Classified Members

The mission of the School-Related Personnel Council is to represent the voice of AFT Washington’s members who work in classified staff jobs in educational settings by bringing the membership’s perspectives, interests and needs to the State Federation and to keep members informed of State Federation information, legislative, policy, and other advocacy efforts, and engagement opportunities. The SRP plays a role in identifying and creating opportunities for professional development for our school-related personnel membership. The SRP Council also serves the purpose of sharing local-based challenges, opportunities and successes with the goals of learning from one another, sharing effective strategies and practices, inspiring one another, and celebrating one another while accessing support from the State Federation.

This year, Governor Ferguson proclaimed March 9^th through 13^th as Education Support Professionals week. In so doing, he acknowledged the work that ESPs do in our schools – maintaining grounds and buildings, cleaning classrooms, driving buses, preparing meals, supporting students one on one, and all of the many other underappreciated jobs that make our schools safe and welcoming places for students to learn and thrive in. 

You can read the full text of the proclamation here. 

This summer, we plan to take the Governor at his word and begin the conversations with legislators around wages, staffing needs, and other improvements we can request of the Legislature next session. Your input is crucial as we gather information about what ESPs need – talk with your local’s board if you have ideas for improvements that aren’t on our radar.

Watch for opportunities to raise your voice and make the Legislature hear you: your work is valuable and essential. As the proclamation notes, you are a crucial partner to parents, teachers, administrators and, most of all, students. We want to take this opportunity to thank you for that work and recognize your commitment to our schools, and we want to call on the Legislature and the Governor to do more than verbally support you and our students and schools.

The Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel (PSRP) division of the American Federation of Teachers represents more than 360,000 school support staff in K-12 districts, colleges and universities throughout the country. These jobs include office employees, custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, instructional paraprofessionals, food service workers, school nurses and health aides, technicians, groundskeepers, secretaries, bookkeepers, mechanics, special education assistants and hundreds of other job titles. To find out more, check out AFT's PSRP website.

Share My Lesson is a place where anyone who works with students—inside or outside of schools—can come together to share their very best resources. This free platform gives access to high-quality resources and provides an online community where educators and parents can collaborate with, encourage, and inspire each other. It is for:

• A food service worker who wants to share or find best resources on nutrition.
• An early childhood educator who has or wants great activities for very young students.
• A classroom paraprofessional with ideas on how to work with individual students and small groups.

To join Share My Lesson, go to AFT's website at www.sharemylesson.com.

We represent classified members in PreK-12 and higher education in the following locals:

• AFT Kent Classified Local 6344
• AFT Renton Local 6367
• AFT Renton Technical College Classified Local 6421
• Clover Park Technical College Classified Local 4789
• Federation of Head Start Employees Local 6153
• Lake Washington Federation of College Classified Local 4787
• Tacoma Federation of Education Support Professionals Local 461
• United Classified Workers Union Local 4795

Melissa Roach, Chair (Tacoma Federation of Education Support Professionals and AFT Washington VP of School-Related Personnel)

The Classified Council meets quarterly October through June each year. The Council meets virtually on the first Thursday of the month. For questions about the Council, please contact Kaitlin Gillespie at 206-604-8877 or kgillespie@aftwa.org.