FARGO (KFGO/KVRR) — The Fargo School Board has unanimously approved moving forward with the replacement of Horace Mann Elementary School.
This is Horace Mann Elementary School, where students have been taught since 1915. But now the Fargo Public School Board is deciding if they should replace the building to build a larger school.
“I think it brings great support to our kids and to our staff. I think this will improve educational outcomes, the flow of a new building. We’ve seen the data how that impacts grading and scoring. And I think it will be wonderful for our teachers to be able to reach out to like teachers instead of have the separation at the smaller schools,” says Nikkie Gullickson, Fargo School Board.
During the meeting, many of the Fargo Board Members shared their support for the revitalization of Horace Mann Elementary School. The entirety of the project is estimated to cost $45 million with timelines for the project to be developed by December.
Students during the construction period will be temporarily placed at Washington, Roosevelt, or Madison during the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 school years.
Fargo School Board’s Katie Christensen Mineer says, “Two years ago when we started this conversation I think there was a lot of trepidation when it came to closing certain schools, building new schools, moving things around. But after two years of study as you can see from our unanimous board decision we feel like this is the right place to start and we feel as a board we are making the right decision for our district, for our students, for our teachers, and for our community.”
Horace Mann and Roosevelt had previously schooled grades kindergarten through fifth grade. But in 2008, they were combined with Horace Mann focusing on K through 2 and Roosevelt focusing on grades 3 through 5. Madison has continued to teach grades K through 5, but compared to the other schools in the district, enrollment numbers in each class have been low.
Mineer says, “The Horace Mann, Roosevelt decision was really based on the quality of those buildings. There’s a high level of deferred maintenance and those buildings are actually really lacking a lot of the more modern resources that we want our students to have.”
A decision on Roosevelt and Madison was not made at the meeting, but may be in the future.
Once the plans are finalized Horace Mann Elementary will be closed in June 2026.
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