Fargo Public Schools district headquarters
FARGO (KFGO) – On the final day that a community survey seeking feedback on the Fargo Public Schools Long-Range Facilities Plan (LRFP) is open for submissions, district officials say it has already garnered nearly double the number of responses than they expected, and that modifications to the plan have already are already under consideration.
The LRFP process is intended to create a blueprint and timeline for major capital investments in all FPS schools in the next five to 15 years, such as new construction and major renovations.
Significant changes are proposed for the elementary and middle schools located in the north and central areas of the district in the plan, and some community members have expressed concerns about the wide-ranging scope and impact of the plan, particularly on the city’s core neighborhoods and older schools.
James Hand is the district’s facilities director. He says the LRFP steering committee, made up of 56 community members who are primarily parents from each high school’s feeder system as well as some city and district staff and teachers, has been the primary driver of the plan.
“We did not come into the steering committee process with a draft plan at all,” Hand said. “We came in with a blank slate and we said ‘Here’s the status of things, let’s absorb this,’ and then we started asking pointed questions, like what are the types of actions that can be taken, and I don’t think there was a single committee member who said let’s just maintain the status quo.”
Hand says three options were initially presented because district officials wanted to show how much the draft LRFP accomplished with not much more investment than simply maintaining the status quo, but he said the final plan will ultimately end up being a hybrid of those options. He says feedback from the survey and town halls is being processed and modifications made to the plan in real time.
Underutilized buildings are a major issue in certain parts of the district, according to Hand, who says that a goal of the LRFP is to be as efficient as possible with taxpayer dollars while providing adequate spaces for students and learning.
He says the concept of neighborhood schools is always a hot button issue during these kind of discussions but not everyone has the same definition of what a neighborhood school is. He said even in the city of Fargo’s growth plan, which some say may have conflicts with the LRFP, neighborhood schools are noted as important but not defined in any way, presenting added challenges.
Once the survey closes at midnight, Hand says the plan is to synthesize the feedback for steering committee review ahead of a February 6 meeting, so that the committee can immediately begin revising the plan accordingly. There will be one additional steering committee meeting in March before the Fargo School Board is slated to vote on a final draft plan in early April.
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