FARGO — Drawing more than two years of discussion and controversy closer to an end, the Fargo School Board voted 6-3 for the administration to change school boundaries, which would shift some students on the south side to fill capacity in the north.
Board member Jim Johnson made the motion to direct the administration to develop a transition plan for shifting the Clara Barton Hawthorne Elementary neighborhood that is east of University Drive to the Ben Franklin and Fargo North area for the fall of 2021.
Board members Johnson, Rebecca Knutson, Brian Nelson, David Paulson, Kristi Ulrich and Brandi Aune voted for the motion, while board members John Rodenbiker and Jennifer Benson and President Robin Nelson voted against the motion.
"A new school was not removed from the table, but I wish it would have been," Robin Nelson said. "Nothing has been finalized."
Fargo school officials will discuss options and come back to the School Board for a final vote at a later date, Robin Nelson said.
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All board members realize that a new school will be built at some point in the future, but with uncertain economic times, most appeared to favor waiting.
“First of all we’re all aware that the day is going to come that we’re going to have to put brick and mortar down in south Fargo,” Johnson said. “But I do not believe today is the day to spend $60 million and put new operational expenses into our budget going forward, until we really see what comes forward probably over the next 24 months.”
Brian Nelson agreed, pointing toward the low price of crude oil and agricultural sales going down.
“We've got to find out what’s going to happen in the next 24 months,” Nelson said. “I am not comfortable with spending that kind of money.”
“I don’t view this as a temporary move; I believe that area can be permanently assigned to the north,” Johnson said. “This is not a Band-Aid; this is trying to use the facilities we have in the most effective manner that logically makes sense.”
About 88 middle school and high school students will be affected by the boundary change, but a grandfather clause will most likely allow students and parents to choose which schools they attend.
A second motion also introduced by Johnson asked the administration to develop recommendations for a boundary adjustment to shift some students in Discovery Middle School and Davies High School to Clara Barton Hawthorne Elementary and Fargo South attendance areas.
Benson criticized the motion, saying it was “piecemealing” and asking students to travel farther to school.
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Benson said the second motion was too limiting and was creating more complicated scenarios.
“You’re going to keep carving up neighborhoods if we don’t fix it,” Benson said. She tried to make an addendum to Johnson’s motion and include an analysis of school capacity districtwide, which was not considered relevant to the original motion.
“That’s one way to shut me up,” Benson said after Johnson moved for a vote, which passed 5-4 with board members Rodenbiker, Aune, Benson and Robin Nelson voting against the motion.
