Current MCPS Superintendent Mark Thane tells KGVO listeners Lowell School was not designed by architect A.J. Gibson - which it was!

On, Thursday, Missoula County Public Schools Superintendent Mark Thane, a "hometown boy", appeared on KGVO's radio talk show, Talk Back, for a half hour with host Peter Christian.

Superintendent Thane was discussing the many MCPS bond construction projects (which in msw's view were not needed - not all of them anyway).

One of the schools Thane mentioned was Lowell School, one of Missoula's most historic schools located on the northwest side of Missoula built in 1909. This school, is now in the process of being gutted and remodeled.

 Mark Thane told listeners that Lowell School was not an A.J. Gibson building. This statement was not prompted by any discussion of the historical value of the school.

An addition to Lowell being gutted and the addition being removed there is more work going on to this property. The modular on the playground, built in about 2012, was moved and a huge addition is being built in that location.




The idea that it was old and in poor condition was discussed. The host, Peter Christian, did, of course, agree with Thane that the school was indeed so old (even stating that white snowflake-like stuff was falling from the ceiling when on an earlier tour with Thane) that it had to be gutted. I had previously toured Lowell School and did not see falling "snow" from the ceiling, but was impressed with this beautiful and historic school in need of basic maintenance (and maybe a little more TLC than it had been given in past years. Another citizen mentioned in a previous Talk Back show voiced the concern that the school was in need of a good old-fashioned paint job.

I have always understood that Lowell School was designed by A.J. Gibson. A university professor wrote a book entirely on the famous local architect, and I remembered that Lowell School was featured as one of Gibson's designs in the book.

 Additionally, I had previously gone to the Lowell School website where the librarian posts historical facts about the school. The information on this site states that indeed Lowell School is a Gibson design. The addition, next to Lowell School, was built in the 1960's and was designed by "Kirk" Kirkemo's (Gibson's colleague)son. So this addition is not a Gibson design. It was obvious in this comment that Thane was talking about the main building when referencing the architect.

To say that Lowell School is not a A.J. Gibson design, as Mark Thane told KGVO radio listeners, is patently false!


However, is was surprising to me that superintendent Mark Thane would go on a radio show and say something that was not true is troubling, to say the least.

Because the superintendent was not honest on this topic one has to ask where else has he not been honest and how many times has he misled the public?

I know of other circumstances, actually, where Thane stated misleading to false information. I'm (msw) is really wondering just at what lengths he will go to subterfuge.

Editing note: A Missoulian article featuring Lowell School and noting that it was an A.J. Gibson building appeared when I used Google for this article, I will attempt to link that article to this post at a later date. The article was about Lowell being one of a hundred Missoula icons.

written by Missoulaschoolwatchdog for the missoulaschoolwatchdog.blogspot.com website

A Missoula baby boomer flashback - Where I was when JFK was shot - November 22, 1963

It's been decades ago since that fateful day in America's history, the day, November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot. 

This tragic event happened in the middle of the day. Missoula's school children have varying stories on their experience of what happened to them. 

Here is mine. I was in third grade in 1963. As we lived in the married student housing we attended Lewis and Clark School. Back then, the married student housing was actually long rectangular buildings called "the strips" with names of counties for the streets, such as Gallatin or Fergus, etc.

My third grade teacher going through grade school in Missoula was Mrs. Ulrigg. She was a nice teacher, a little plumb with her dark hair braided and pulled up.

Our class was out on the playground, either for the lunch break or for recess. I was playing near the back door, perhaps jump roping, a favorite activity.

A tall woman, at least I remember her being tall, opened the back door and yelled out, "The president has been shot, the president has been shot."  Children, back then and perhaps now, knew who there president is, so we knew that it was President Kennedy that was shot. 

We all came in and sat at our desks and talked about the tragic news. I've heard from some Missoula baby boomers that some classes came in and watched the news on a TV set up in their rooms.

Note: I may have written about this topic in a past post - if so - I don't think it will hurt to repeat a memory of this important historical time in our nation's history. This event did make quite an impression on me and most of Missoula's children as well as the rest of the nation.

Possible bribery of former Missoula County Public Schools Naomi Kimbell may have been behind the 2004 school closures and subsequent lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School

Former MCPS School 

Trustee - Naomi Kimbell

The title of this post is self explanatory. Go to www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com and search the word "Naomi Kimbell" to

read about the shenanigans by MCPS in the 2004 school closures issue.

