DICKINSON, N.D. -- The Dickinson Public Schools Board signed a purchase agreement with State of North Dakota and the North Dakota Board of Higher Education for land to be used for the district's new middle school, making what board members called an “important decision,” officials said.
The agreement, which went before a special meeting on Monday, would sell 30 acres of North Dakota State University Research Extension Center land northwest of Dickinson for $1.35 million, or $45,000 per acre, to the school district.
"This does put us forward in building the new middle school," board president Kris Fehr said. "It answers a question for the public, where the new middle school will be."
Board members considered several sites around Dickinson before narrowing their choices for the future middle school down to three last fall, including nearly 27 acres in the Pinecrest Addition in west Dickinson, and a 118-acre tract of land west of State Avenue and south of 21st Street West. However, partly at the urging of the city, the board decided to move forward with Extension Center's land.
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"These conversations with NDSU have been going on for approximately three-and-a-half years as we've tried to navigate the whole process of finding a site for the middle school," Superintendent Doug Sullivan said. "For a variety of reasons, the NDSU property is the most logical site for the location of the new middle school."
