Evaluations, elections and a continuing lack of curriculum materials were on the minds of the approximately 1,000 chapter leaders who gathered in Brooklyn for their annual start-of-school unionwide meeting.

The Sept. 12 gathering at the Brooklyn Marriott came two days after the primaries for mayor, City Council and other elected offices, and UFT President Mulgrew noted that the union had worked on 54 campaigns and that its endorsed candidates won in the vast majority of races.

“This is the last September that Michael Bloomberg will be in charge of our schools,” Mulgrew said to cheers.

With Bloomberg still in control for now, Mulgrew asked how many schools had not yet received new curriculum and support materials. More than half of the chapter leaders in the room raised their hands.

Mulgrew said this will likely be “a very difficult year.”

Between the continuing overload of paperwork for teachers; disagreements with the Department of Education over implementation of parts of the new evaluation system; and the general difficulty in dealing with the DOE, the UFT and its members face many challenges.

Mulgrew emphasized, however, that the new evaluation system presents an opportunity for teachers to break through and finally get the resources and support they need.

“The only way we can get true support is through the evaluation system,” he said. With observations, for example, he said, “the only way to make sure principals support us is to bring them into our classrooms.”

The new evaluation system also provides teachers stronger due-process rights than ever before, he said.

Mulgrew said the union will work with the next mayor to improve the evaluation system, particularly around the measures of student learning.

That point was reinforced when Adrian Brooks, the chapter leader at Holcombe L. Rucker HS in the Bronx, asked about the limited options for assessments, considering that New York City performance assessments are still undeveloped for some subjects and the state recently pulled its approval of certain third-party assessments that schools might have otherwise chosen.

Mulgrew agreed that the limited options for assessments were a problem. “This will be the priority focus in negotiations,” he said.

Mulgrew thanked chapter leaders for all their work and said that new teachers in particular need their support.

In recent years under Bloomberg, “we have lost more new teachers than ever before,” Mulgrew said.

But, tough as things are here, he noted, they are worse elsewhere. He pointed to the mass closings of schools in Philadelphia and Chicago.

With teachers’ unions on the defensive, it has been difficult for them to put forward a positive vision for public education, Mulgrew said. The UFT can help lead the way, he said, by demanding reasonable class sizes and an end to the overemphasis on standardized testing.

“We as a union need to begin to fight for what we need most,” he said. “We must reclaim the promise of public education.”