Join the rESPect Team!
Who: YOU!
- By joining the rESPect Team, you will join hundreds of fellow MFPE union members working as paraprofessionals, custodians & engineers, office staff, bus drivers, culinary staff, and beyond to talk with legislators, parents, and our communities.
What's our goal: Increase school funding so districts can pay us what we're worth!
- We are bleeding ESPs from Montana’s most rural school districts to our largest. ESPs across Montana are banding together with students, parents, and families to make our professions livable and sustainable. We want to keep ESPs coming back every school year, and we can do that if Montana school districts are able to pay ESPs what we’re worth.
We see two key challenges facing our professions:
- Hourly pay rates are downright un-livable. Instructional, classroom, and special education aids earned an average $18,024 in the 2024-25 school year. (That figure doesn’t account for custodial, transportation, office, or culinary staff.)
- ESPs’ summer jobs pay more, are less demanding, and lead individuals to not return the following school year.
