Fargo Board approves superintendent evaluation, authorizes $5.64 million construction phase; agenda and consent passed

The Fargo Board of Education on Thursday approved the superintendent's annual evaluation, authorized the first phase of a multi-facility construction project and passed the meeting agenda and consent agenda.

Motion and vote highlights

- Superintendent evaluation: Robin Nelson moved that the board approve the annual evaluation of the superintendent indicating "satisfactory performance and place a copy of the report in the superintendent's personnel file." The motion was seconded by Nikki. In a roll-call vote the board unanimously rated Superintendent Dr. Gandhi's performance as satisfactory; the motion passed 8–0.

- Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) 1 for multi-facility projects: Bill (staff member) presented a request to approve the first phase with a GMP amount presented as $5,600,000 in the memo and a specific GMP motion of $5,637,252. Jason Nelson moved to approve GMP 1 in the amount of $5,637,252 and authorize McGough Construction to proceed with the work outlined in that phase; Greg seconded. The motion passed on roll-call, 8–0.

- Meeting agenda and consent agenda: The board approved the meeting agenda (motion by Robin, second by Ally) and accepted the consent agenda (motion by Nikki, second by Jason) by voice votes. Each voice vote was recorded as approved; no formal roll-call was taken for those items.

Details and context

The GMP 1 approval was described by Bill as part of the district's long-range facilities plan; memo materials included preliminary cost estimates for a subsequent GMP 2 but the board was asked to approve only GMP 1 that evening. Bill said funding for the work comes from the district building fund. The superintendent evaluation summary was prepared from board feedback and had been approved previously by the governance committee before being presented to the full board.

Ending: The board completed roll calls and moved on to reports and committee updates.