Click on the link below to read Missoula County Public Schools Superintendent Mark Thane's Guest Column in September 3, 2015 Missoulian newspaper.
Vote for school bonds, invest in future
Response to Mark Thane's editorial:
The bond that is going to be going before the Missoula voters to support Missoula School District 1 schools this November (mail in ballot) is not in the best interests of our students or our community in general.
Despite former Superintendent Apostle's statement that the MCPS school district will let the community know what is included in this bond we citizens are really in the dark about what is being planned by the bond committee. There is very little coverage in the Missoulian or elsewhere on what is being planned for each school. And the vote is coming up very soon.
The lives of many families were turned upside down in 2004 by the school closures in the northeast section of our city. Because of school closure experience and following the district by attending meetings for many years I found that this district is not an upstanding, honest, responsible, accountable school district. This school district operates on a "let the citizens know as little as possible and make drastic decisions as quickly as possible" philosophy. This is so that there is little time for citizens to study what is being proposed and to react in an informed manner.
The last three superintendents were hired, most likely, for their position on decisions to be made by the power structure on the school board. What the "majority" Trustees wished for our school district, tragically, was multiple school closures. These Trustees governed against the will of the people, who for the most part wished to keep their prized and irreplaceable neighborhood school. In the late 1990's the district hired Mary Vagner, who was behind the closure of Roosevelt School. Vagner also was behind the closure of Prescott School (which was reopened). Vagner was also behind the lease of Roosevelt School to a private school, St. Josephs School, a Catholic elementary school. (Did Vagner share the same religion as the private school as some say she did - this needs some review).
Next, came Superintendent Jim Clark in 2003. Jim Clark governed in a sneaky fashion as suggested above - quickly allowing little public awareness of his plans. In fact, I call his 6 years at MCPS as the "Dark Clark" years as his decisions have affected our city in many tragic and "dark" ways. Under the leadership of Superintendent Clark three (!) of our northeast schools were closed in a 48 day period. These schools were Rattlesnake Middle School and Prescott School in the Rattlesnake Valley and Mt. Jumbo School in East Missoula. These school closures have wreaked havoc in our community and have impacted our finances more than we know. Many East Missoula families are sending their children to Bonner(each of these children are "worth" approximately $5,000.
Superintendent Clark not only severely damaged our network of neighborhood schools as he acted astonishingly brazen and disloyally. Clark recommended the sale of Roosevelt School to the Catholic School system which took place in 2005. Clark continued acting in a disloyal fashion by recommending the lease of Prescott School to another private school, Missoula International School. This lease as with the Roosevelt School lease, began with a five year term (and was extended later for 3 years and 5 years!). As per information given by a math professor, this lease is costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars per year! Can you imagine the loss of state funding based on enrollment when Missoula International School's enrollment has mushroomed from 33 students in 2004 to 200 students in recent years? For more info one can go to www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot. Not a perfect website but a start in sharing information on this issue.
Next, in 2008, the district hired Superintendent Alex Apostle, who continued the disloyal leadership of promoting the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School. I believe that one of the main reasons Apostle was hired was to assist in the continuation of this lease. Apostle presided over the two lease extensions of 3 years and then 5 years. This lease will expire in 2017 and must not be extended. To do so would to continue the erosion of funds to MCPS and to continue the problems in this neighborhood by denying the children a neighborhood school (since 1892!). The overcrowding of Rattlesnake School is a major reason to reopen Prescott, however, so far the district has placed the needs of MIS above the students of MCPS.
Superintendent Thane, hired this year, unfortunately, even though he is from Missoula, is continuing in the same vein as his three predecessors. Thane is recommending the continuation of the lease of Prescott School to Missoula International School thus continuing the dramatic loss of funds to our district. He is also recommending, by virtue of promoting this bond the further "deschooling" of our Missoula neighborhoods. This "deschooling"of our neighborhoods, thus taking away the "heart of the neighborhood is having huge detrimental affects to our neighborhoods.
We need to reverse the trend of "deschooling" our neighborhoods by reopening the closed schools. Our children need to come before adults(Dickinson School), private schools (Prescott and Roosevelt School(we can set aside money for buying back Roosevelt as we have right of first refusal), college students(Mt. Jumbo), and programs(Jefferson and Whittier). We can reopen these schools (and even share some space with the programs) before we build a new school in the Miller Creek area.
Please vote against the school bond both on the elementary and secondary levels. A vote for the bond, with all due respect, is not in the best interests of our children.
In closing, I would like to recommend a report which supports our smaller neighborhood schools which have served generations of our Missoula children titled, "Dollars and Sense. The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools".
Thank you for reading my long comment, however, it is important, in my opinion, to hear the other side of this issue that is brought forward by Superintendent Mark Thane and others.
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