Fargo School Board Votes To Censure Member Over Enrollment Allegations

The school board voted 7-2 to censure Jennifer Benson

FARGO, N.D. — Fargo School Board has voted to censure one of its own members for allegedly making false accusations against Superintendent Rupak Gandhi and a top assistant.

Jennifer Benson says they intentionally withheld information about declining enrollment numbers.

“What motivation would we ever have to withhold enrollment information? And then secondly, if we wanted to deliberately keep that information from the board, why was that not questioned one of at least 5-10 times we presented enrollment information to this board?,” said Gandhi.

Benson responded, “Are you asking me to answer that? Because you did and there’s proof of the charts that were given to you and then never forwarded or sent to the board.”

The school board voted 7-2 to censure Benson.

The “no” votes coming from Benson and David Paulson.

Board Vice-President John Rodenbiker said he didn’t think it was a credible accusation and he said it was wildly out of order for “a board member to act like this.”

Policy states that censure is possible in the event of a board member’s “willful and continuing violation of policy.”