Was Toni (Toni Rehbein) Trustworthy Before Becoming a MPCS Trustee?

Did Toni Rehbein have a good record to stand on before being elected to the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees? Had she displayed ethical behavior in her previous employment with MCPS?

According to past Missoulian articles reporting on Toni Rehbein (formerly Toni Smartt), the answer to the above question is unclear.

The Missoulian reported on a potential conflict of interest problem concerning Toni Smartt in relation to two of her jobs connected to Missoula County Public Schools.  

The April 14th, 1990 article was followed by another on April 20th,
(post regarding that article will be forthcoming) on the same issue.  In both articles there isn't information on how the investigation ended and on any conclusive decisions.

There is reason to believe that after reading the information in the articles that if there was no intentional "double dipping", (which we do not know if there was or not) Toni Smartt (now Toni Rehbein), at the very least, needed to avoid the appearance of any impropriety and not work for or get a pay check from Community Care.


Missoulian article on April 14^th of 1990

The article titled is titled:

“A conflict of interest,  (lower case letters as was printed in the Missoulian)

with a subtitle of -

"School official’s off-duty job raises legal question”

By Gary Jahrig and Michael Moore of the Missoulian

"Deputy Missoula County Attorney Mike Sehestedt, who acts as the school district’s attorney, delivered that message Thursday after investigating concerns raised about Smartt’s affiliation with Community Care, Inc."

"Community Care works with schools and community organizations to educate young people in the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse."

"Smartt, whose district salary is $39,650, coordinates District 1’s drug and alcohol programs, and also works as middle-school coordinator.  The district’s drug and alcohol program is in part paid for by a federal grant that Smartt “monitors” according to Block."

"District 1 uses the federal money to contract with Community Care for workshops designed to help district employees recognize and deal with chemical abuse."

"Smartt’s conflict, according to Sehestedt, arises because Community Care sometimes hires her to run those workshops.   Smartt also serves on Community Care’s   board of directors."

"Dorothea Lambros, president of Community Care’s board, said Friday that she is not sure how much money Smartt is paid.  Block said District 1 paid Community Care about $25,300 last year."

"The Code of Federal Regulations which governs use of grants, states that employees of a grant recipient, in this case the school district, are not to have “financial or other interest” in a firm that receives grant money, as Community Care does. "

"“It appears to me that if an employee who administers a contract supported by federal funds has an interest in the corporation that receives the funds, and in fact receives money from that corporation, then you’ve got a conflict,” Sehestedt said."

"Block said that although he was not aware of any problem with the current arrangement, he would abide by any decision Sehestedt reached."

"“If it’s a problem …we are going to correct the problem,” Block said. “The only way I can see correcting it straight off, without being totally disruptive to the training program as we go on, is to say, Toni Smartt, you’re no longer part of the Community Care, Inc. board, “plain and simple.”"

"Sehestedt said he was less concerned by Smartt’s position on the board than with her contract relationship with Community Care."

"“I think it’s possible that she could still serve on the board, so long as she is not receiving remuneration for her service,” Sehestedt said. "

"Block said the matter would be taken up with Smartt next week when she returns to work after the District 1 spring break."

"“If that is a violation,” Block said, “I’m not going to place this district in a position of liability.”"

"Block said that when Smartt “moonlights in training in the area of drug awareness and addiction,” she does so on her own time."

"“When she is doing that kind of training she is on leave without pay from the school district because obviously we don’t have any double dipping going on,” Block said."

"Sehestedt said the conflict of interest exists regardless of whether Smartt is on her own time when she works for Community Care."

"Part of Smartt’s job description with District 1 calls for her to coordinate efforts with Community Care and represent the district on the organization’s board of directors."

"Contacted at home by the Missoulian, Smartt said she was unable to comment on the matter because she was unaware o f the conflict or Sehestedt’s recommendation."

"Lambros said Community Care will do nothing to endanger the grant, or the organization’s attempts to h help children."

"“We want to do the right thing,” she said. We don’t want to put anyone in a position of conflict.  …We will resolve matters in a way that ensures that.”"

