TONI REHBEIN, SCOTT BIXLER, JOE TOTH, AND ALL OTHER TRUSTEES ARE INCAPABLE OF MAKING FAIR FACILITY DECISIONS

The MCPS school district is up to no good again.  Having been involved with school closures, a school sale, and school leases msw knows personally that trouble could be on the way if more of the past actions just mentioned are proposed. Knowing what type of actions the current Trustees have advocated and for which they have voted, it is time for all citizens to keep track of what is going on in the administration of MCPS!

The current Trustees do not care how many tears they cause to flow, how many lives they turn upside down, how many thousands and most likely millions of dollars they have caused taxpayers to pay and will cause taxpayers to pay into the future. It may be difficult to understand  the willingness of these Trustees to cause harm - however, msw has unfortunately experienced first hand the pain caused by their harmful decisions. 

Let msw REPEAT -

TONI REHBEIN, SCOTT BIXLER, JOE TOTH, AND ALL OTHER TRUSTEES ARE INCAPABLE OF MAKING FAIR AND RESPONSIBLE FACILITY DECISIONS!!!

Read below some of the facility decisions made by many of these Trustees:

*Voted to close 3 northeast schools in 2004 without adequate information. This decision was repeated as Trustees violated Montana's open meetings laws before and during the first vote to close these schools on March 25, 2004.

*Voted to lease a public school, Prescott School to the private school, Missoula International School, a school for which Toni Rehbein was once an officer shortly before being elected to the school board

*Voted to sell Roosevelt School to another private school, St. Josephs School in a sweetheart sale

*Voted to lease Mount Jumbo School to Walla Walla College (not sure of correct name) on a long term basis- 5 years!  Due to the closing of Mount Jumbo School many East Missoula children are attending Bonner School - costing the MCPS school district hundreds of thousands of dollars (the amount of lost revenue depends on the numbers of children that choose Bonner School over Rattlesnake School or Washington Middle School)

*Voted for 3 expensive additions to 3 schools; did not discuss re-opening any schools as an option; the addition to Hawthorne has a  1.9 million dollar price tag

*Due to long term leases of some schools MCPS could not use the leased facility when needed - which is what happened when all-day kindergarten was in the planning stages and one reason for the many additions

*Leases for MCPS properties were for less money than expected as they were for far less than many private property leases -  thus many leases have been called "sweetheart leases"  Leases at Whittier, Prescott, Mount Jumbo Schools, and the land on Duncan Drive could be looked into to determine if the district is receiving the fair market value.

*Recently (May 2012) voted to build 2 modulars, one at Rattlesnake School and one at Lowell with no discussion of opening close by neighborhood schools such as Prescott, Mount Jumbo, and Whittier Schools, respectfully

*Voted to fill in the last stage (Russell School) to make more room in a school instead of discussing re-opening other schools -doesn't this indicate that this school is now at capacity or close to it? msw believes many Emma Dickinson children are bused to Russell - isn't this another indication that Emma Dickinson School needs to be re-opened (Dickinson School is located in one of the most dense residential neighborhoods in Missoula)

The decisions above were made with the erroneous assumption that MCPS enrollment would never increase even though professionals within our community have said otherwise both in school meetings and in a demographic report commissioned by the district (this demographic report was commissioned by the district in 2009 - Dr. Larry Swanson was hired to work on the report) 


Due to the shortsighted decisions mentioned above many of our schools are overcrowded and perhaps most if not all of our elementary schools are now at capacity! (Rattlesnake, Lowell, Lewis and Clark, Russell...perhaps more are at capacity - with two of these schools adding modulars (Rattlesnake and Lowell)  this year.)

The facility decisions above have wreaked havoc within our community in terms of undermining our neighborhood school infrastructure in addition to unwisely spending taxpayers money.

MORE TROUBLE COULD BE ON THE WAY!! Please be pro-active as much as possible.  Stand up for all of Missoula's schools. Stand up for every neighborhood school.  Missoula's children and future generations of children need you!

last edited July 31, 2012, August 12, 2012 August 17, 2012