Some Fargo families consider changing school boundaries themselves

"My daughter attends Discovery, she bikes to school. She's biked several times this spring – she loves it," says Brian Toay, a Fargo parent.

But her days of biking to school could be ending. One of Fargo Public Schools' top plans to relieve future over-crowding within the district sends students like Toay's daughter miles away from their neighborhood schools.

The plan isn't popular with some families, and it isn't entirely supported by all Fargo School Board members.

In a statement, board member Jennifer Benson says, "If Fargo Public Schools is going to champion the Safe Routes to School initiative, I feel strongly this needs to be a primary focus of our guiding principles in establishing school boundaries. This community has also historically supported and advocated for neighborhood schools. These recommendations go against this value which will create an inequity for students across the district. These scenarios will increase both BF and North High by nearly 20% and would also put CBE over their capacity within two years. These recommended scenarios are definitely not good long range plans! If the board were to accept these recommendations, we will be having this conversation again in just a few short years. Families will move or open enroll to neighboring districts in order to have a neighborhood school for their children."

Toay also says the seven mile drive would do more than take away his daughter's ability to bike to school - it could also limit her extra-curricular opportunities as well.

"Now they can bike to school, that's fine. They can walk to school, that's fine. But when it's seven miles away, there's no way those kids are going to be able to get there," Toay says. "There's just no option for them to get to school early, unless their parents bring them now if they move the kids to Carl Ben."

That's why he and other parents support exploring a different type of boundary change. Instead of shifting boundary lines within Fargo, some parents are now starting to ask about shifting the boundary lines between Fargo and West Fargo Public Schools.

"The closest middle and high school to my home is Liberty and Sheyenne in West Fargo because we're fairly close to 40th Avenue," Toay says.

"5.5, 3.8, and 1.7. And those are the distances to the three West Fargo middle schools from my front door. So by moving to Carl Ben Eileson, you're making my house closer to the middle schools in West Fargo," Jerry Stanford, a Fargo parent, shared at a recent school board meeting.

According to the North Dakota Century Code, parents can petition to annex their land into another school district.

"When open enrollment doesn't exist and there is no tuition agreement in place for two school districts, then they generally go with the annexation process. Most of the reasons are because of convenience, because of different services or programs," says Kirsten Baesler, the State School Superintendent of North Dakota.

Then the petition is presented to the County Annexation Board. The affected school districts may send someone to testify on behalf their interests as well, but Baesler says the board usually finds in favor of the families.

"If all of the requirements have been met by the parent wishing to annex their land into a different district, there's very little that would prohibit or would allow the board to deny that annexation," says Baesler.

Giving some Fargo families new hope that their children can stay close to home.

"It's definitely worth exploring. If I had to choose between my children attending Carl Ben seven miles away or Liberty – I would choose Liberty," Toay says.

The idea is catching the attention of state lawmakers as well. When it comes to boundary change concerns, Representative Thomas Beadle says he sympathizes with parents' frustrations, and plans to meet with several school board members next week to understand their concerns as well.