Bond fatigue: Will Missoula parks bond scuttle other efforts?

Click on the link below to read about "bond fatigue" by Missoula taxpayers as the parks and trails bond passed last week. It was the largest bond to pass in Missoula's history.

Bond fatigue: Will Missoula parks bond scuttle other efforts?


As a person that pays property taxes and has seen the taxes raised by approximately $900 in the past ten years msw would be quite disappointed to have my taxes raised by the school district by such a huge amount next year, especially when the planned   "improvements" are not what our schools need. We need to reopen our closed schools first and then do the deferred maintenance on each of our neighborhood schools using a priority list. This is the best plan for our schools at this time and has always been the best plan - it just has not been carried out. 

September 25, 2014 Missouian article - MCPS trustees get firsthand lesson on aging schools' needs on tour

MCPS trustees get firsthand lesson on aging schools' needs on tour



Yet another assault on our neighborhood public school system - more traditions lost and more unnecessary changes.

Bullock touts pre-kindergarten plan as economic driver in Missoula Missoulian online story - October 15, 2014

Click on the link below to read a Missoulian article reporting on pre-school advocated by Governor Bullock.



Bullock touts pre-kindergarten plan as economic driver in Missoula

MCPS gives 13 percent raise to Superintendent Apostle - January 16th, 2013 Missoulian article

MCPS gives 13 percent raise to Superintendent Apostle

Click on the link above to read a January 16,th, 2013 Missoulian article reporting on the raise given to Superintendent Apostle by the MCPS Board of Trustees.
A quote from the article states:

A divided Missoula County Public Schools board approved a 13 percent pay raise for Superintendent Alex Apostle at a special meeting on Monday.The board voted 6-4 in favor of the new three-year contract, which retroactively boosts Apostle’s salary from $155,000 to $175,000 this school year. It also provides raises to $185,000 in 2013-14 and $200,000 in 2014-15. And it increases the district’s contribution to Apostle’s tax-sheltered annuity and allows him to cash in unused vacation and personal days.

Missoula citizens were livid when the news broke.  A Hellgate student started a petition which garnered about 2,000 signatures. This petition was online and was signed by many Missoulians from all walks of life. The petition asked that the Superintendent return the raise amount or even donate it back to the schools for supplies. Apostle did not return the money nor donate it.

The February 2013 MCPS Board Meeting was held in the Sentinel High School gym and was filled with approximately 500 people, most very unhappy with the raise. 

Missoula school board names new member | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana

Missoula school board names new member | KTVQ.com | Q2 | Billings, Montana



Click on the link above to read a short clip about Trustee Nancy Pickhardt's replacement who was appointed to the MCPS Board of Trustees in October of 2010.

Nancy Pickhardt resigns from Missoula school board, cites 'distraction' - Missoulian article from the August 26, 2010 edition

Nancy Pickhardt resigns from Missoula school board, cites 'distraction'

Click on the link above to read about the resignation of MCPS Trustee Nancy Pickhardt from the school Board in 2010.
A quote from the article states:

"Pickhardt has been the center of controversy since the Missoulian reported Aug. 4 that she left an obscenity-laced message on the answering machine of a school board critic."

Another quote from the article states:

 "The message was a personal attack against a man who wrote a letter to the editor of the Missoulian pointedly critical of the board for giving MCPS Superintendent Alex Apostle a nearly $15,000 raise and a new contract with expanded benefits. The message also singled out the man's wife, a retired MCPS schoolteacher."

 Another quote from the article states:

  It ends: "I will miss the work and the people. For me, it has always been about helping the students and our public schools (be) the very best they can be."

missoula school watchdog - If Pickhardt really wanted to help students "be the very best they can be" then why did she vote to lease Prescott School to Missoula International School, a private school? Public school children are forced out of their neighborhoods in the Rattlesnake Valley. In the meantime Missoula International School is flourishing in one of Missoulians favorite public schools.  

HIstory of who served and when on the MCPS Board of Trustees - missoula school watchdog sharing Missouian posts of past Trustee election information

missoula school watchdog is researching past school board elections. And the many blog posts just added to the blog reflect this study! 

msw hopes that people will be interested in some of the election information although some is a little dated.

msw is interested in who has been making our school decisions and in what year did these decision-makers serve. 

Happy clicking!