Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Friday, March 27, 2020
Missoulians and other Americans - Please watch this video on the International Baccalaureate Program!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MMglKMoF7w
"Why the International Baccalaureate Program is Un-American"
Please watch this You Tube video on the topic of the International Baccalaureate Program which now has many programs in the Missoula school system expanding to all grades. The International Baccalaureate program is an United Nations off shoot and does not teach our children in a traditional American curriculum. Watch Out!! This IB curriculum is dangerous for our country's children!
Again, please watch this You Tube video.
"Why the International Baccalaureate Program is Un-American"
Please watch this You Tube video on the topic of the International Baccalaureate Program which now has many programs in the Missoula school system expanding to all grades. The International Baccalaureate program is an United Nations off shoot and does not teach our children in a traditional American curriculum. Watch Out!! This IB curriculum is dangerous for our country's children!
Again, please watch this You Tube video.
MCPS MAKES YET ANOTHER TRAGIC AND MALEVOLENT MISTAKE IN CLOSING COLD SPRINGS SCHOOL AND ALLOWING A DAY CARE ON THE PREMISES
Dear Missoulians and other citizens around these great United States,
Why does Missoula school watchdog address the entire country in this post? It is due to NOBODY listening or paying attention, at least as far as Missoula school watchdog is aware of, to what is going on in Missoula, Montana, including most if not ALL Missoulians and even the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees - thus the reason for addressing the country. Maybe someone out there will read how the Missoula County Public Schools system is so malevolent and so mismanaging it's assets and how it is providing a risky and low level education to Missoula's students.
As a "Missoula Girl" and as the writer of this blog, I can say that the closing of Cold Springs School in the southern part of our city was another sad and heartbreaking action taken by MCPS.
The closure was unnecessary and wreckless. A school closure in Missoula is always taken up with little thought to the short and long term consequences for the students, families, neighborhooods, and the city itself, including the entire county. Again, why the entire country? Because what happens in one part of the country effects the entire country. There is a boomerang effect when bad things happen in an area.
Some information that needs to be included, however brief, is that the closure of Cold Springs can be mostly blamed on one or two dishonest MCPS Board members. Did you know that former MCPS high school Trustee, Drake Lemm was the FIRST Trustee to mention the closure of Cold Springs way back in 2006 at a Board Meeting discussing MCPS properties? In other subsequent MCPS meetings including MCPS Ad Hoc Property Meetings, always with Drake Lemm present, the closure of Cold Springs School was mentioned and a "substitute" school was proposed - that is the building of a school in the Miller Creek area, more specifically the Maloney Ranch area.
In meeting after meeting the closure of Cold Springs was mentioned. Then, in the fraudulent MCPS facilities bond plans, the closure of Cold Springs was again proposed and a plan to build a new school was brought forward in an even more aggressive manner.
Missoula School Watchdog would like to mention a fact that all Missoulians need to know - and, as mentioned above, the entire country. That is that the MCPS high school Trustee, Drake Lemm has property, an entire subsivision in the Miller Creek area. It is named the DJ subdivision. (msw does not know if that is the actual name of the subdivision, however, that is the name of the street on which he, as a contractor, builds his homes).
On a radio talk show today the issue of Cold Springs being used for a day care was mentioned. This topic was extremely painful for me, again as a "Missoula Girl", as I attended Cold Springs in elementary school back in the '60's. It was a nice school back then and contrary to MCPS officials was not in horribly bad condition when closed. The montra heard from these officials was always Cold Springs was just basically a bunch of units from Colstrip brought in many years ago. Yes, there may have been some of those units, however, there was a lot of the older portions of the building that were not units from Colstrip which one would not have known if you just listened to MCPS officials with an agenda not conducive to the public's good, that of keeping the neighborhood schools.
Why does Missoula school watchdog address the entire country in this post? It is due to NOBODY listening or paying attention, at least as far as Missoula school watchdog is aware of, to what is going on in Missoula, Montana, including most if not ALL Missoulians and even the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees - thus the reason for addressing the country. Maybe someone out there will read how the Missoula County Public Schools system is so malevolent and so mismanaging it's assets and how it is providing a risky and low level education to Missoula's students.
As a "Missoula Girl" and as the writer of this blog, I can say that the closing of Cold Springs School in the southern part of our city was another sad and heartbreaking action taken by MCPS.
