Fargo board keeps negotiating unit intact after debate over reclassifying counselors, SLPs and coaches

The Fargo Public Schools Board of Education voted 7–2 to keep the same negotiating unit used in the district’s 2023–25 teacher contract for the 2025–27 negotiations, rejecting proposals to reclassify several groups of staff away from the teacher bargaining unit.

Board members cast final votes after nearly two hours of public comment and a lengthy staff presentation on how the district interpreted a recent North Dakota Supreme Court decision affecting which employees meet the statutory definition of “teacher.” The motion that passed directed that “the job groupings or positions recognized as part of the negotiating unit for the 2023–2025 contract remain the same for the 2025–2027 contract negotiations.”

The vote matters because removing staff from the negotiated teacher agreement would change who collectively bargains over pay, benefits and working conditions. Public commenters — including classroom counselors, instructional coaches and speech-language pathologists — told the board their day-to-day work is instructional and aligned to state standards, and that removing those roles from the teacher contract would misrepresent their duties.

“I come before you not just as an instructional coach, but as an educator, a teacher at heart, in practice, and in purpose,” Misty Miller, an instructional coach at Centennial Elementary, said during public comment. “We do not simply support teachers. We are teachers and our work is directly tied…