The largest school district in the nation has an unacceptably low number of buildings that are accessible for students with disabilities.

For many low-income workers, the most formidable barrier to higher-paying, more stable jobs is the cost of a college education. That barrier is scaled by the UFT Paraprofessional Chapter’s career ladder, officially called the Career Training Program, a benefit fought for and won by the UFT in the first DOE-UFT paraprofessional contract in 1969.

Paraprofessionals, including one-on-one paras, are entitled to a duty-free lunch period. Lunchroom supervision may not be assigned to paras.

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.