The closure was unnecessary and wreckless. A school closure in Missoula is always taken up with little thought to the short and long term consequences for the students, families, neighborhooods, and the city itself, including the entire county. Again, why the entire country? Because what happens in one part of the country effects the entire country. There is a boomerang effect when bad things happen in an area.
Some information that needs to be included, however brief, is that the closure of Cold Springs can be mostly blamed on one or two dishonest MCPS Board members. Did you know that former MCPS high school Trustee, Drake Lemm was the FIRST Trustee to mention the closure of Cold Springs way back in 2006 at a Board Meeting discussing MCPS properties? In other subsequent MCPS meetings including MCPS Ad Hoc Property Meetings, always with Drake Lemm present, the closure of Cold Springs School was mentioned and a "substitute" school was proposed - that is the building of a school in the Miller Creek area, more specifically the Maloney Ranch area.
In meeting after meeting the closure of Cold Springs was mentioned. Then, in the fraudulent MCPS facilities bond plans, the closure of Cold Springs was again proposed and a plan to build a new school was brought forward in an even more aggressive manner.
Missoula School Watchdog would like to mention a fact that all Missoulians need to know - and, as mentioned above, the entire country. That is that the MCPS high school Trustee, Drake Lemm has property, an entire subsivision in the Miller Creek area. It is named the DJ subdivision. (msw does not know if that is the actual name of the subdivision, however, that is the name of the street on which he, as a contractor, builds his homes).
On a radio talk show today the issue of Cold Springs being used for a day care was mentioned. This topic was extremely painful for me, again as a "Missoula Girl", as I attended Cold Springs in elementary school back in the '60's. It was a nice school back then and contrary to MCPS officials was not in horribly bad condition when closed. The montra heard from these officials was always Cold Springs was just basically a bunch of units from Colstrip brought in many years ago. Yes, there may have been some of those units, however, there was a lot of the older portions of the building that were not units from Colstrip which one would not have known if you just listened to MCPS officials with an agenda not conducive to the public's good, that of keeping the neighborhood schools.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Is MCPS and public school systems engaging in child abuse with their teacher hiring policies and tenure
Child abuse? that is a heavy accuation, however, it may just be true.
Here is an example.
A 5th grade class was talking about making paper out of alternative solutions to making paper rather than just using wood. The little boy wanted to participate in the discussion and suggested using dryer lint.
Instead of the teacher praising the student for engaging in the conversation she considered the idea stupid and pointless and berated him in front of his classmates for coming up with such an idea. The teacher publicly humiliated him and embarrassed him. Note: Probably the reason the student brought up the idea is that at that time there were paper making kits for children that suggested using lint from dryers!
First, was the idea pointless or was it actually forward thinking and courageous of him of bringing up the idea? Isn't talking things out in the corporate boardroom how ideas are created and then actualized in a product that makes millions of dollars? Most likely this happens everyday in America. Granted, this is on a big scale but starting young is advantageous to out of the box thinking, right!
Secondly, why is this teacher still teaching? His mother complained to the principal and to the Curriculum administrator. Another parent contacted the Human Resources administrator. Neither of these administrators were willing to step in and help out. (The names of the administration positions are approximate - they may have "Director" in the titles.)
msw is not privy to the exact conversations of the parents with the Curriculum administrator, however, msw talked to the HR administrator after a meeting. He explained that the protocol of submitting a complaint against a teacher begins with talking to the principal. This protocol, in msw's opinion, is not the appropriate method of taking care of a bad teacher. For instance, msw was not getting along with the principal - she was not a popular principal. (Which is another topic to tackle - how to remove unprincipled and incompetent principals!) The principal was the last person msw was about to talk to about this teacher that THE PRINCIPAL hired! Yes, msw was told that is the principal is the person who hires the teachers. (I've since been told there is another method to teacher hiring).
So...the complaint by msw against this abhorrent teacher was dropped.
Two parents at least and probably more went as high as the MCPS administration and were met with unsatisfactory results when complaining about a very bad teacher that they considered harmful to children - thus the child abuse phrase in the title. And - nothing could be done in one case and in the other the protocol was an obstacle (perhaps on purpose).
