Did Missoula County Public Schools close Cold Springs illegally? It is questionable in the mind of missoula school watchdog!

This post begins with some wording from the MCPS Policy 4333 dealing with school closures.

"Prior to the Board adopting a resolution closing an operating school, the Board shall consider the impact of such school closure on the education community.  In evaluating the impact, the Board shall consider at a minimum the following factors:  "Then then text lists about 7 considerations.'

The issue of a school closure for any Missoula County Public Schools school is addressed in Policy 4333, as mentioned,  under Public Relations. As many readers know, my family (a school closure affects the entire family, neighborhood, and the city as a whole) experienced a 3-school closure in 2004 and so I was part of the discussions of the policy. There are many aspects of the policy that are flawed, however, the emphasis of this post is - was the closure of Cold Springs School legal? 

My reasoning - the closure did not follow the school closure policy. As superintendent Mark Thane stated during his visit on KGVO's Talk Back program on Wednesday, May 23, 2018, the decision to close Cold Springs School was decided by a group of people during the school bond discussions. Each "active" school, as opposed to "non-active" school(in other words a closed school which was unfair to that school) formed a group to discuss the future of that school. 

I am thinking that a group formed to discuss the future of a school is not the proper protocol for closing a school according to the MCPS school board policy dealing with school closures, Policy 4333.

This issue needs more discussion. Time is of the essence. According to Thane, Cold Springs School will remain open until only next October or November and then the students will move to the new school (remember the Cold Springs bond group decided to build a new school - which was a flawed protocol in my opinion - and was later re-named Jeanette Rankin School.

The emphasis of this blog is the preservation of our neighborhood schools - for every neighborhood. As a person growing up in Missoula, this was considered normal. Missoula children didn't have to deal with constant closures and massive busing. We need to return to this tradition.

More to come on this issue - only on missoulaschoolwatchdog.blogspot.com!

WD-40: Where did it come from? | Stuff of Genius

Comments regarding a former MCPS Board Trustee Drake Lemm - Was he unethical while serving on the Board?

Many mornings I listen to the radio - turning the dial to KGVO's Talk Back show. A frequent guest is Missoula County Public Schools superintendent Mark Thane. I appreciate the local topics.

On the morning of May 23, 2018, I called in and made a comment regarding the closing of Cold Springs School, a nice school I attended when a young child growing up in Missoula in the '60's. I strongly believe that Cold Springs School needs to remain open. The school district will say it needs a lot of maintenance. Yes, it does, why? The district mismanaged funds to fix schools.

I happened to mention that I believed (and witnessed) the part played by former MCPS Trustee in the building of a new school up Miller Creek in the Maloney Ranch subdivision area. The idea of building a new school was coupled with the closing of Cold Springs School. (In fact, and I believe it was a nefarious move, the new school was at the time of the bond named Cold Springs School and then after the bond was renamed the Jeanette Rankin School. I mentioned that his role was in looking after his property, DJ Lane, near where the new school, renamed the Jeanette Rankin School.

Here is my FB on the TB (Talk Back) FB page comment following my on-air comment.

  " OK - I just called into KGVO’s Talk Back program when MCPS superintendent Mark Thane was a guest. My comment centered on the Cold Springs and Jeanette Rankin School fiasco. Now, as usual, I must give my 2 cents about what Thane said as I hung up after my remarks. Re: Is Drake Lemm really an honest man and could he be involved in shenanigans on the MCPS School Board. Yes. People that followed the school board when he served know that he was not an upstanding citizen - sorry, he just wasn't, at least not when he was on the school board. If one attended meetings when he was on the Board you would have heard his comments - many in favor of closing elementary area schools even though he was a HS Trustee. Then in many meetings, like I said on air, Lemm advocated for a school up Miller Creek. If one finds his property, DJ Lane, and then follows where the new school is built how could one not think that it would be a possibility that Lemm would be behind this closure/new school fiasco? It is common knowledge that a public school in a neighborhood increases property values Jon, a nice guy and one of the hosts of Talk Back wondered on air where I was going with this comment and did not finish reading it - I was going with the truth. This school district is in the straights it is in because too many people won't really say what is going on. Am I supposed to forget everything I saw when I suffered going to those God-awful MCPS meetings and then just go along with people that say Lemm is an ethical person when I witnessed otherwise? Wouldn't I feel like a traitor to myself?'

