West Fargo Superintendent Beth Slette speaks with the media after Tuesday’s vote results were announced
(WEST FARGO, ND) – West Fargo Public Schools Superintendent Beth Slette said she’s hearing mixed messages about the referendum voted on Monday.
“Some people said, ‘Just look out five years, and keep that number as low as possible,’” she said. “Others said, ‘You’re not looking out far enough.’”
Slette said district leaders have always used a five-year outlook when it comes to space needed for the district.
Reaction to individual question results
Only one question passed Monday night. Voters approved $99.7 million for the completion of Heritage Middle School and Horace High School, adding multipurpose rooms at West Fargo and Horace high schools, building an inclusive playground at the Early Childhood Center, special education improvements, adding classroom space for early childhood special education programming, the renovation and expansion of South Elementary School, safety and security upgrades and restroom renovations.
Slette said she was disappointed that the second question failed, which would have included $58 million for elementary renovations, a new elementary school, acquisition of land and a second expansion of space for early childhood special education programming.
“But it does reinforce that our community, our stakeholders, our taxpayers want us to look out as far, and keep that number as low as possible,” she said. “And then we’ll have to assess our situation in a few years and come back at it for those projects in round two.”
When it came to question one, Slette said a lot of complicated information had been shared – making it difficult to communicate the need, especially for those who haven’t been in the school.
Voter turnout
The voter turnout was higher this year than in 2023.
“I’m really happy that people got so engaged this round,” Slette said. “They were very, very involved, and I think the numbers just show that they had the correct information, they had the details on the voting. I think it helped that we had our voting in our school to make it easy for people to get out and vote.”
She had a simple answer.
“Education matters,” Slette said. “Our community supports education, and they came out to tell us what they thought.”
Future plans
With the passage of the first question, the upgrades and other projects will be taken care of during the next five years.
“We have what we need to ensure that we have spaces for the new families that are coming in, as well as the students moving up through the system,” Slette said.
As far as further than that, she said in three to four years another conversation will need to take place.
“We had another elementary school on question number two in the next six to 10 years,” Slette said. “So we’re going to have to continue to watch that.”