Another aspect to this post is that this teacher who only had about 14 to 15 students due to her unpopularity, came from another MCPS school. The parents at the other school adamantly demanded that she not return to that school. That in itself needed to be the end of this teacher's teaching career for MCPS! NO! Wait. MCPS has an avenue by way a unpopular teacher can transfer to another school. At the moment msw cannot remember the exact term, however, it has the words, "Facilitated" and "Transfer". Perhaps it was "MCPS Facilitated Transfer for Teachers". Anyway, this is another aspect to the child abuse moniker for the concept of not being able to get rid of bad teachers.
And of course, there is always tenure. Tenure is when a teacher has been teaching for a certain amount of years and then because of the time issue with a district this teacher literally cannot be fired or at least it is very very difficult! We have thousands of teachers throughout our country that should not be teaching just because they have tenure. And they are getting good pay to boot.
The above explanation by msw is most likely just one of many more in the MCPS school system. As one can see it is very difficult to get rid of a bad teacher - and Missoula children have been suffering and likely are still suffering.
Here is an example.
A 5th grade class was talking about making paper out of alternative solutions to making paper rather than just using wood. The little boy wanted to participate in the discussion and suggested using dryer lint.
Instead of the teacher praising the student for engaging in the conversation she considered the idea stupid and pointless and berated him in front of his classmates for coming up with such an idea. The teacher publicly humiliated him and embarrassed him. Note: Probably the reason the student brought up the idea is that at that time there were paper making kits for children that suggested using lint from dryers!
First, was the idea pointless or was it actually forward thinking and courageous of him of bringing up the idea? Isn't talking things out in the corporate boardroom how ideas are created and then actualized in a product that makes millions of dollars? Most likely this happens everyday in America. Granted, this is on a big scale but starting young is advantageous to out of the box thinking, right!
Secondly, why is this teacher still teaching? His mother complained to the principal and to the Curriculum administrator. Another parent contacted the Human Resources administrator. Neither of these administrators were willing to step in and help out. (The names of the administration positions are approximate - they may have "Director" in the titles.)
msw is not privy to the exact conversations of the parents with the Curriculum administrator, however, msw talked to the HR administrator after a meeting. He explained that the protocol of submitting a complaint against a teacher begins with talking to the principal. This protocol, in msw's opinion, is not the appropriate method of taking care of a bad teacher. For instance, msw was not getting along with the principal - she was not a popular principal. (Which is another topic to tackle - how to remove unprincipled and incompetent principals!) The principal was the last person msw was about to talk to about this teacher that THE PRINCIPAL hired! Yes, msw was told that is the principal is the person who hires the teachers. (I've since been told there is another method to teacher hiring).
So...the complaint by msw against this abhorrent teacher was dropped.
Two parents at least and probably more went as high as the MCPS administration and were met with unsatisfactory results when complaining about a very bad teacher that they considered harmful to children - thus the child abuse phrase in the title. And - nothing could be done in one case and in the other the protocol was an obstacle (perhaps on purpose).
Another aspect to this post is that this teacher who only had about 14 to 15 students due to her unpopularity, came from another MCPS school. The parents at the other school adamantly demanded that she not return to that school. That in itself needed to be the end of this teacher's teaching career for MCPS! NO! Wait. MCPS has an avenue by way a unpopular teacher can transfer to another school. At the moment msw cannot remember the exact term, however, it has the words, "Facilitated" and "Transfer". Perhaps it was "MCPS Facilitated Transfer for Teachers". Anyway, this is another aspect to the child abuse moniker for the concept of not being able to get rid of bad teachers.
And of course, there is always tenure. Tenure is when a teacher has been teaching for a certain amount of years and then because of the time issue with a district this teacher literally cannot be fired or at least it is very very difficult! We have thousands of teachers throughout our country that should not be teaching just because they have tenure. And they are getting good pay to boot.
The above explanation by msw is most likely just one of many more in the MCPS school system. As one can see it is very difficult to get rid of a bad teacher - and Missoula children have been suffering and likely are still suffering.
Friday, July 5, 2019
Missoulian article on expanding the International Baccalaruate program to Washington (msw Rattlesnake-Washington) Middle School!!
https://missoulian.com/news/local/washington-middle-school-works-toward-international-baccalaureate-status/article_3ab42330-8f63-587f-9d7a-10f76e872bf6.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1
See the link above for the Missoulians article on the International Baccalaureate program slated to be implemented at Washington Middle School (which remember really needs to be renamed Rattlesnake-Washington Middle School due to the closure of Rattlesnake Middle School in 2004 and then sending those students to WMS).
