“I’m here to know what my rights are as a secretary and union member,” said Nancy Suarez of PS 191 in Brooklyn. Suarez was one of dozens of UFT members from the School Secretaries and the Teachers Assigned chapters who attended a Meet the President event at UFT headquarters on April 18. “I’ve never been to one of these meetings before and I just wanted to hear what President Michael Mulgrew has to say and hear what he’s doing for secretaries in particular, especially about more professional development for us,” said Elaine Delisi from Long Island City HS in Queens. Taryn Sanders, a member of the Teachers Assigned Chapter, spoke for her colleagues when she expressed concern about how the new teacher evaluation system may be used.

“Is it going to be used as a teaching tool or as another way to say a teacher is ineffective?” she said. After being introduced by School Secretaries Chapter Leader Mona Gonzalez, Mulgrew addressed these and other questions during the session, which included a discussion about the union’s working with secretaries to create and institute professional development courses. Mulgrew then turned to the subject of current city politics and the nature of mayoral elections. He drew applause when he said that public opinion polls show that not just Democrats but Republicans, too, are saying that Mayor Bloomberg is doing a bad job when it comes to education in a school system “that was once considered one of the best in the country.” More photos >>