Letter: It’s time for Fargo and West Fargo to merge school districts – InForum

At a time when Fargo and West Fargo school leaders have seen resistance to needed schools and improvements, a new unified strategy is needed. Parties with vested interests in keeping them separate will never support merging, so momentum will need to come from the citizens themselves. School board seats, superintendents and other positions would be consolidated and surely not willingly, and city leaders would be against sharing tax dollars. But in a time when many residents are calling for lower taxes, this would help.

But it’s not only about tax dollars. Both cities are long and slender, which makes redrawing boundaries painful and often illogical despite the necessity. Joining the school districts would give the metro a more rounded canvas to work with. For instance, the new Meadowlark Elementary may not have been needed had some students from the nearby schools been shifted to Kennedy Elementary. Additionally, current students going to Kennedy could one day attend Sheyenne High instead of the much further South High. When an interior city school gets crowded or closed, students could relocate a mile west instead of relocating three miles north.

These problems will be exasperated in the coming years. In only a quarter century the southside metro developed approximately 19 square miles, filling it with 10 elementary and three high schools. There is another 24 square miles to develop. Combining the districts would give boundary flexibility and decrease the number of schools built, and costs and services both districts carry could be cut in half.

Nicholas Oberholtzer lives in Fargo.