 

NO MORE SCHOOL CLOSURES OR SALES OFOUR PRICELESS NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS

Our family, living in the Rattlesnake Valley, suffered an injustice in 2004.  Just as our third child was planning to attend Rattlesnake Middle School, as did his siblings in past years, in addition to finally being able to walk just a couple of blocks to this school, MCPS TRUSTEES PULLED THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER US!

This school closure scheme was foisted on Rattlesnake families on February 5, 2004.  Just 48 days later, including the weekends  which makes it even a shorter time span, on the evening and early morning hours of March 24th and the 25th of 2004, the MCPS school board voted (4-3) to close not only Rattlesnake Middle School, but also Prescott School, a school which had been closed and reopened a couple of times, and Mount Jumbo School in East Missoula.

Northeast Missoula families' hearts were broken into a million pieces.

As a family that has experienced a school closure and the threat of school closures, which can be almost as stressful to a family, msw (missoula schools watchdog) is warning both trustees, administrators, and citizens of Missoula, a school closure is NOT the answer to a school district's financial, social, educational, neighborhood, facility maintenance issues, enrollment issues, or any other problem or excuses that trustees will use to close or sell a school.

The 2004 school closures have cost the district millions of dollars over the last 8 years. In future posts msw will attempt to outline some of these costs. 

The ongoing closure costs will NEVER be brought up by Trustees, as they were the cause of them. These costs will NEVER be paid by the people that caused the district the financial problems to the district. In other words, Trustees will NEVER be held accountable for the negative results stemming from their votes to close a school. 

Have you ever heard of a trustee being charged for a modular that was built as a result of his/her shortsighted decisions? NO!

Please, Missoulians, FIGHT to keep our priceless neighborhood schools.  Say NO to any more school closures. Say NO to any more school sales. Say NO to building new schools at this time.  Say NO to favoritism for private schools.

Say YES to our neighborhood schools. Say YES to re-opening our closed schools.  Vote for trustees that will value our neighborhood schools.  Not the Trustees that are in power at this time.

MCPS taxpayers to reap savings of more than $500K - Missoulian article on November 12, 2012

Click on the link to read about a Missoulian article written by Betsy Cohen published on November 12th, 2012, reporting on the district saving money by refinancing a bond.

MCPS taxpayers to reap savings of more than $500K

A quote from the story, "A savings of more than $500,0000 is en route to district taxpayers, thanks to the watchful eye of Pat McHugh. director of business and operations for Missoula County Public Schools.

Congratulations to Pat McHugh and MCPS.

You have now made up for the $500,000 loss to the district due to the lease of Missoula's public school, Prescott School, to a private school, Missoula International School for one year.

Prior to the MIS/ Prescott School lease extension in 2011, a math professor sent an email to all 11 Trustees and Superintendent Apostle stating that the MCPS school district lost $500,000 in the prior year due to the lease.  Business director McHugh and all Trustees and the superintendent did not heed his warnings.

McHugh and other district officials fail to comprehend or they choose to ignore the fact that leasing a public school to the competition, that is a private school such as MIS, is not a viable course of action for the district.

If McHugh had been looking out for the best interests of the public school system rather than the desires of a private school he would have advised against the lease extension.
Not only does a business manager of a school district have a responsibility to obtain good rates on a bond, but he/she also has a responsibility to advise district officials, including trustees and the superintendent, on the fiscal details of facility issues.  In all due respect, business director Pat McHugh has reneged on his responsibilities in this area.

Most importantly, Pat McHugh stated at the meeting in July of 2011 when the issue of the MIS/Prescott School lease extension was discussed that the district DID NOT NEED Prescott School.  

If that is so, why did the district end up building a modular at Rattlesnake School this summer, less than a year after the lease extension was approved. 

Prescott School is located just down the road from Rattlesnake School and could easily have been available if the distsrict had not extended the lease of the school to MIS. 

The increase in enrollment will increase in the next several years, therefore, opening Prescott School would have been the responsible course of action.  Or does the district intend to build a series of modulars all over the Rattlesnake School playground while a private school profits for the use of our public school?

