Parents, caretakers, educators and community members gathered at the UFT’s Staten Island borough office on Nov. 8 for the UFT Staten Island parent committee’s annual conference. Attendees took the day to bond with other caregivers and gained valuable information and resources during workshops on topics like keeping students safe online and parent-teacher association governance.

More than 1,000 UFT members turned out in a powerful display of union pride as they marched up Fifth Avenue on Sept. 6 for New York City’s annual Labor Parade. Members paraded in solidarity with thousands of other unionists across the city, on foot, by float or atop a double-decker bus.

More than 70 parents, guardians and children turned out on Nov. 9 for the UFT’s Staten Island Family Partnership Summit. The event, held at PS 20 on Staten Island, consisted of two morning plenary sessions, afternoon workshops and an exhibit fair.

The UFT welcomed families with a party atmosphere for its third annual Back-to-School BBQ on Staten Island where the union handed out 800 backpacks and school supplies to parents and students in the schoolyard of PS 21.

RoseAnn Victoria and LeeAnne Thristino, art teachers at IS 34 on Staten Island, organized the school’s sixth annual art show, where works of about 300 students were on display in the girls’ gymnasium on June 3 for family members to admire and purchase, with the funds raised going toward the program’s art supplies.

Nearly 1,000 educators, parents and advocates traveled on buses to attend the UFT’s annual Lobby Day in Albany. They asked state lawmakers to add more checks and balances to mayoral control of New York City public schools, fix Tier 6 of the pension system, require the city to follow the state's class size law and increase state foundation aid for New York City.

About 1,500 UFT members, family and friends gathered at the New York Hilton Midtown on Oct. 29 to honor the brave educators who put everything on the line in the 1960 strike that forged the union and the UFT activists who follow in their footsteps. This year, Teacher Union Day was dedicated to the Contract Action Teams.

The new class-size law and the importance of getting the DOE to abide by it was on the minds of parents and caregivers who attended the union’s parent conferences in Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens in October and November.

UFT members demonstrated through "public grade-ins" across the city on March 30, 2023, that educators deserve respect and autonomy in their next contract.