Prescott School Missoula's thinking that Prescott School was closed to set in motion the lease of the school to Missoula International School. The savings are so minuscule - it just doesn't make sense to close a school for such a small amount of savings. 

Especially when the school was so popular and provided such a wonderful educational setting.

What a needless tragedy to close Prescott School.

My grandmother - a student at Prescott School in the early 1900's

 

Nellie Ellen Tiffany McAlear

Prescott School Missoula thought it would be fun to add a picture on this blog of my grandmother, Nellie "Ellen" Tiffany McAlear.

She was born in Missoula on June 7th, 1908 during Missoula's big flood.  The river provided quite an obstacle in getting the doctor (or midwife?) to her birth.

She and her family lived on Missoula Street in the lower Rattlesnake. Her uncle lived on Van Buren Street for many years.

 Later the family would move to Rollins near Flathead Lake and then to Polson where she met my grandfather, Murl McAlear.

She loved living in the Rattlesnake area.  She and her three brothers would play games at the kitchen table. She liked to go to Finnegans Restaurant later in life because she loved watching Rattlesnake Creek as it brought back memories of her childhood.

She told me that she went to Prescott School to take sewing classes.  I'm not sure what school she attended for the other classes, perhaps, Lincoln School, or maybe Central School?

One story I remember my grandma telling us is when her father went to Lincoln School one morning he was greeted by a mountain lion on the front porch. 

There are other mountain lion stories at Lincoln School including the story of many mountain lions in the big pine tree on the corner of Lolo and Gilbert Streets which was recently cut down.

She died at the age of 79 in 1987.

It's too bad that I don't know more of her school history and more about the Prescott School she knew. It would be fun doing some research into her early years in Missoula.  Money was tight for the family, therefore, there were few pictures of her early years.

Trustees tour schools, consider closure

Trustees tour schools, consider closure

Prescott School Missoula came across this article on the 2003 closure of Prescott School. 

Prescott School Missoula will comment more on the article as time permits.

Here's a quick comment though -

There is a picture of Trustees going through a school building.  They must have school closure on their minds. It appears the school is Rattlesnake Middle School as one person in the picture may be Rob Watson, the former principal at Rattlesnake Middle School (another principal that also did not speak out against the closures).

 My, how different things could have been if these Trustees would have had the highest good for students on their minds, that is the importance of a neighborhood school and the importance of small schools.

Cindy Christensen, former Prescott School principal throws her school under the bus in 2004

On the 23rd of April, 2004, Molly Moody and Allan Oines filed a lawsuit with the Fourth Judicial District Court.

The complaint follows the March 25, 2004, MCPS Board decision to close 3 northeast schools, Rattlesnake Middle School, Prescott School, and Mt. Jumbo School.

On the front page of the lawsuit on the right it states:

"COMPLAINT and PETITION TO SET ASIDE SCHOOL BOARD'S ACTIONS and TO COMPEL THE BOARD TO COMPLY WITH MONTANA'S RIGHT TO KNOW LAWS."

On page 2 and number 12 one will read, "Prior to the vote Chairwoman Harrison did allow one person to comment on the preliminary budget as finally presented to and voted on by the Board prior to the Board's vote.  That person was an acting principal at Prescott Elementary School and therefore an employee of the district."

Another pertinent paragraph (13) from the complaint follows:

"Chairwoman Harrison was asked by members of the public to allow them to comment before the vote was taken. Chairwoman Harrison refused the public's request.  Chairwoman Harrison did not allow any member of the public to comment on the approved preliminary budget UNTIL AFTER the Board had voted to approve the preliminary budget."

One is able to see in the above two paragraphs of the complaint that the process to close the three schools was fraught with corruption.

The complaint does not mention the name of the principal at Prescott School.  The principal in 2004 of Prescott School was Cindy Christensen.

Citizens who are interested in why Prescott School was closed and why it is now leased to Missoula International School would most likely be interested in this information.

It was said that Prescott School principal Cindy Christensen was emotional to the point of crying during her solo public comment calling on the closure of Prescott School. 

Another source of information regarding Cindy Christensen and her comments at the March 25th, 2004 school board meeting and suppporting the above comment is the March 26th, 2004, edition of the Missoulian is a front page article written by reporter Jane Rider , titled, "Prescott, Mount Jumbo closed" (the title actually needed to include Rattlesnake Middle School).

Quotes from the article pertaining to Cindy Christensen follow:

"During the evening, Prescott Principal Cindy Christensen made an emotional plea to the board to move ahead with closing Prescott, where enrollment has declined to just 128 students, expressing how emotionally and educationally difficult the threat of closure has been on the school's staff and students in recent years."

and -

"This is not what's best for kids," Christensen said. She also argued that the school population has shrunk to a size of diminished energy."

