Moorhead Area Public Schools

What the Numbers Say About Moorhead Area Public Schools

Moorhead Area Public Schools is a small-to-mid-sized school district in Minnesota, serving 7,266 students at an estimated per-pupil spending of $21,867. Estimated average teacher salary — derived from instructional expenditure variable Z33 divided by teacher FTE — is $96,994, placing the district in the high-investment tier of NCES F-33 respondents. NCES LEAID 2721420 references the FY2022 Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Finance Survey.

Relative to the Minnesota statewide average of $94,946, teacher pay in Moorhead Area Public Schools runs roughly in line with the state benchmark — a 2.2% gap, and above the national instructional-salary estimate of $82,292 (17.9% differential). Among enrolling districts in Minnesota, it pays more than 79% of them. Licensing reciprocity, collective bargaining strength, and state aid formulas all contribute to where a district lands in these tiers.

On the budget side, Moorhead Area Public Schools reports $158.9M in total expenditure against $126.6M in revenue, with instructional salaries accounting for 30% of spending — a compensation-to-budget ratio that signals how much of each tax dollar reaches classroom educators. Regular-program teacher salary outlay is $26.7M, special-education teacher pay is $7.0M. These figures are district-level aggregates from F-33, not individual contracts — step-and-column schedules, stipends, and collectively-bargained differentials sit underneath these totals.