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Fargo presenters show community-led redevelopment options for shuttered school sites; board hears land-trust and development-authority ideas
Summary
Consultants presented findings from five months of public engagement about potential long‑term reuse of four Fargo Public Schools sites. Residents voiced concern about “fear of the unknown,” preference for community spaces and access, and at least one neighborhood speaker urged repurposing the Hawthorne site as employee childcare.
Consultants hired by Fargo Public Schools summarized five months of community engagement on potential long‑term redevelopment of four elementary and middle‑school sites, telling the Board of Education the work showed broad public interest in preserving community benefit and more transparent, strategic communication about future steps.
The presentation, led by staff from Confluence, Folkways and Pros Consulting, outlined how the team collected sentiment through 92 online surveys, 32 individual stakeholder interviews, five neighborhood workshops and four school visits. Laura from Confluence said the project’s goal was to “start with values” and then pair what residents care about with demographic and planning analyses when imagining future uses for sites such as Hawthorne, Clara Barton, Madison, Roosevelt and Ben Franklin.
The consultants said recurring themes were a “fear of the unknown,” strong attachment to existing school locations, and the risk that losing a school could erode a neighborhood’s sense of community. The…
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