So, now the Pat McHugh and other district officials need to figure out a way to make up for the approximately $250,000 cost of the Rattlesnake School modular that would not have been needed had the district opened Prescott School.

Additionally, the crowding at Rattlesnake School could have easily been mitigated had the lease been on a one year term. Whenever a school district enters into a lease agreement, the business manager would advise that a lease be on a yearly basis rather than long term.  This would be the cautious approach.

The district needs to decide to open Prescott School when the lease expires, which is, unfortunately, in 2017!  However, the school district needs to let MIS know that MCPS NEEDS PRESCOTT SCHOOL for its own students and will open it in 2017.

TWO AND POTENTIALLY THREE of Missoula's Public Schools have been converted to or have added the International Baccalaureate program!

missoula schools watchdog would like to point out to Missoulians that the International Baccalaureate Program, a controversial international educational program, is taking an unprecedented foothold into Missoula schools, both on the elementary and high school levels.

TWO OF MISSOULA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND MAYBE A THIRD NOW HAVE THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE PROGRAM!

1.  PRESCOTT SCHOOL - In 2004, three northeast Missoula schools were closed by a 4-3 vote.  One of these schools, located in the lower Rattlesnake Valley, Prescott School, was hurriedly leased shortly after the closures for 5 years to the private Missoula International School. MIS is an IB (International Baccalaureate School).

2. HELLGATE HIGH SCHOOL - Hellgate  is now in it's first year of offering the IB program after a few years of working to get it off the ground.

Moreover, one wonders if the school district added IB at Hellgate High as another favor to MIS so that their students could continue the IB curriculum without starting a high school program themselves.

Note: msw finds that it is difficult to get a handle on the true costs of the IB program at Hellgate. The MCPS school district does not seem to have the total costs compiled in one place when the financial information is requested.

3.  LEWIS AND CLARK SCHOOL - And finally, the district is thinking of converting the entire school of Lewis and Clark into an IB school!!  This has been done in other cities across the country with ample negative public feedback.
                    
Quote found on truthaboutib.com letter to the editor by Duncan Koler regarding a Coeur d"Alene elementary school converted to an IB school, "They disagree with bringing U.N. linked education to our schools without public discussions, they disagree with the board hijacking Hayden Meadows, a neighborhood elementary school and making it an ideological test tube under the double-speak name "School of Choice".


Missoulian's need work to stop IB - Hellgate High  - and stop an entire school converting to an IB school  - Lewis and Clark - in addition, we need to stop leasing our public schools to COMPETING private schools which turn a popular neighborhood school into an IB school - Prescott.

The International Baccalaureate Program headquarters must be overjoyed at this cash cow from MCPS for their international educational program.

See information on IB on the "truthaboutib.com" website.

Contact the MCPS Trustees and let them know you are against IB in our schools!

Postscript:
Missoula International School, since 2004, has grown astronomically due to the upgrade in facilities that Prescott School offers. Many of these MIS students must no doubt come from the Missoula Public Schools boundary areas. Due to the state funding formulas, each student is "worth" approximately $5,000 to the MCPS coffers. One can see that the district is hemorrhaging money due to this lease - a prudent and loyal school board would not have entered into the Prescott School/MIS lease arrangement. See www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com for more information on the many blog posts - some having to do with conflict of interest issues and job incentive for votes for members of the school board.

(We also need to create a "sinking fund" to go towards buying back Roosevelt School if the opportunity presents itself as MCPS has right of first refusal.)

Lowell School preps modular building for 3rd-graders; space needed due to increased enrollment

Lowell School preps modular building for 3rd-graders; space needed due to increased enrollment

Click on link above to the August 27, 2012 Missoulian article.

The above Missoulian article reports on the modular built this summer at Lowell School.  Another modular at Rattlesnake School was also approved by the board and is now housing Rattlesnake children. 

The question is:  Was the building of the modulars at these two schools the best answer to the increased enrollment?

missoula schools watchdog would like to bring up other possibilities that could have been discussed to deal with the at-capacity situation at Lowell and Rattlesnake Schools.

In February of 2012, the district discussed busing more of our Rattlesnake/East Missoula area students from the neighborhood to Paxson. 