Note from Prescott School Missoula -  As psm had a child attending Prescott School during the closures psm can attest that Prescott School was a wonderful school and the fact that enrollment was down did not "diminish the energy" as Christensen states above.
If there was any diminished energy it would have come from the principal herself - as she was not for the school remaining open she would have would not have been a positive influence- in fact - psm had been told she was a negative influence and remained in her office talking on the phone quite a lot of the time (most likely to opponents of Prescott).

Note: The link to the Missoulian article from March 26, 2004, above in which one will be able to read additional information on  the school closures will be up as time permits. psm has had technical difficulties in linking the article to this blog. 

As one can see by the lawsuit material in addition to those from the Missoulian article reporting on the closures one comes away with the reality that Cindy Christensen was a proponent of the closure and went even futher to assist in the closure of not only Prescott, but Rattlesnake Middle School and Mt. Jumbo School. 

It appears that Cindy Christensen, the Prescott principal in 2004 was disloyal to her school by siding with the administration who was calling for the closure of Prescott and the two other schools.

It is not a stretch to conceptualize that Chairwoman of the Board Rosemary Harrison and Prescott principal Cindy Christensen planned in advance of the meeting to allow for Christensen to speak for the school closures even though others were not allowed.

If only Prescott School had had a loyal and steadfast principal that stood by her through thick and thin perhaps the tragedy of the closure could have been averted.

Cindy Christensen did indeed throw Prescott School under the bus. 

At this time Cindy Christensen is the principal of Russell School. Russell School, just won an award. 

Just think, if Christensen would have stood by her school, perhaps it could have been Prescott School that received that award.

                                    

 

 

                             

Prescott School Missoula calls for the resignation of all MCPS Trustees for assisting private school(s) when public school children are MCPS beneficiaries

Prescott School Missoula, on this day of September 20, 2012, is taking the bold step in calling for the resignation of ALL Missoula County Public School Trustees. 

These eleven MCPS Trustees are: Board Chairwoman Toni Rehbein (remember she is a past officer of Missoula International School), Scott Bixler, Joe Toth, Adam Duerk (his twins attended MIS preschool), Shelley Wills, Joseph Knapp, Michael Smith, Jim Sadler, Drake Lemm, Marcia Holland, and Debbie DuPree.  The first seven are elementary Trustees and the last four are high school Trustees. 

Prescott School Missoula contends that all eleven of MCPS Trustees are untrustworthy and disloyal, therefore, are dangerous to our public school system; theses Trustees could very well be some of the most disloyal School Board Trustees in Missoula's history.

Prescott School Missoula contends that all eleven MCPS Trustees have reneged on their obligations in caring for the education of the children of the Missoula County Public Schools District #1as they have literally worked with a private school to provide for the private school's needs when leasing one of the district's valuable public schools.

Prescott School Missoula contends that all eleven MCPS Trustees have NOT protected school infrastructure for the public school children and the taxpayers of Missoula in decisions regarding leasing a public school to a private school.

The public school mentioned above is Prescott School and the private school is Missoula International School. 

Some MCPS high school Trustees voiced their support of the Prescott School/Missoula International School lease; none have voiced any reservations to this arrangement; none have voiced support for Prescott School.

Our public schools were built and maintained for public school children, not for leasing to private school children. 

MCPS Trustees do not seem to understand that the private school(s) they help are in competition with the public schools.

Another way of putting what is happening regarding the MCPS School Board and the leasing of a public school to a private school is:

Prescott School, the public school, has NO allies on the MCPS School Board.  Missoula International School, the private school leasing Prescott School, however, has 11 allies on the MCPS School Board.  Can it get more backwards, thus, more disloyal?!

Perhaps Board Chairwoman Toni Rehbein, former MIS president, and Adam Duerk, former MIS parent, can pull out their MIS tee shirts and have nine more made. Then all eleven Trustees can wear their MIS shirts to show off their true loyalties.

The latest decision to build a modular at Rattlesnake School was the latest blow to the public school children and Missoula taxpayers. 

Additionally, shortly before the modular proposal, MCPS was set to send more of our Rattlesnake area children to Paxson School.

As of this date, the cost of the modular is unknown. A document request has been submitted to the district requesting all costs of the work on the modular. A bid came in at approximately $200,000 (this figure will need verification).

Prescott School Missoula contends that all eleven Trustees have failed in their duty as a Trustees of the school district for many reasons connected to the building of the modular at Rattlesnake School.

The July 2011 lease extension of Prescott School to Missoula International School, was a breach of trust to the citizens of Missoula, as much of the following information was known before the extension.

Trustees:

-failed to re-open Prescott School, or even consider re-opening an option, a school just down the road from Rattlesnake School, when it was clear that Rattlesnake School was at capacity, and instead extended the lease to Missoula International School FOR ANOTHER 5 YEARS just last July in 2011!

-failed to take into account Rattlesnake School's steady rise in enrollment since 2004, after Rattlesnake Middle School was closed and converted into an elementary school. Principal Seidensticker said that the school has 100 more students than when he first became the principal in 2006.

