At this point in time, if it were me, I would go w/ Discovery over Cheney. The teachers that I have met the West Fargo system are good, but lately there have been conflicts w/ the board and superintendent. My kids (6th & 3rd grades) are in the
Fargo Public Schools, and yes, have enjoyed very good gifted programs. My sixth grader is at Carl Ben Eiselson Middle School and has had a fabulous year. The kids at Discovery will be feeding into the third high school for Fargo which is slated to open in 2010--Judge Ronald Davies High. I'm not sure that competitive swimming is in the schools as early as 6th grade, but there are Y swim teams and a Gators competitive swimming program in town.
Most of the areas south of 32nd Ave S. feed into Discovery Middle School, but some of the school attendance areas are rather gerrymandered. If you look at the attendance maps on the FPS website, the following elementary schools feed into Discovery: Centennial, Bennett, and Kennedy. There are certainly townhouses in the Centennial and Kennedy attendance areas.