West Fargo School Board weighing options prior to another bond referendum ask

WEST FARGO — Members of the West Fargo School Board met on Monday, May 20, to weigh their options regarding the future of the district’s facilities in light of their failed 2023 bond referendum and an ever-increasing number of students.

In September, a

$147 million bond referendum failed, primarily due to low voter turnout. The bond would have funded the building of a new elementary school, several additions and renovations to existing school buildings, including an expansion at Horace High School and Heritage Middle School, and

$5 million to help fund another sheet of ice and an addition at Veterans Memorial Arena.

Afterwards, the school district reconvened its facilities task force and rebranded it the West Fargo Schools Facilities Planning 2.0 task force. The task force, composed of about 75 parents and community members, met in a series of meetings in February and March and held public feedback-gathering sessions throughout April.

On Monday, members of this task force presented their findings to the school board.

While most of the evening focused on discussing the project details in light of the community-wide survey results, attendees also discussed if they should refocus their plan on a longer term of 10 years rather than five.

Community feedback on this idea is split, task force members said, with some residents balking at the large price tag and others encouraging the district to think long-term instead of bringing back another bond request to the community five years from now.

Some members stated that the district could get voter approval on the 10-year plan and, if the expected student growth doesn’t materialize, simply scale back as needed and not move some projects forward.

No action was taken during Monday’s meeting.

Ultimately, district leaders stated that voters won’t see a bond vote on this in 2024, agreeing that they want to gather more information prior to making a final decision on what’s next for this bond.

They plan to have more details on hand before they make their final determination on what is included in the final bond referendum vote, members agree, including cost information on the various proposals.

The West Fargo School Board is expected to discuss the matter further this summer. Early in 2025 was discussed as a likely time to hold another special election.

When the $106.9 million bond was passed in 2018, it included money to build the district’s third high school and middle school,

but the district built smaller to keep the overall impact to taxpayers as low as possible at that time and also to account for the potential for slowed growth in the district.

However, growth has not slowed down. The district remains projected to grow by around 400 students each year for the next 10 years, the same rate it has grown each year in the past decade. The district is now considering a second bond referendum effort to account for the needed facilities to accommodate that projected growth.

Despite the recent bond referendums, the school district has continued to pay down its debt and it has been able to reduce its overall mill levy the past three years.

Prior to last year’s bond failure, West Fargo had strong support of its building referendums. In 2018, the $106.9 million bond was approved by 71% of voters. In 2015, 80% of 6,064 voters approved a $98.1 million bond. In 2011, 70% of 7,420 voters approved a bond referendum that helped pay for the expansion of what is now Sheyenne High School.

Local government reporter working the night shift 👻. I cover Fargo city government, Cass County government and undercovered populations in the area.