Missoula teachers get 3 percent raise in tentative contract - Missoulian article

Click on the link below to read a Missoulan article reporting on Missoula County Public Schools receiving a 3% raise.

Missoula teachers get 3 percent raise in tentative contract

MCPS board approves new math curriculum - May 16, 2013 Missoulian article

Click on the link below to read a Missoulian article on adopting a new math curriculum for Missoula County Public Schools students.


MCPS board approves new math curriculum

Oh, the harm you have done to Missoula's schools, Toni Rehbein!



Toni Rehbein - the scourge of MCPS from 2004-2013

Good riddance Toni Rehbein.  Please do not go within 10 feet of any of Missoula's public schools again. You and your minions have done more harm than perhaps any past MCPS trustees.

Important news! Trustees Rehbein, Bixler, Toth, Harrison, and Hemphill ended 210 years of Missoula School traditions

An amazing fact (and incredibly sad) that msw just figured out this afternoon is that five trustees, Trustee *Rosemary Harrison, Trustee *Jenda Hemphill, Trustee Toni Rehbein, Trustee Scott Bixler, and Trustee Joe Toth with a little help from Trustees  Naomi Kimbell and David Merrill, ended decades of Missoula school traditions.

How did they do this?

In 2004, Trustees voted to close Rattlesnake Middle School, Prescott School, and Mt. Jumbo School.

Rattlesnake Middle School opened around 1981.  msw is not certain regarding this date, however, Missoula converted from a K-8 school system to an elementary and middle school model for grade school level students around 1981.

Therefore the list goes like this -

Rattlesnake Middle School  - opened in 1981 in the mid Rattlesnake Valley

Prescott School - opened approximately 1892 in the lower Rattlesnake Valley

Mt. Jumbo School opened in 1979 in East Missoula

The 2004 school closures ended each school's in which they served Missoula's students in their respective Missoula neighborhood.

Rattlesnake Middle School - 23 years - (2004-1981)

Prescott School - ~112 years - (2004-1892)

Mt. Jumbo School - 25 years - (2004 - 1979)

In 2004 the five trustees mentioned above, Harrison, Hemphill, Rehbein, Bixler, and Toth, in addition to Kimbell and Merrill, ended 160 years of Missoula school traditions.

In 2005, Trustees Harrison, Hemphill, Rehbein, Bixler, and Toth voted to SELL Roosevelt School which was built in 1955 in a sweetheart sale ending 50 years of Missoula schools tradition. 

Altogether, Trustees Harrison, Hemphill, Rehbein, Bixler, and Toth ended an approximate total of  210 years of Missoula school traditions.

What is sad about this is that the closures did not save money, most likely cost the district millions of dollars over the years in addition to closing a neighborhood school for thousands of Missoula children.

*Trustees Harrison and Hemphill both voted to close Emma Dickinson in the Orchard Homes area also. (msw is almost sure of this, however, not entirely positive.)  Did one or both of these trustees vote to also close Roosevelt School?

How did the closures cost the district millions?

Here is how -

•  the resulting costs of renovations to other schools,
• busing the children out of their neighborhoods,
• the resulting costs of students and families choosing to go to schools outside of the district,
• the resulting cost of losing students to the private schools which subsequently leased our public school buildings after their closures,
• the resulting costs due to selling our public school,
• the astronomical costs of three additions (with a 1.9 million price tag for the Hawthorne addition),
• the high cost of building two modulars,
• the cost of taking care of vandalism in the closed schools, etc.etc.etc..
• the re-opening of the school when and if trustees decide to open the school

The above illustrates that the best way to deal with enrollment declines, which are a part of the normal ebb and flow of school enrollment trends, is to just ride out the ups and downs without taking the drastic action of closing a school.

As the enrollment is now trending upward and our schools are all most likely at capacity, Missoula school trustees need to re-open not only the above schools, but others such as Emma Dickinson, Jefferson, and Whittier.  NOW IS THE TIME FOR REOPENING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS.

Because Roosevelt School was sold the only way to return it to the district is to develop a sinking fund and buy the school back when and if the private school sells the property as the school district as the right of first refusal, however, not at the price at which we sold the school.

Missoula needs to vote in new school board that will listen, send message on levies (letter to the editor by David Dayton to the Missoulian)

Click on the link below to read an online letter to the Missoulian regarding the upcoming school board election and the levies on the ballot.

It is written by David Dayton.  He does a great job in letting us know just how much Superintendent Apostle is earning now and in the remaining years of his contract.  Additionally he reveals the salaries of the three regional directors, Karen Allen, Heather Davis-Schmidt, and . (ALOT!)

