Missoula Schools (Hamilton, Lolo, Stevensville: mortgages, home, public schools)

[jlabsher]

I was looking into moving to Missoula but I saw the schools are dismal, they have failed the AYP 3 years running:

Missoulian: Schools face sanctions for low scores

Are they really that bad, or is it journalistic hype?

I have also seen that tax increases have failed at the polls five times in the last 10 years. Are there any districts nearby (commuting distance) that are better, I don't want to move to Missoula for a better life for my kids and find that the schools are worse than where we are coming from and they get no community support. I find that amazing in a college town.

[truckingbronco]

Loyola is the private high school in Missoula and it is one of the best in the state...as for the other ones, not so much.

[JoeJoeMan]

I've heard stories from teachers that in some of the schools the kids are so misbehaved and uninterested in learning that the teachers just see themselves as baby sitters....of course that isn't all schools but there are some very degenerate areas of Missoula.
Also how many towns do you know where they are actually closing schools ? Well Missoula is one of them - why ? Not enough students. Missoula is basically a 'hippy town' - and hippies were never know for having many, if any kids, as such the town has actually closed a number of schools, add to the fact that the people who do have kids, more and more are chosing to send them to private foo-foo schools, it's very trendy, Missoula is very foo-foo like that. If you are looking for Mayberry you won't find it in Western Montana.
Not to mention if you do live in Missoula the local alternative paper the Missoula Independent can be found on every street corner of store counter, it contains profanity, nudity, stories glorifing alternative lifestyles and street walkers, to mention a few, and the sex ads in the back, and the paper is everywhere for any kid to pick up and read....and the town pretty much considers the paper to be the beacon that shines a sancctifing light on the community.

"Missoula schools face sanctions for low scores" ---- that's government lingo for we'll give you even more money to fix the problem, silly as that sounds, I'd bet they just get more money than last year - government love it when things go wrong - it's another excuse to start more agencies and spend more money -

True story about Missoula schools/teachers, a teacher told me not to worry about my kid in 5 grade, when he was doing poorly, that it was ok, not all kids could be expected to do well.....she was one of the hippy granola types, you kinda come to expect such attitudes from those types.....but I'm thinking to myself, what kind of a thing is that to say to the student and their parents.....after which I pulled my son aside and had a man to boy talk and told him that I confirmed his assumption that his teach was an a-hole and we'd have the last laugh proving her wrong - I started feeding my son encouraging advice and working nitely with him on his school work and by the end of the year he had turned his D's and C's into A's and B's ------ after which he began to have a whole different outlook on his own ability and went on to get honors in high school and colllege ---- so much for that bimbo teacher, - Missoula is loaded with those hippy granola alternative life styles, it's all about 'feeling', 'diversity' - personally I've never been impressed with their powers of intellectual reasoning, I find them seriously lacking in that area, much more over any degree of common sense is not in their makup......

[truckingbronco]

I knew some pretty smart kids that came out of Missoula and some good teachers that teach there.. I can't imagine that the quality is that much different from other public schools but I am still sticking with my original post of Loyola being the cream of the crop.

[jimj]

Public schools are public schools..... Some good teachers, some not so good. IMO it all depends on how invloved YOU are..... Do you send your child to be baby sat or do you find out what's going on every month?

[jlabsher]

Let me tell you where I'm coming from, I'm on the east coast about 60 miles from DC, commuting in every day. Getting up @3:00 AM. Sometimes the commute is 3 hours each way (if I went in later it would be longer), that way I can get home by 5:00 and still have time with my kids. I have a 6 & 9 year old and they are in a title 1 school (read poor kids/bad grades), most of the parents don't care. The oldest was lucky she is now in the advanced program at a new school they just started. In the other school they were picking up lots of "ghetto" stuff, the 6 year old just started saying "Yo, yo, dad, wassup" We've put a stop to that!

Anyway was looking at a job in Missoula and saw the schools were pretty bad, I've lived in NM & WA so I'm not unfamiliar with touchy-feely hippy types, and small towns in IL so I know that not everything is Mayberry. I see where you are coming from, and definitely won't be living in Missoula if I get the job now that I understand what it is about. Will probably be looking south like Lolo, Hamilton, Stevensville, hell a 100 mile commute in the valley is better than a 60 mile commute here. Are the folks there more realistic (read get their hands dirty, work for a living, have mortgages, bills, etc) and are the schools better?

[JoeJoeMan]

Moderator cut: orphaned post
Here just to back up one of my points, the one about the local alternative paper, check this link, I don't make this stuff up
The Missoula Independent Online

[jimj]

Originally Posted by jlabsher

Let me tell you where I'm coming from, I'm on the east coast about 60 miles from DC, commuting in every day. Getting up @3:00 AM. Sometimes the commute is 3 hours each way (if I went in later it would be longer), that way I can get home by 5:00 and still have time with my kids. I have a 6 & 9 year old and they are in a title 1 school (read poor kids/bad grades), most of the parents don't care. The oldest was lucky she is now in the advanced program at a new school they just started. In the other school they were picking up lots of "ghetto" stuff, the 6 year old just started saying "Yo, yo, dad, wassup" We've put a stop to that!

Anyway was looking at a job in Missoula and saw the schools were pretty bad, I've lived in NM & WA so I'm not unfamiliar with touchy-feely hippy types, and small towns in IL so I know that not everything is Mayberry. I see where you are coming from, and definitely won't be living in Missoula if I get the job now that I understand what it is about. Will probably be looking south like Lolo, Hamilton, Stevensville, hell a 100 mile commute in the valley is better than a 60 mile commute here. Are the folks there more realistic (read get their hands dirty, work for a living, have mortgages, bills, etc) and are the schools better?

To answer your questions yes, from what you've described pretty much any school here is better. The one thing to keep in mind, when you send your child out the door in the morning they WILL come home at night. No school shootings (so far) and I've yet to hear "yo, yo anything unless they had a round thing on a string going up and down! The thing here with respect to schools is they're not as good as they could be since they're sooo busy teaching to the tests so they get their money. There are schools here that have fantastic AP and Baclauriat programs but it's not all of them unfortunately. Flathead High is one. My child does ok, but then we're pretty watchful about what goes on, unlike many parents who just send little johnny and sally out the door in the morning with no thought of actually ever setting foot in a school to see what's going on. This is not my perception but what I'm being told by the teachers.

[JoeJoeMan]

Moderator cut: orphaned post

Humm, I musta' said something wrong,
But aside from that, back to the main topic - the Missoula school system................I know some very fine folks who teach in them, they are also the ones who told me stories about the system, how the teachers just feeling like their job is to baby sit in some of the schools because there wasn't much they could do with the students (ie drugs,etc).....the schools reflect the community, from very decent caring people to....well whatever you call those at the other end of the spectrum.....Keep in mind that Missoula is a very 'alternative' type of town. I'll say it again it's not Mayberry. And I'm sure they (schools) would say nothing of a copy of the local alternative paper laying about a classroom.....but I sure wouldn't want my kid reading it. If that helps put things in perspective.
Just as a general side note, aside from the school/education issue...........just because a person/people are 'nice', caring, etc....doesn't mean they'll acheive a good result, infact it would be easier to make a case for the opposite effect.

[Mattie Jo]

I assure you you did nothing wrong. Orphaned means that the post you made was in referrence to a deleted post. Usually I say, "Referring to deleted post," I see others use "orphaned." Of course it could mean that you are an orphan, but I certainly hope not.