         

MIssoula County Public Schools Trustee needs to keep in mind the benefit of small schools in context of suicide

In the May 18th, 2018 issue of the Missoulian newspaper there is an article titled,

"Reasons to take suicide seriously".

If Trustee Kendall would read and implement the research found in the great study by a group of companies dealing with education issues she and the other MCPS Trustees would begin to take steps in reopening our closed schools rather than placing priorities of MCPS funds for enlarging our already too large schools at all levels.

The link to information on the benefit and superiority of small schools is:

http://www.ruraledu.org/user_uploads/file/Dollars_and_Sense.pdf

'Here is some important info copied from the study - 

While 38 percent of small schools reported any incidents, 60 percent of medium-sized schools and 89 percent of large schools reported criminal incidents. Serious violent crime was more likely to be reported by the largest schools. One-third of schools with enrollments of 1,000 or more reported at least one serious violent crime, compared with four to nine percent in schools with fewer than 1,000 students (1999, para. 5)."

In my opinion, and that of others as well, Missoula County Public Schools is making property and school building decisions that go against the safety of our students.

Please voice your concerns with the Missoula County Public Schools administration and school board.







                               

The original Cold Springs School needs to stay open - not busing kids from the area to MIller Creek School

This is a Missoula girl talking. In fact, this is a Cold Springs School girl talking. Having grown up in Missoula and having attended Cold Springs I know that to close Cold Springs would be so egregious as to border on criminal.

For Missoula County Public Schools to close the original Cold Springs School would be so unfair to the families, property owners, and children in the surrounding area of the school.

For me to have to say the "original Cold Springs School" is ridiculous in the first place.  The MCPS school district in the bond plans of 2015 stated that a new Cold Springs School would be built in the Miller Creek area - thinking that the Miller Creek area was even remotely close to the present location of Cold Springs School. This, in my opinion, was to give a reason to build a new school and get rid of a school at the same time thinking voters would not want to vote on a new school while at the same time keeping another school open. This makes no sense unless one is aware of the politics of the whole idea of building a new school.

In 2004, our family experienced a tragedy brought on by nefarious officials of the Missoula school district with superintendent James Clark and Board Chair Rosemary Harrison at the helm.

Three schools in the northeast area of our city were closed - Rattlesnake Middle, Prescott, and Mount Jumbo schools.

Due to this action, I followed the school district quite closely in subsequent months/years.

Right after another action by Missoula school officials, the sale of the closed Roosevelt School, school officials spoke openly (closed discussions behind the scenes prior to this) about building a school in the Miller Creek area. In some discussions, a school board Trustee, Drake Lemm, voiced is strong desire to build this school.

Something very important to keep in mind and what I think is key to the proposed building of a Miller Creek School is that Lemm has property in the area. In fact, Drake Lemm is a contractor and has built (is building) a subdivision on a street named DJ Lane. Could the proposed new school and the closure of Cold Springs really be due to a school board member having a strong desire to have a school near his subdivision? My answer is yes, and most definitely yes.

Drake Lemm was not a conscientious school board member. One of the main reasons he likely ran for the MCPS seat was for his selfish needs. Lemm always voted or voiced his opinions on elementary property decisions (not having voting powers for elementary decisions as he was a high school Trustee) to close or sell an elementary building.

Again, the Missoula school officials need to keep Cold Springs School open. Already, I have heard that the new Miller Creek School is full and another school is being discussed to be built in this area. To keep Cold Springs open the new school would not be so crowded to begin it's debue.

By the way, the new school, when the bond was proposed, was to be named Cold Springs as discussed above. After the bond was passed, voila, a proposal to rename the proposed new Cold Springs School, was brought forward to the public and was renamed the Jeanette Rankin School.

In closing, just to remind people about the nefarious Trustee Drake Lemm - he built an addition to superintendent Clark's garage while on the Board. This action did not sit well with some Trustees and therefore he was turned into the County Attorney, who also nefariously let him off the hook. Google Drake Lemm and Superintendent Clark or the words - "school board shenanigans" along with the two names to read about this slippery action.