Helena teacher, lawmaker Melissa Romano chosen to lead Montana public workers union

A Helena Middle School math teacher who also serves in the Montana House will soon take over Montana’s largest public-employee union, putting Helena classrooms and state labor policy on the same path. Melissa Romano was चुosen as the next president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees during the union’s annual conference in Helena, where more than 300 delegates gathered to make the organization’s top decisions.

MFPE says it represents about 18,000 members statewide, including K-12 teachers, support staff, higher-education employees, state workers, county and municipal workers, Head Start employees and health care personnel. That breadth means Romano’s leadership will reach far beyond Helena, but her local ties make the transition especially relevant for teachers and staff in Helena School District classrooms, where pay, staffing, benefits and professional-development rules shape the workday.

Romano has taught eighth-grade math in Helena since 2004. She was named Montana’s Teacher of the Year in 2018 and has also received the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Before rising to the union’s top post, she ran for superintendent of public instruction in 2016 and 2020 and is now serving her second term in the Legislature.

Outgoing president Amanda Curtis has led MFPE since 2020 and will hand over the reins on June 15. Curtis said the union secured historic pay plans for state and higher education employees, helped win a statewide school health trust, and pushed back against privatization and union-busting during her tenure. She will return to teaching in Butte next school year.

Romano said she plans to keep teaching through the school year and remain in the Legislature until the end of the year, leaving her to juggle classroom work, lawmaking and union leadership at the same time. That overlap matters in Helena, where school staffing debates often spill into the Capitol and into the district itself, especially when state policy decisions affect teacher training, compensation and working conditions.

The next fight is already visible. MFPE says its educator conference has been held for more than 30 years during pupil-instruction-related days, and the 2026 conference is scheduled for Oct. 15-16 in Great Falls. The issue became more politically charged after Republican criticism of LGBTQ-related presentations at the 2025 conference and calls for legislation to bar teachers from earning professional-development credit for attending such events.

MFPE traces its roots to 1882, when frontier educators organized to improve Montana public schools. The union took its current form in 2018, when MEA-MFT and the Montana Public Employees Association merged after delegates ratified the deal in Helena, creating an organization that said at the time it had more than 24,000 members. Romano now inherits that history, and with it, a union role that will shape debates over schools, state workers and public services across Montana.