Nervous about the effect that COVID-19 is having on the economy, the Fargo (N.D.) School Board has narrowly voted down a plan to build a new middle school, at least for now.
KFGO Radio reports that the Fargo district has been looking at whether to redraw attendance boundaries or add a new school in order to alleviate crowding in several schools.
School board member Jim Johnson says that because the district is facing an “unknown revenue future,” it’s time to postpone the decision to build a new school.
Johnson says a variety of factors, including the significant drop in the price of oil, will affect state revenue dramatically. That means it’s likely state aid to schools will take a hit.
In addition, delinquency rates on local property taxes are expected to go up, based on the economic disruption broughton by the pandemic.
Board member Kristi Ulrich disagreed with the decision to delay middle school construction. She says the district has been dealing with the issue for three years and there’s never a “good” time to make a major decision like this.
“It’s really hard and tough to table this until we are in-person because we don’t know when that’s going to be.”
The 5-4 vote not to proceed with the building project followed lengthy debate during an online meeting conducted on Zoom.