It was unclear why the district switched from the busing scenario to building modulars at Rattlesnake School. Busing more of our Rattlesnake area students would have been unfair as all of our middle school students are already being bused to Washington Middle School since the tragic school closures of 2004. 

When the modular topic was placed on the agenda, strangely, a modular at both Rattlesnake Schools AND Lowell Schools was addressed.  msw (missoulaschoolswatchdog) is wondering if discussions regarding the modular had taken place with the Lowell School community. Due to the rushed nature of these two projects, probably not much, if any.

msw is a proponent of using cost/benefit analysis and looking at other available choices when making decisions in order to make sure that the best interests of the schools in question and the district as a whole are met.

It does not appear that a through study was completed and that the building of the modulars were rushed into by the district.

Of critical importance is looking at the demographics of the school district before making decisions.  One must look at the birth data AND the projected enrollment for future school years which was extrapolated from the birth data.  If one takes a look at the demographic report commissioned by the district in 2009 you will see a projected 5 year spike in elementary school enrollment.

The demographic report is available on the district website at www.mcps.k12.mt.us under Business Services. (msw will attempt to provide a link as time permits)

So, if there is a projected 5 year spike in elementary enrollment, these expensive modulars were not the best use of district monies, in the opinion of msw.

As mentioned all possibilities needed to be examined before going forward with building modulars.  People in the north side and the close-by west side of Missoula may be wondering why the use of Whittier School was not considered.  This is a good question.  msw believes this would have been both educationally and structurally the best option considering that smaller schools offer the best education and due to the projected upcoming increase in enrollment more classrooms will be needed soon.

In other words, the building of the modulars both in the Rattlesnake area and in the north side area of our city is a STOP-GAP SOLUTION.  There is sure to be another capacity problem at both of these schools in the coming years.  Both of these schools are at capacity now even with the building of the modulars.

msw has addressed the problems it sees with the Rattlesnake School modular in past blog posts. The apex of the problem in the Rattlesnake area is the the school district is giving irresponsible favors to a private school, Missoula International School, by approving extensions of a questionable lease of Prescott School since 2004, a public school just down the road from Rattlesnake School. Remember - Toni Rehbein, Chairwoman of the MCPS Board was a past president of MIS shortly before being elected to the MCPS Board and has supported the lease in many comments.

msw's stance on the building of these two modulars is that the decision was shortsighted and expensive and was not the best of available options in dealing with the increased enrollment at these two schools.

Additionally, the article states that the modular can be easily moved to other areas when and if it is not needed at Lowell.  This is debatable. There is a question as to how much the modular at Rattlesnake Middle School cost when moved to Washington Middle School in 2004.  It is the understanding of msw that the cost was close to $80,000 - $100,00.

A former administrator remembers that the cost was $35,000.  msw will look into this discrepancy. Whatever the cost, it needed to be considered as part of the discussion when making the modular decisions.

There are other aspects to the modulars issues which may be brought up in future blog posts.

msw is in favor of re-opening our closed schools for better education, healthier neighborhoods, and sound fiscal responsibility.

Remember that the Peas Farm is on MCPS School Property

There has been a lot of activity at the Peas Farm on Duncan Drive up the Rattlesnake in Missoula for a few years now. 

If one goes to the Peas Farm or has been there you will see an established small farm.  There are now fruit trees.  There are now permanent looking buildings on this little farm.

Remember this is MCPS school property.  How this school land was able to overtaken by the farm is a mystery. Government officials have been negligent in this area.

It is missoulaschoolswatchdog's belief that it is being leased to the farm for only $10.00 a year.

Yes, agriculture is important.  Yes, small farms are nice.  Yes, the Peas Farm donates a lot of food to the Food Bank.

Remember, this is MCPS school property.  It was bought by the school district for use as a future location for a school.

MCPS has not had good luck in recent years leasing its properties.

Roosevelt School was leased.  Then it was sold.

Prescott School is leased. Trustees have just approved a 5 year lease extension to the private school, Missoula International School while at the same time MCPS is building a modular at Rattlesnake School because this school is overcrowded. So...a private school has use of one of our beautiful public school buildings and MCPS students attend school in a modular...is that fair? 

