Old Missoula

Former school board member recalls the pain of shutting down other Missoula schools

By Gary Jahrig of the Missoulian

Mar 1, 1999

When Irene Hiller hears about the abuse being directed at trustees over their decision to close schools in the Missoula County Public Schools District, she thinks of her answering machine.

“I had to buy an answering machine for my telephone because I had young children and I didn’t want them answering the harassing phone calls I was getting,” said Hiller, who served on the Missoula School District 1 elementary board from 1976 to 1991.

During Hiller’s 15 years on the board, trustees elected to shut down four elementary schools in Missoula. She knows full well how heated and passionate people can become when their neighborhood school is threatened.

People were coming out to meetings then, too,” said Hiller. “I remember people getting very angry. I really do sympathize with the board now. Regardless which side you vote on, you make somebody unhappy.”

Anyone who thinks last week’s decision to close three schools over the next three years marks the beginning of a new era in Missoula education is sadly mistaken. Missoulians have been forced to deal with the closure of four neighborhood schools in the past 20 years alone.

The last school to close in Missoula was Willard School in 1990. In 1985, trustees shut down Jefferson and Whittier schools. Central School was cleared of students in 1979.

District 1 trustees also tried to close Lowell School in 1976, a move that first prompted Hiller to run for school board.

“That was one of the reasons I first ran was that they were closing Lowell School,” Hiller said. “I thought the board decision was the wrong one to make.”

A “grass-roots” effort to unseat three incumbents in the 1976 election proved successful, Hiller said, as she and two other newcomers to the board were elected. The new board soon reversed the decision of the old board and Lowell School never missed a beat.

“It was only ever closed on paper,” she said. “It never really shut down.”

When it came time to shut down other facilities, Hiller said she voted with the majority in favor of closure.

Central School was closed because it was an outdated facility and students were moved to the new Mount Jumbo School in East Missoula.

Hiller said Jefferson School was closed because of a low student population in an area that was becoming more commercial.

“For program purposes, we needed to do some consolidation,” she said. “We were dealing with extremely low class sizes. We were not able to provide kids with a good education.”

Whittier got a little testier, Hiller said, because it was in an old established neighborhood on Missoula’s North Side.

Mike Kupilik, the current MCPS Board chairman, didn’t become a trustee until three years after Jefferson and Whittier were closed. But he remembers full well the fallout from the closure of the schools, particularly Whittier. Kupilik said former District 1 Superintendent Jake Block absorbed a great deal of criticism over the Whittier closure.

“There’s still people to this day who spit on the ground whenever Jake Block’s name is mentioned over the Whittier School closure,” Kupilik said. “They argued it was a class motivated thing. There’s still people upset over Whittier.

Kupilik was on board, however, when trustees decided to shut down Willard School in 1990. He said the closure of Willard wasn’t nearly as controversial as this year’s decision to close Roosevelt School next fall.

“It wasn’t contentious at all,” Kupilik said. “A couple of people said it wasn’t a good idea, but that was about it.”

The building was badly outdated and in disrepair, Kupilik said, adding that trustees agreed to keep Willard as a neighborhood center and maintain the playground for area youngsters.

Larry Johnson, the current MCPS assistant superintendent, served as business manager for District 1 when Willard School was closed. Johnson also doesn’t remember much of a battle surrounding the Willard closure.

“With Willard it wasn’t anything like it is now,” Johnson said.

But Johnson said school officials back then only moved an entire neighborhood of kids three blocks to Roosevelt School. He also said there is more opportunity to sound off now as MCPS officials have made an effort to make the budgeting process more public.

“We offer so many more public meetings now that certainly from the opponents’ perspective, it gives them more opportunities to express themselves,” Johnson said.

Kupilik believes the Roosevelt School closure has been more contentious because it is located only a few blocks from Willard, making it the second school in the same neighborhood to close in the past nine years.

Hiller, who lives in the Willard and Roosevelt area, also thinks the two most recent school closings have little in common.

“What they are experiencing now is entirely different than what we looked at back then,” Hiller said. “Our viewpoint then was to simply offer a better educational opportunity. It’s simply monetary now.”

While Hiller admits she does “miss the opportunity to get in a good fight” once in awhile, she really doesn’t mind being on the sidelines for the latest school closure battle.

“I admire people who run for school board. It takes a lot of courage, a lot of time and a lot of family support,” she said.

And Hiller is also quick to offer advice to her successors on the board.

“The only thing I can say is that they need to be able to honestly live with the decision they are making,” Hiller said. “If they have the least bit of doubt that what they are doing is wrong, put it on the burner and deal with it. … The only right decision is the one that is best for the children of Missoula.”

Monday – 3/1/99