Fargo School Board Approves New Teacher Contract

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – Fargo School Board and Fargo Education Association have been in negotiation discussions since February.

The two parties met twenty times prior to reaching the state-imposed impasse deadline of July 1st.

The FEA completed the ratification vote of its members on November 3, 2023, and the Agreement has been accepted by a majority of the FEA membership.

The Focus of today’s session was Retroactive payment.

Fargo Board of Education Vice President, Seth Holden said, “It is the recommendations of the negotiations committee that the board approve the 2023 2025 negotiated agreement between the board and the FEA in addition the negotiations committee is recommending the board provide retroactive payment to those covered by the negotiated agreement.”

With these discussions carried into the school year the board is making sure teachers received all the payments they have worked for.

The two sides did agree to terms today but are already thinking about how to avoid these situations in years to come.

Holden also said, “We think there’s several different ways to solve problems. Not every single one is in the contract and i think the board could do there do diligence to see if we can’t work with the FEA throughout the school year, throughout this contract the next 2 years to see if some of those problems that arise can’t get solved immediately rather than wait until we get to the table.”

The contract represents a base salary increase of 8.97% in the first year of the two-year agreement.