In the last two examples private schools have come before MCPS schools in violation of the oath Trustees have taken when elected. In one case we lost a school and in the other we lost use of a needed school. Two MCPS leases run amok with tragic consequences.

Remember, the Peas Farm is on MCPS public school property. It doesn't matter how many children come to visit the farm or how much they enjoy it or how much they learn from it. 

It is quite irritating when a lessee thinks that he/she knows what is best for the leased land. missoulaschoolswatchdog has heard the manager of the Peas Farm say that the school district does not need this land.  How would he know and isn't he biased against the use of the land for a school?

There are many other 9 acre parcels of land in Missoula and perhaps in the Rattlesnake to which the Peas Farm could re-locate. 

It is time to think about the above action at this time.

Remember, the Peas Farm is on MCPS school property and is meant for land on which to build a school, no matter how important agriculture is to our citizens.

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

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.

Roosevelt School Sale Supreme Court Document found on the web

Roosevelt School Sale Supreme Court document

msw is  posting the above link to the Roosevelt School Sale Supreme Court document so citizens can take a look at some of the issues surrounding the sale of Roosevelt. The Supreme Court did not exactly rule on the merits of the case, just how the litigant, Good Schools Missoula, did not follow the correct legal path to bring about the reversal of the sale.

As msw does not have time to delve into some of the details of the case, msw will post only the above comment for the time being. 

However, in closing, the sale of Roosevelt School, in msw's opinion was one of the worst decisions in Missoula County Public School's history.  It is painful for many people to drive by the school as losing Roosevelt School was such an important part of Missoula's public school infrastructure and a tragedy for the neighborhood children and to the city itself.

Missoula County Public Schools many times synonymous to Missoula County Painful Schools

Missoula County Public Schools could often be called by another name, Missoula County Painful Schools.  For many Missoula citizens throughout the years the above moniker has been appropriate.  Why?  MCPS administrators and trustees have made many decisions which have negatively effected the everyday life and education of Missoula's children, teachers, staff, and other citizens. 

msw will list some of the negative actions that have taken place throughout the years by MCPS and periodically update this information by adding on to the list as other actions come to mind.

THE LIST OF PAINFUL DECISIONS BY MISSOULA COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS:

The 2004 school closures.  MCPS closed THREE schools in March of 2004, Rattlesnake Middle School, Prescott School, and Mount Jumbo School.  The closures took place after only 48 days of deliberation, from February 5 to March 25 resulting in a decision at one o'clock in the morning after 7 hours of heated discussion. 

:Closing Roosevelt School.

Leasing Roosevelt School to a private school, St. Joseph's School.

Leasing Prescott School to a private school, Missoula International School.

Extending the lease of Roosevelt School in November of 2004, rather than in when the lease expired, msw believes in June of 2004.

Selling Roosevelt School, encumbered with a 5 year lease at a lease price that some say was lower that market value, thus contributing to a sweetheart sale.

Closing Lincoln School.

Selling Lincoln School.

Closing Central School.

Selling Central School.

Closing Emma Dickinson School.

Closing Jefferson School.

Starting expensive programs when economic times are difficult, such as the International Baccalaureate Program (IB).

Planning to extend the International Baccalaureate Program to the lower grades.

Not being honest with the public on the total cost of the IB program.

Not releasing information to a watchdog group, Montana Policy Institute.  MPI requested information on the costs and revenue for the MCPS budget as well as all Montana school districts.  This information has never been released even though the institute has stated it would not cost the district any money.

ETC, ETC, ETC.  

This list will be ongoing as time permits.  msw believes that it will be quite long.

MCPS spending thousands on modular only months after extending the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School!!

missoula schools watchdog (msw) drove by Rattlesnake School today and observed that a fence surrounded the area where a modular is soon to be placed on the playground of the school.  Msw was quite upset at seeing the school district take this unnecessary step in facility management and considers it a continuation of the 2004 school closure scandal and 2004 private school lease and extension scandal.

msw has voiced it's opinion against placing a modular at Rattlesnake School in district meetings as there were other less costly ways to manage the overcrowding of the school. The preferable and least costly in the long run manner to handle the overcrowding at Rattlesnake School would have been to reopen Prescott School. 

