THOUSANDS OF SCHOOL EMPLOYEES AFFILIATE WITH AFT

"This affiliation will help us gain more respect for school-support employees, whose work is generally underpaid, overlooked and taken for granted," said Mike Campbell, president of the Nevada Classified School Employees Association, or NCSEA.

NCSEA represents 3,475 paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel, including more than 2,000 in Reno. The remainder work throughout northern Nevada. The employees are paraprofessionals (teachers' aides), bus drivers, secretaries, food service workers, custodians and school maintenance workers.

The AFT represents more than 230,000 paraprofessionals and other school-related employees nationwide. The NCSEA and members of the AFT's Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel division also are affiliated with the American Association of Classified School Employees.

"We'll work very hard to make sure that these school employees get the resources and respect they need to do the best job possible," said Lorretta Johnson, an AFT vice president and president of the AFT's Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel (PSRP) division.

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