Two UFT members will sit on the New York City Council in January 2022: Rita Joseph and Eric Dinowitz. 

David C. Banks, the founder of the Eagle Academy boys’ public schools, was named by Mayor-elect Eric Adams on Dec. 9 to be the next schools chancellor of New York City.

Leo Gordon, a New York City public school teacher for more than 26 years, has been elected the UFT’s vice president for career and technical education by the union’s Executive Board.

Decades of UFT advocacy bore fruit for the union’s paraprofessionals on Oct. 29 as a newly enacted state law guaranteed all UFT-represented full-time paraprofessionals — on the job now and in the future — will automatically become members of the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS). After they retire, TRS members receive a monthly pension for the rest of their lives.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew told delegates at the Delegate Assembly on Nov. 17 that the union plans to seek extensive member input to help shape priorities for upcoming negotiations on the next contract and health care.

A Herculean effort by the UFT helped turn the largest-ever shortage of New York City public school paraprofessionals into a record number of new paras joining the ranks.