Random Acts of Bad Behavior and corruption by Missoula County Publc Schools officials - this time by former Trustee Nancy Pickhardt

At times when I'm perusing the internet (which can be quite frustrating at times - many times actually) I come across articles (mostly Missoulian) that report on negative actions taken by Missoula County Public Schools officials.

Today a Missoulian article showed up in a search about another MCPS issue. So - I thought I would provide a link to the article on this blog, Missoula school watchdog, which does seem appropriate as shedding light on MCPS is the reason for it's existence. 

Here is the Missoulian link to the Nancy Pickhardt fiasco = the inappropriate message left by former MCPS Trustee on a citizen's message machine The citizen had recently been critical of the superintendent's raise (along with many others).

http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-school-trustee-pickhardt-leaves-profane-message-for-critic-of/article_8b60a6d2-9f7e-11df-828e-001cc4c002e0.html

Note: msw (missoulaschoolwatchdog will fix link soon, however, feel free to google the article using using the words Nancy Pickhardt and phone message.

I'll try again -

http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-school-trustee-pickhardt-leaves-profane-message-for-critic-of/article_8b60a6d2-9f7e-11df-828e-001cc4c002e0.html

Just who are the culprits in the Missoula County Public Schools system who have made irresponsible decisions?

In 2004, in just a 48 day period, 3 of our precious neighborhood schools were closed. I guess one could say my life has been radically changed since that day in March.
My third son was to attend Rattlesnake Middle School that fall. Instead, he and his peers on the entire north side of Missoula were bused to Washington Middle School, quite far from their neighborhoods. This practice continues to this day.
Since so many Missoulians have not experienced what I did (and my son and the community of Missoula) I have decided to post the names of the people who have not been held accountable for their actions in 2004 and other years.

Here are some names- Rosemary Harrison




MCPS Board chairwoman - Rosemary Harrison

 









Jenda Cummings (later Jenda Hemphill)
Toni Rehbein

Scott Bixler


Long time MCPS Trustee - Scot Bixler

Joe Toth
Superintendent Clark

and high school trustees
Jim Sadler
Drake Lemm
Debbie Dupree
Diane Beck
(high school trustees did not vote but weighted in on the side of closures)

*Pictures will be added as time permits -

missoula school watchdog 2: Fellow long-time Missoulian - "We used to have mor...

missoula school watchdog 2: Fellow long-time Missoulian - "We used to have mor...: Today I was talking with a long-time Missoula citizen – a fellow baby boomer. As I have mentioned in some of my posts I attended  Missoula ...

Fellow long-time Missoulian - "We used to have more neighborhood schools"

Today I was talking with a long-time Missoula citizen – a fellow baby boomer. As I have mentioned in some of my posts I attended  Missoula schools since 1^st grade (Missoula
did not have kindergarten back then).

 For some reason topic of schools came up. This fellow
Missoulian attended Missoula Catholic Schools. He did, however, notice the local neighborhood schools and had friends in these schools. Fast forward to today. This man also has noticed that now there aren’t many open schools. He remembers that when we were growing up Missoula had many neighborhood schools and with fewer students back then to boot. (Missoula County Public Schools enrollment has dramatically increased in recent years (which, unfortunately and corruptly (is that a word?!) was predicted by a Missoula economist and which was subsequently ignored by school board members and a few superintendents).

Too much administration - I was talking about this topic with another friend and he said that they (school officials) think they have to have so many administrators in each school. His take - Just have the classes there and let the teachers teach. Granted, there are parameters set by the government, however, there can be ways to work around these in my opinion.

Missoula school watchdog - I agree with my fellow long-time Missoulian. And agree with my friend. I think that most people in Missoula also agree with us. We need to re-open our closed schools.We don’t need so many administrators per school. In the “good old days” we basically had one (!) administrator – the principal - per school and his secretary!
We could increase the number of administrative positions slightly - we just don't need so many!

Do you remember that old folk song  we baby boomers listened to sung by Joan Baez - "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"  Couldn't we substitute flowers for neighborhood schools? Try it! It might be the next hit! (Just kidding but it was worth the thought, right?!)