Superintendent Alex Apostle had the plan to implement the IB program at all levels of education in Missoula. (told to me personally as part of his plans for MCPS).
There are some sources that give a less than stellar view of the IB program.
One is - IB Unraveled by Debra Niwa
Another is the YouTube video by Debra Niwa
Also see the YouTube video about IB titled, "The International Baccalaureate Program Unraveled".
Here is the link for the YouTube video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrCNrk-ZTjE
See the link above for the Missoulians article on the International Baccalaureate program slated to be implemented at Washington Middle School (which remember really needs to be renamed Rattlesnake-Washington Middle School due to the closure of Rattlesnake Middle School in 2004 and then sending those students to WMS).
Superintendent Alex Apostle had the plan to implement the IB program at all levels of education in Missoula. (told to me personally as part of his plans for MCPS).
There are some sources that give a less than stellar view of the IB program.
One is - IB Unraveled by Debra Niwa
Another is the YouTube video by Debra Niwa
Also see the YouTube video about IB titled, "The International Baccalaureate Program Unraveled".
Here is the link for the YouTube video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrCNrk-ZTjE
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Is the International Baccalaureate Progam really good for children in Missoula and at MIssoula International School? The pit bull topic rages on and on...
Missoula School Watchdog was going through some newspapers the other day. Msw noticed an article that was missed when reading the daily newspaper at an earlier date.
The newspaper highlighted in this blog post is the April 4th, 2019 edition of the Missoulian, Missoula's daily newspaper.
On the editorial page is a guest column by a 14 year old. This 14 year old is a student at the private International Baccalaureate Spanish immersion school, Missoula International School and is in 8th grade. (See the sister blog of msw www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com for the corruption by Missoula County Public Schools in regard to the lease of the public school Prescott School to the private school Missoula International School)
The student, Camille Sherill, wrote a guest column as noted above titled "Help dogs with unfair reps".
The title is actually misleading in msw's view. The wording "unfair reps" does not really address the jist of the column. What the column is highlighting is pit bulls. There is no pit bull words in the title. This is really the newspapers doing, not the writers, however, msw thought that it is worth noting, because as mentioned above, the article escaped notice for many days.
Due to time constraints, msw at this time, cannot go into as much depth as wished. To make a long story short, the guest column by the student reveals a huge lack of information about the threat of pit bulls in our society. The student mentioned the city of Bozeman as it relates to pit bulls and does not even mention that fairly recently a woman was killed by a pit bull in Bozeman! How can one doing a guest column not mention this huge story?
Additionally, the MIS IB student did not look into pit bull information sites on the web such as www.dogsbite.org and it's FB page. Almost everyday or it seems like at least once a week or so msw gets a FB post about someone getting killed and/or maimed by a pit bull(s).
She, the writer, also most likely did not read the book by J. Thomas Beasley titled, "Misunderstood Nanny Dogs?" The book explains the history of pit bulls and how dangerous they are and gives so many statistics that after one reads the book one cannot reach any other conclusion that pit bulls are really not for use as an everyday pet.
The fact that this student's teachers and the school, Missoula International School, accepted this work without proper study and research speaks to the legitimacy of the private school. Would a parent really want their child not to be challenged in a very important community project paper? Would a school really want this reputation, that of not expecting it's students to back up their writing assignments?
Missoula School Watchdog is a pit bull attack survivor, and ironically this attack took place just blocks from Prescott School, the school which MIS is leasing. msw has always considered that if a child that attended MIS or any child in the neighborhood for that matter had been attacked rather than this adult the outcome could have been a death or even more tragic.
Does someone from MIS need to be attacked by a pit bull for the dangerousness of pit bulls to sink in to students at MIS or indeed for others? I only wish it does not.
The newspaper highlighted in this blog post is the April 4th, 2019 edition of the Missoulian, Missoula's daily newspaper.
On the editorial page is a guest column by a 14 year old. This 14 year old is a student at the private International Baccalaureate Spanish immersion school, Missoula International School and is in 8th grade. (See the sister blog of msw www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com for the corruption by Missoula County Public Schools in regard to the lease of the public school Prescott School to the private school Missoula International School)
The student, Camille Sherill, wrote a guest column as noted above titled "Help dogs with unfair reps".
