Who told Principal Seidensticker that Prescott and Mount Jumbo Schools were not to be considered to deal with overcrowding at Rattlesnake School?

Rattlesnake Elementary at capacity; some students may be transferred : Missoulian: News and Resources for Western Montana

Many Rattlesnake Valley residents were in disbelief when they read the headlines of the above Missoulian articled titled, "Rattlesnake Elementary at capacity; some students may be transferred", (see link) on Monday, February 13, 2012. Why?  Only 7-8 months prior to this article Missoula County Public Schools approved the extension of the lease of Prescott School to the private school Missoula International School for another 5 years. 

To review, Prescott School along with Rattlesnake Middle School, and Mount Jumbo School in East Missoula were closed on March 25, 2004 in a hurried and controversial process. msw is of the opinion that that the school closures were not only unnecessary and have not saved the district money, but in fact have cost the district thousands if not millions of dollars due to unforeseen consequences.

Additionally, in 2004, citizens voiced their opinion that there will be an enrollment increase in the years ahead and that it was shortsighted to close any of the three schools. This enrollment increase has already begun and will continue!

Readers of msw may want to check out the blog post, "Jacobs Decision" or Google "Jacobs Decision".  In this document one can read about some of the corruption involved during the school closure process. It reveals some of the details of open meeting law violations by the school board in 2004.

Immediately after the 2004 closures, Missoula International School wrote a letter to the district requesting to lease Prescott School. Was MIS prompted to write a letter by any of the current and/or future MCPS Trustees? Perhaps we will never know.  The lease was approved at the June 8th, 2004 School Board Meeting despite warnings by a math professor and others that it was not in the best interests of the school district or the neighborhood. 

After reading the newspaper article linked above a citizen called the principal of Rattlesnake School, Mr. Seidensticker.The principal was not available at the time of the call, however, returned the call later on that same day.

The conversation with Mr. Seidensticker centered on the idea that, in this citizen's opinion, Prescott School, just down the road from Rattlesnake School, needed to be considered for reopening before busing more Rattlesnake Valley children out of the neighborhood. Using  neighborhood schools for the area's children makes the most sense and is the most fair for all of Missoula's children. Our public schools were built and maintained for public school children, not to be leased to private schools, according to this citizen, and which msw wholeheartedly agrees.

Principal Seidensticker stated that he was told that reopening Prescott School and Mt. Jumbo School was NOT to be considered in dealing with the overcrowding of Rattlesnake School. 

Who told Mr. Seidensticker this? Was it Toni Rehbein, the past President of Missoula International School, who has voiced many times her support for her daughter's former school?  Was it Superintendent Apostle?  Was it Heather Davis Schmidt, the new regional director of this area of Missoula's schools?

Whoever told Mr. Seidensticker not to consider the reopening of Prescott School to deal with the capacity issues at Rattlesnake School was clearly favoring the private school, Missoula International School over public school students in direct violation of their duties.