Teamwork often comes into play when UFT members are doing their jobs — and sometimes, as it did at lunchtime on Nov. 7 at the Richard H. Hungerford School, a District 75 school in Stapleton, Staten Island, it can save a life.

Let me introduce myself. I’m MaryJo Ginese, the union’s new vice president for special education.

Activist Velma Hill and UFT founder Albert Shanker had crossed paths in the civil rights movement. So when Hill, armed with a master’s in education from Harvard, decided she wanted to organize paraprofessionals, she approached Shanker in 1968.

If you are a paraprofessional, have you ever wondered what your rights are in terms of leave time and absence from work? You earn one sick leave day for every month in which you are in service for at least 16 calendar days. The maximum number of sick leave days earnable in a school year is 10 for September through June.

When UFT President Michael Mulgrew introduced Carmen Alvarez, the winner of the Charles Cogen Award at Teacher Union Day, he praised her passion for advocating for special needs children during her 28 years as the UFT vice president for special education.

The tentative DOE-UFT contract announced on Oct. 11 features important improvements for paraprofessionals, including job protections like due process rights similar to those of teachers.