Cara Matthews

The Department of Education’s Open Market Transfer System gives UFT members the opportunity to transfer to a different school.

About 900 educators, along with 100 public school parents, made the three-hour trek by bus to Albany for UFT Lobby Day on March 11 to urge lawmakers to fix Tier 6 of the pension system, overhaul mayoral control of city schools and increase state foundation aid. That same week, thousands more UFT members sent emails urging their state representatives to support the union’s lobbying priorities as part of the UFT’s first-ever Virtual Lobby Day.

Central Park East II, which has participated in PROSE for all 10 years of its existence, has used the freedom that the program affords to embrace project-based learning, change its teacher evaluation system and more.

The Federation of Nurses/UFT members at Staten Island University Hospital-South ratified a revised contract with Northwell Health that increases wages and steps and puts them on par with nurses at other unions that have negotiated contracts in the past 18 months.

For $120 a year, UFT retirees who are members of the Retired Teachers Chapter can obtain supplemental benefits that reimburse them for some out-of-pocket expenses, including ambulance rides, dental work, hearing aids and private-duty nursing.

The UFT Florida Center in Boca Raton is now open each weekday, and members can stop by any time from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

While many people were in the midst of holiday preparations or celebrations on Dec. 23, UFT retiree Theresa Hambel was taking a course on changes to federal tax law. It was part one of her annual training as a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program tax preparer.