Fargo Public Schools’ new superintendent

Dr. Cory Steiner is set to take the role of superintendent of Fargo Public Schools on June 30, 2025. Steiner has served as the superintendent of the Northern Cass School District since 2014, during which he led the small district of roughly 700 students through major changes to their grading system which sought to put more power and autonomy into the hands of the students.
Steiner plans to bring some of the student-led autonomy over to Fargo Public Schools: “I believe the system is about creating choice-ready learners. You should graduate with a unique set of skills that could be transferable to anything and I believe the way to do that is through a personalized competency-based system of learning. You're going to have a say in what you learn and how you learn, you're going to have agency, you're going to make choices,” Steiner said in his press interview with students from the district.
Changes of this degree are a big task, and Steiner doesn’t plan to try to implement them overnight. “Now, that takes time. We're in year eight of my eleven years here [at Northern Cass], it's taken eight years to get us to this point. We didn't throw out every single thing we were doing. We had taken incremental steps to build agency in our kids and autonomy with our educators. That's who I am. That's one of the things I will bring,” he said.
Steiner was chosen unanimously by the school board between two other finalists; Vincent Williams, current assistant superintendent of the West Fargo School District and former teacher here at Fargo North, and Dr. Robert Lech, superintendent of the Jamestown School District.
In an interview with WDAY News, the school board president, Katie Christensen Mineer, said it was an easy decision, stating, “He is clearly incredibly passionate about public education and about our youth experiences and learning. So I think on that side of things, he brings so much passion for empowering our staff, for believing in our students,” she said.
Dr. Rupak Gandhi made the decision to step down from his superintendent position to start a business with his wife. Read more about Gandhi’s decision in a future article.