More than 1,000 UFT members and guests — including James Geigel, his immigrant grandparents Angelina and Modesto Hernandez and his mother Nitza Hernandez — all paras or paras who became teachers — packed the New York Hilton's Grand Ballroom to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the chapter.

Paraprofessional Hollie Tubbs of PS 231 in Brooklyn set out to inspire her students during Black History Month but she ended up inspiring people across the world after a photo went viral on social media.

After almost a decade of complaints, malfunctions and payments of more than $70 million to thousands of UFT members to compensate them for work outside school hours, the DOE is finally pulling the plug on the $130 million Special Education Student Information System that it launched in 2011.

It’s not right to dance on a grave, but with SESIS we’ll make an exception.

As paraprofessionals celebrate 50 years in the UFT, members can thank Velma Hill, the chapter’s founder and first chair, for leading the charge to uplift paras and their communities by transforming their job into a secure union career.

Susan O’Rourke, a school secretary at PS 23 on Staten Island, encouraged her three older sisters to become paraprofessionals.

Anthony Sanchez, his wife, Alejandra, and his mother, Juana, are all paraprofessionals in schools in Queens.

Christina Cingari and her daughter, Brianna, are both paraprofessionals who followed in the footsteps of their mother and grandmother, Mary Valva, now retired.