-failed to take into account the lack of space and classrooms in order to add grades at Rattlesnake School due to the expanding enrollment.

-failed to take into account that several Rattlesnake School classrooms needed para-educators due to larger class sizes because of the increased enrollment.

-failed to even look at their own demographic report which showed a large spike in elementary school enrollment.  This demographic report was commissioned by the district and cost approximately $9,000 (psm will try to pinpoint the exact cost of the study).

-failed to take into account the many new subdivisions in the Rattlesnake School area such as Lily Court and Applegrove. 

-failed to take into account a huge 115-unit apartment complex in the works and now completed on East Broadway. Prescott School Missoula did not hear one of the eleven Trustees mention this new complex once in any discussions when extending the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School in 2011.

-failed to take into account a large new subdivision in East Missoula named Hidden Trails, which was in the works in 2004, before the school closures.

-failed to take into account the growing number of young families moving into the Rattlesnake and East Missoula neighborhoods, just as an economist, Dr. Larry Swanson had predicted and shared with the school board many years ago. Prescott School Missoula created a document titled, "The Transitioning of Missoula's Central Neighborhoods" covering this topic using quotes from Swanson's work.

-failed to even acknowledge the letter from a math professor stating that the school district is losing $500,000 annually as a result of leasing Prescott School to Missoula International School. This professor has many times in past meetings and letters to the editor since 2004 addressed this astronomical loss to the district by this lease with no reasonable response from Trustees.

-have allowed Missoula International School to remodel in ways that are inconsistent with a public school building. Remodeling to fit the needs of a private school is improper.

- To undo the remodeling will cost the district thousands of dollars when Prescott School is used again for public school children. Allowing Missoula International School to remodel furthers the evidence of trustee disloyalty which has caused great harm to Prescott School.

-have allowed the school district to engage in maintenance and repair of the Prescott School building when is explicitly states in the lease that maintenance and repair are the duties of Missoula International School. The painting of the Prescott gym is an example. MCPS painters, carpenters, and electricians were engaged in this project for several days at taxpayer expense.  MIS provided the paint - however, this arrangement was not in the lease.

-have acted in a rogue manner throwing any caution to the wind and ignoring a petition signed by 1,500 citizens requesting that Prescott not be sold and that any lease be on a short term rather than a long term basis.

-approved  Missoula International School's lease extension for 5 years in 2011 so that MCPS could not use the school if it became needed. Trustees have leased Prescott School to Missoula International School for long terms. Prescott School was needed BEFORE the extension was approved and definitely after, the proposal of sending Rattlesnake students to Paxson and the building of the modular serving as proof of this.  The first lease in 2004 was also for 5 years, so that, according to one Trustee, MIS could gain stability (caring more about MIS than MCPS).

-have let the Missoula International School get away with another aspect of the lease, which is the maintenance to the grounds around the school. There has been for most of the lease duration a breach of contract due to lack of maintenance to the grounds of Prescott School. Missoula International School has failed to water the grounds adequately and failed to take care of the weed control. As a result, approximately one and one half acres of the 2.3 acre playground is brown and dried up. Knapweed, dandelions, and other weeds have taken over the playground, especially on the hill behind the school building.  Large patches of ground have no vegetation, especially in the front of the school. This lack of care goes on and on. Of particular sadness, is the dying of the spryia bush planted near a memorial to a long time Prescott School teacher. Each year since 2004 the bush has become smaller and smaller so that it is now basically dead.  This is all due to Trustees that fail to take care of our public school facilities in a responsible and loyal manner.
 
- Trustees have leased Prescott School to Missoula International School without providing an opt out clause for Missoula County Public Schools.  In the original lease, however, there was an opt out clause for one school, Missoula International School, NOT for Missoula County Public Schools giving further proof of disloyalty to the district.

etc., etc. etc. etc...

Many of the current MCPS Trustees were not serving on the Board when Roosevelt School was sold to the Catholic School organization in 2005. Some were, however, which makes the resignation of those Trustees all the more important.

The names of the Trustees who voted to sell Roosevelt and whom are still currently serving on the Board are Toni Rehbein, Scott Bixler, and Joe Toth.   High School Trustees Drake Lemm and Jim Sadler, and perhaps Debbie DuPree (Marcia Holland was not on the School Board at that time) also voiced their support for the sale of Roosevelt. These Trustees are doubly dangerous.

Prescott School Missoula may add on to this list as time permits.  However, isn't the above enough evidence that all 11 Trustees need to go on to other activities and make room for loyal and responsible Trustees which will place the public school children and our school buildings first in all areas of the city and in all areas of education?

Again, Prescott School Missoula is formerly calling for the resignation of all 11 Missoula County Public Schools Trustees.

Enrollment rises in Missoula K-8 classrooms as baby boomers' grandkids grow up

Enrollment rises in Missoula K-8 classrooms as baby boomers' grandkids grow up