Thanks, David, for digging for the information we all need to know.

Missoula needs to vote in new school board that will listen, send message on levies

Here are some additional thoughts from msw on the issues David Dayton brings up in his letter:


As mentioned, the salary information is great - I knew the regional directors were earning quite a bit but I had no idea they were over the $100,000 apiece mark – WOW!  And the superintendent's salary is way out of line, of course.

The following are some quotes from the letter:

"They offered and he signed a contract that will pay him increases through 2015 plus a monthly payment of $1,875 to his TSA for a total of $22,500 a year and assorted other goodies. Let’s look at the totals: 2013 salary of $175,000 plus TSA for a total of $197,500; 2014 salary of $185,000 plus TSA for a total of $207,500; 2015 salary of $200,000 plus TSA for a total of $222,500. If you want the full story on his contract, contact MCPS for a copy."

"Three regional directors were added to Apostle’s administration; each with salary of $107,105 for a total of $323,115. I did a search of the Northwest looking for similar size districts with these positions and did not find any. What I found was: Seattle public with an enrollment of 45,000 had five, Portland with an enrollment of 47,000 had five, and LA public with an enrollment of 640,000 had five. MCPS has an enrollment of 8,466 with three."

When attending school board meetings a few years ago - I heard the business director state that the salary and benefits portion of the budget needs to be in the 80% range. 

Now S & B's are 90% of the budget, no doubt due to the salaries you have laid out for us.  Additionally, over the last couple of years I’ve also noticed that there was another administrator added to the staff at the Dickinson Adult Learning Center at I’m guessing $80,000, the out-of-the-blue raise for the public relations person, Leslie Brassfield, adds an extra $10,000 (which came out of the stimulus money last year), a liaison person for the Missoula Education Foundation (which is made up of unpopular former Board members and a despised superintendent) earns approximatley $30,000 (probably more), and most likely other salaries of which the public may not be aware.

When Superintendent Apostle first arrived he stated he was going to make Missoula the best school district in the nation.  msw was skeptical of his claim as what needed to be done to fix the mess left by his predecessor(s) within the district was not in his list of things to do.

 Instead it appears that his plans were to join other school districts across the nation and completely change our schools with the 21st Century model of education.  This 21st Century model as it turns out is a international curriculum which has many troubling aspects.  From what I understand it is more of a European model of education which has proved to be flawed in many respects. So in order to transform a school district he had to hire the regional directors. 

 And this is where the technology levy comes in - in the 21st Century model there is an extremely heavy emphasis on technology.  That is why the district wishes to increase wireless capability in all of our schools so that there is enough band width for all of our students to use computers, laptops, interactive whiteboards, iPods, etc.  Yet it is my belief and that of others that all this technology is NOT really in the best interests of our children. 

  We hear about the ways that students get into trouble using these gadgets almost on a daily basis - some students have been caught cheating on tests using their cell phones, a large portion of our children are getting on inappropriate websites, children go to ESPN while they are supposed to be researching a project (true story), etc. etc And, NO, msw will not vote for the levies.

msw will not vote for any school district levy until the district quits coddling private schools and returns Prescott School to its rightful owners, public school children.  The district loses approximately $300,000 to $500,000 per YEAR on this lease and most likely more as the enrollment of Missoula International School is now up to 186 students (33 students in 2004!), no doubt due to the leasing of Prescott School.

edited on May 19, 2013, June 5, 2013
Note:  There are some problems with the layout of this post - msw will attempt to remedy these as time and expertise (? :)) permits.

ETC

ETC   - column in the Missoula Independent in April of 2010

Click the link above for more info on the issue below -

Why did Missoula County Public Schools Chair of the BoardToni Rehbein state in the Missoulian that she was unaware of inappropriate behavior by Trustee Nancy Pickhardt 2010.  According to this article in an etc column in the Missoula Independent she was well aware of Pickhardt's outbursts. 

"Pickhardt's outburst surprised many in the community, and Board Chair Toni Rehbein stated publicly that MCPS has "never had this kind of experience." But a little digging into school board records revealed some red flags about Pickhardt's behavior that Rehbein and her fellow trustees must've overlooked."
 

Read the article where one will read that two people at least were well aware of Pickhardt's poor behavior as they were confronted by Pickhardt at MCPS meetings or on the way to a meeting.

One of these people wrote TWICE to the Board and NOTHING WAS DONE TO MITIGATE THE POOR BEHAVIOR BY TRUSTEE NANCY PICKHARDT!