Just seven months prior to the modular decision MCPS officials extended the lease of Prescott School to the private school, Missoula International School for an additional 5 years!  Prescott School is just down the road about a mile from Rattlesnake School. MCPS officials were aware that the Prescott School/MIS lease was estimated to have cost the district $500,000 just last year per a UM math professor and that an extension would continue the massive loses to the district.  

MCPS officials also knew prior to extending the lease that Rattlesnake School was at capacity or close to it.  This fact was brought up by a citizen during public comment during the lease extension discussions.  Moreover, in recent meetings the principal of Rattlesnake School stated that the school had been at capacity for the last three years.  School officials must have known this prior to extending the lease of Prescott School and if they didn't they reneged on their responsibility to keep track of enrollment and capacity issues.

msw suggested at a few meetings that the continuation of the employment of paraeducators would be preferable and less costly than busing more Rattlesnake area students out of the area.  Since 2004 middle school children living in the Rattlesnake Valley and East Missoula are bused to Washington Middle School.  To bus more of the valley’s children out of the Rattlesnake would have been extremely unfair.  msw suggested that paraeducators could be employed, as they had been doing, until the lease of Prescott School by Missoula International School expired in 2017. 

Additionally, and most importantly, the building of a MODULAR IS ONLY A STOP GAP MEASURE. The school district is ignoring the fact that the elementary school enrollment will continue to increase in the next few years; this information was supplied by an economist in a study commissioned by the district.  As an example of another stop gap measure, the district spent a half million dollars on an addition to Lewis and Clark School approximately four years ago and next year Lewis and Clark is sending a kindergarten class to Paxson School due to overcrowding.  What needs to be done in mwd’’s opinion is to OPEN MORE OF OUR UNUSED PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS, beginning with Prescott School.

Board Chair Toni Rehbein and other MCPS Trustees are disloyal once again!

Without any supporting documents for this post I feel compelled to write anyway about my frustrations regarding the handling of over crowding at Rattlesnake School. Last night, April 10,  I returned from a Board meeting in total disbelief by what I observed, (which is common for me after attending any MCPS  Meeting.).

The overcrowding at Rattlesnake School was first reported in a newspaper article in February of this year, Meetings were held to discuss busing more Rattlesnake students out of the valley. 

The idea of busing more of our Rattlesnake students is totally inappropriate in light of the fact that MCPS had just extended the lease in July of 2011 of Prescott School, a wonderful school just down the road, to Missoula International School for another 5(!) years. Prescott School is located on Harrison St. in the lower Rattlesnake at the base of Mt Jumbo.

 It turns out that according to the principal of Rattlesnake School, Mr Seidensticker, Rattlesnake has been at capacity for approximately three years. The school has been using para educators for some large classes.  The principal and the Regional Director, (Regional Directors  - another touchy subject!) decided that NOW,  AFTER the  Prescott/MIS lease was extended  he would address the overcrowding issue.  

I attended most of the meetings at Paxson and Rattlesnake School (probably the last thing I wanted to do but I went anyway) and I was left, once again, disgusted with the whole process of this latest fiasco of MCPS dealings with facility issues.

The reason for my latest frustration is that the Board, just approved the building and placement of a MODULAR at Rattlesnake School and one at Lowell. So....a private school has the use of one of Missoula's most popular public schools, Prescott School, and our public school students get to attend classes in a modular!!  Does that make sense?  NO! Once again, MCPS Board members are displaying their favoritism toward Missoula International School, a private school, thus showing disloyalty to the students and families they are supposed to represent. 

Remember, MCPS leased Roosevelt School for 5 years, then sold it in 2005 in a sweetheart sale. There is so much more to say but I don't have time right now. 

Thanks for listening to my frustrations on this issue.  I hope to convey to others the total mismanagement of MCPS neighborhood schools by this Board, led by none other than Toni Rehbein, past Board officer of Missoula International School.