Horace Mann Elementary School opened in 1915 and has been a foundational part of the neighborhood community. Fabled tales of elephant ghosts and years of being a pillar of the community have colored the lives of students and staff. However, new infrastructure problems within Horace Mann and other facilities in the Fargo Public School District have forced hard decisions to be made, and Horace Mann is one of three school buildings scheduled to close.
The school board decided unanimously at the July 8 meeting to close Horace Mann at the end of the 2025-2026 school year and begin construction on a new building on the same site to educate the students currently at Horace Mann, Roosevelt, and Madison.
The school board discussed many options, but “selected this particular architect because they felt like they were incredibly creative. They were very responsive to the community and they could very much adapt based on what it is our school leaders want,” said Katie Christensen Mineer, school board president.
Fargo School Board memo lists updated and flexible and inclusive structural spaces as some of the elements largely considered in the new school’s design. No decisions have been made yet for the future of the other buildings, Roosevelt and Madison.
Christensen said the project is still very early in development; “We fully understand that the neighborhood losing an elementary school is going to sting. I don’t think anybody is really cheering or happy about that. However, we do feel that the Madison students will greatly benefit from being able to be incorporated into another school building.”
Madison enrollment rates have been continually low, with only one or two sections per grade. “We are reaching a point with the Madison school where enrollment is really just quite low. We want elementary schools where you have four or five sections per grade and there are a lot of benefits to that,” said Christensen.
Most schools in the district have at least three sections per grade level. “With having one section per grade for most of my time here there is no opportunity to split up students effectively to benefit the classroom,” said Zach Leer, a fourth grade teacher at Madison. This can affect student relationships. “With it being such a small tight knit community some students get really attached to each other and develop relationships more similar to siblings,” said Leer, which can be a positive but may not be especially beneficial to the teacher and how supported they are in the classroom.
Leandra Ostrom has served as principal at Horace Mann-Roosevelt for nine years, and has a bit of a legacy at Horace Mann and Roosevelt, growing up with her father as a P.E teacher there. She empathizes with the strong connection to the Horace Mann building, “we’re learning how this process can roll out and how it should roll out. What we know is that the more transparency, the more trust and not everyone is going to love this decision…So we’re balancing that as well, but we’re really putting the students first,” said Ostrom.
While Ostrom and the Fargo School Board seem to welcome the new change, Ostrom is right that not everyone loves this decision. This change has not been met with unanimous approval from the community. Several questions have been raised as to what will happen to the now displaced students of Horace Mann. Additionally, while the project is funded by insurance bonds and will not require an increase in tax, many still question the effect on the students with the change and the allocation of resources to this $45 million plan.
Missy Tedford, an assistant at Horace Mann who has worked there for over 20 years, is saddened by the proposal. “I don't think the students really know what's happening yet, because they are so young. Myself? I've been working here for 21 years, so I'm heartbroken that they're, you know, trashing this building,” Tedford said.
While the board has had opportunities for public input, not everyone has felt their voice has been heard. “That is hard because I feel like they didn't really ask us our thoughts. I mean, I knew it was coming. I just didn’t think it would happen this quick and they didn't tell anybody they were voting on it…So it's kinda sad, and I feel like they should've maybe talked to the people at the building to see what their thoughts were on how they should go about it. Well, where are all our kids going to go? Where's all our staff gonna go?” said Teford.
The decision as to what to do with these now displaced students will be decided in December. Information about transportation and new boundary proposals for northside elementary schools will also be shared with the public then. Decisions will also be made about what to do with the Roosevelt and Madison buildings when the new school opens.
“We had contracted with an organization to do some community outreach to the communities that will be impacted to get some feedback on what they would want to have in their spaces,” Christensen said, “we could sell it to somebody in the community who could then develop that space in different ways.”
That decision may not happen for a while. “I think a lot of it is because those decisions are still a couple years down the road. For the next two school years, the students who would normally be going to Horace Mann, they still obviously need a school. And so they will be dispersed into Madison, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Washington. So we obviously need to still operate all of those spaces for the two years that the new elementary school is being built,” said Christensen.
Horace Mann has started on some of their own plans before the building will be demolished. “We’ll have a place where people could tour, whether you're a past student or a past parent. They’ve even talked about maybe allowing, like, neighborhoods or kids who went school here if they want, like maybe a spindle or if they want some type of memorabilia,” said Tedford.
Right now the Horace Mann, Roosevelt, and Madison neighborhoods navigate significant adjustments to their schools, community and districts, One thing is for sure. People love and care about this building. As Tedford said, "I've had people call me, ‘I went to school there,you know, 50 years ago and I want to see it before it gets torn down’…I think it's got a lot of people pretty invested in this building.”
