Tue, May 21st, 2024 - 11:20pm
May 22, 2024 - 9:33pm | By Chris Larson
(Fargo, ND) – The Fargo Public School District recently sought the input of its stakeholders on a long-range facilities plan.
On Tuesday night, in a debate hosted by The Flag and WDAY Radio and moderated by Tom Tucker and Ty Schonert, all nine candidates vying for four spots on the Fargo School Board spoke regarding their thoughts about the plan.
“We are looking at all options,” current school board member Nikkie Gullickson said. “Fargo, historically, has done a very good job of frugally maintaining our buildings.”
She said that the frugal maintaining of the buildings has caused other things to not be attended to, which is the cause for rapid decline in some cases.
She said the low number of students in certain buildings “is something to be concerned about” fiscally.
Kristin Nelson, who served on the long-range facility planning steering committee, said the group was asked “to dive into the numbers, the research, the data.”
“When we look at the numbers, the money has to be spent across the district in some day,” she said. “Whether it is refurbing 100-year-old buildings, or combining buildings together and doing away with buildings that don’t serve our kids anymore.”
She said the plan will be going before the school board at the end of the month.
“I believe we have a really, really good start to a bright future for our district, if we can get our plan off the ground,” Nelson said.
Seth Holden, the other incumbent seeking reelection, said the plan is important for multiple reasons.
“We do have buildings that have been ignored for too long,” he said. “We need to make sure that we are providing good spaces for our students to succeed.”
Holden also said the board and district “need to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars” by ‘being efficient’ with school buildings.
“We also need a plan so that we are continuing to have something to strive for,” he said. “I have yet to see anything in my tenure, so far, that has brought so much community involvement into such an important decision.”
Challenger Ryan Dodd says he realizes the issue is difficult – because of emotions tied to the potential decisions.
“As long as we’re keeping building anchors in the neighborhoods, I think we can keep the aesthetic, the feel, keep kids going in and out of buildings,” he said.
Jason Nelson echoed Holden’s sentiments.
Additionally, he said he feels the district needs to look towards consolidation, by selling some of the property to “lessen that burden we already have,” Nelson said.
Paul Mohror was also on the facilities committee.
“I want to make sure that we’re being careful when we move forward with this plan,” he said. “There still are some concerns.”
John Campbell said one of his biggest concerns is walkability – but he is in support of the effort.
“I continue to support the group conscience,” he said. “It is supporting the mission of Fargo Public Schools, which is educating and making sure all kids have the ability to succeed.”
Campbell said a key is to have an answer from the board regarding the changing of the area.
Allie Ollenburger said she applied to be on the long-range planning committee, but was not chosen.
“I do think our district does tend to listen to the voices that they want to listen to in certain situations,” she said.
She said there has been “a lot of great work” that has gone into the long-range plan. She lauded the transparency on data that has been available, as well as information available on the school district website.
“I think that we did see a lot of community engagement,” Ollenburger said. “There was a lot of feedback shared.”
She said the plan is a good plan.
“There’s going to be hard feelings. There’s going to be things that need to be done,” Ollenburger said. “But there is things that absolutely need to be taken care of within our school district.”
Dawn Morgan said deferred maintenance “is always a good way to get rid of old buildings” but that those buildings “can be kept up and be wonderful places.”
The Fargo School Board election is June 11.