The title is actually misleading in msw's view. The wording "unfair reps" does not really address the jist of the column. What the column is highlighting is pit bulls. There is no pit bull words in the title. This is really the newspapers doing, not the writers, however, msw thought that it is worth noting, because as mentioned above, the article escaped notice for many days.
Due to time constraints, msw at this time, cannot go into as much depth as wished. To make a long story short, the guest column by the student reveals a huge lack of information about the threat of pit bulls in our society. The student mentioned the city of Bozeman as it relates to pit bulls and does not even mention that fairly recently a woman was killed by a pit bull in Bozeman! How can one doing a guest column not mention this huge story?
Additionally, the MIS IB student did not look into pit bull information sites on the web such as www.dogsbite.org and it's FB page. Almost everyday or it seems like at least once a week or so msw gets a FB post about someone getting killed and/or maimed by a pit bull(s).
She, the writer, also most likely did not read the book by J. Thomas Beasley titled, "Misunderstood Nanny Dogs?" The book explains the history of pit bulls and how dangerous they are and gives so many statistics that after one reads the book one cannot reach any other conclusion that pit bulls are really not for use as an everyday pet.
The fact that this student's teachers and the school, Missoula International School, accepted this work without proper study and research speaks to the legitimacy of the private school. Would a parent really want their child not to be challenged in a very important community project paper? Would a school really want this reputation, that of not expecting it's students to back up their writing assignments?
Missoula School Watchdog is a pit bull attack survivor, and ironically this attack took place just blocks from Prescott School, the school which MIS is leasing. msw has always considered that if a child that attended MIS or any child in the neighborhood for that matter had been attacked rather than this adult the outcome could have been a death or even more tragic.
Does someone from MIS need to be attacked by a pit bull for the dangerousness of pit bulls to sink in to students at MIS or indeed for others? I only wish it does not.
Monday, June 24, 2019
Don't let the door hit you on the way out - Superintendent Thane
Don't let the door hit you on the way out - Superintendent Thane.
Superintendent Mark Thane, and others, described himself as the "hometown superintendent". In trying to make this post short let's ask one simple question. Just exactly what did Mark Thane do that was so good for his hometown of Missoula?
Did he work to re-establish a neighborhood school system that had been so badly desecrated by past superintendents and Missoula County Public Schools Trustees?
Did he work to lower administrative costs throughout the school district?
Did he work to eliminate the UN sponsored International Baccalaureate Program that has taken such a foothold in Missoula County Public Schools so much so that some schools are entirely IB. /Did he do what the nearby CoeurdA'lene, Id. school district and eliminate the IB program?
Did he work on transparency in all school related business, such a on the MCPS website and in conversations on radio programs and at civic events?
Did he seek to include the public in all open houses throughout the district when each school had finished it's renovation using the expensive bond funds? Etc. Etc.
No, no. and no.... Mark Thane,Missoula hometown boy and now man, did not do a thing for his hometown in a positive manner.
Again, don't let the door hit you, Mr. Thane, on the way out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6PQsSqkaY
Above is a YouTube video on the origins of the saying:
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out". Interesting. Maybe we need to use it more when a government official leaves, especially when they leave Missoula County Public Schools (for the most part MCPS officials are really not on board with the Missoula people).
Superintendent Mark Thane, and others, described himself as the "hometown superintendent". In trying to make this post short let's ask one simple question. Just exactly what did Mark Thane do that was so good for his hometown of Missoula?
Did he work to re-establish a neighborhood school system that had been so badly desecrated by past superintendents and Missoula County Public Schools Trustees?
Did he work to lower administrative costs throughout the school district?
Did he work to eliminate the UN sponsored International Baccalaureate Program that has taken such a foothold in Missoula County Public Schools so much so that some schools are entirely IB. /Did he do what the nearby CoeurdA'lene, Id. school district and eliminate the IB program?
Did he work on transparency in all school related business, such a on the MCPS website and in conversations on radio programs and at civic events?
Did he seek to include the public in all open houses throughout the district when each school had finished it's renovation using the expensive bond funds? Etc. Etc.
No, no. and no.... Mark Thane,Missoula hometown boy and now man, did not do a thing for his hometown in a positive manner.
Again, don't let the door hit you, Mr. Thane, on the way out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6PQsSqkaY
Above is a YouTube video on the origins of the saying:
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out". Interesting. Maybe we need to use it more when a government official leaves, especially when they leave Missoula County Public Schools (for the most part MCPS officials are really not on board with the Missoula people).
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