North Dakota United wants to recognize the tremendous work and dedication to their colleagues that hundreds of negotiators across the state displayed during contract negotiations. Collectively, ND United members stood united for a strong voice in the classroom, fair compensation for challenging work, and benefits to support our families.
Statewide, 2025 was a challenging year for K-12 educators who negotiated their contracts. As we have seen during many recent legislative sessions, our state leaders have placed tremendous challenges to school budgets by failing to invest in our fantastic public schools. Instead of investing state dollars into building the world-class educational system our students, parents, and educators deserve, our state has chosen to stand pat. When this is the case, our locals and the school boards they negotiate with are left with a smaller pool of resources to invest in educator pay and benefits.
While most of our locals fought hard to maintain contract standards, we did see some bright spots in places like West Fargo, which saw significant pay increases after years of work with their Board to address health care costs. Apple Creek also saw an increase of $6,000 to the base of the salary schedule over their two-year contract.
This negotiations cycle highlighted, yet again, that our advocacy for better contracts starts with the state Legislature. While we will often have different perspectives from our school boards about items like scheduling and leave policies, we need to fight together at the Legislature for the resources our students and educators deserve.
If you have questions about your contract or the contracts of districts across the state, please check out the Collective Bargaining section of our website or contact your NDU field consultant directly at 701-223-0450.
