Join the rESPect Team! Be in the fight for higher wages, more funding, & full staffing.
Who: You! The rESPect Team is about turning our voices into action at the Capitol & in every school district. If you want to help win real change for ESPs and Montana public schools, join us.
- 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: rESPect!
- 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.)
- Our gap in summer employment & pay leads us to find other jobs. We have no choice but to find summer jobs that nearly always pay more, are less demanding, and lead individuals to not return the following school year. What's wrong with that, people might ask? Students, parents, and families know schools don't run without us.
