Why I’m Standing With Amy Arundell: A Story of Loyalty, Integrity, and Leadership

From surviving a 3020a hearing to finding an ally I could trust — why I believe Amy is the leader the UFT needs now.

My name is Howard Titlebaum, and I’m the Chapter Leader at PS 152.

I want to share my story because it speaks to the kind of leadership and integrity we need in our union.

On January 25, 2016, I was served with 3020a charges — the DOE’s formal process to try to fire a tenured teacher. I was pulled from my classroom, isolated in a room doing mostly clerical work, and left to carry the heavy burden of an uncertain future. The only comfort I had was knowing I had an attorney, due process, and the right to face the charges against me.

After a hearing before an arbitrator, I was ultimately exonerated. I thought I could finally put it all behind me — but working for the New York City Department of Education, I was sadly mistaken. Just two days before the school year ended, I was reassigned as an ATR and sent to a new school. Being paraded out of my school and dropped into a new building at the last moment was as humiliating and degrading as it gets.

At that low point, I reached out for help. I called everyone I could at the UFT. Only one person picked up the phone and called me back: Amy Arundell. Amy didn’t know me. She had no reason to trust me. But she set me on a path to take back control of my career. She delivered hard truths I wasn’t ready to hear but needed to face.

Amy’s guidance helped me learn and grow from what I’d been through. Because of her, I became a better teacher and I found not just an advocate, but a friend I could trust.

Over the past seven years, Amy and I have stayed in contact. We speak openly, honestly, and respectfully. Amy is a person of integrity and high morals. She is someone who listens, challenges, and stands by her word.

I’ll never forget one night in early 2017, on Rosh Hashanah, when Amy reached out to learn about the holiday and the dinner I was cooking for my wife and family (and yes, my wife had some opinions about the meal!). Amy wanted to understand not just my role as an educator, but who I was as a person. That kind of personal connection means everything.

As someone of Jewish descent, I take great pride in my heritage. But above all, I believe we should judge people by who they are, not what they are. The conflict in the Middle East is heartbreaking. For me, it’s not just a religious issue, but a human one. Even one innocent life lost, Palestinian or Jewish, is one too many.

I know no one more loyal and trustworthy than Amy Arundell, not only to the UFT as a whole, but even during her time within the Unity Caucus and alongside Michael Mulgrew. Many people in today’s UFT leadership, from higher-ups to district reps, are where they are because of Amy’s guidance and support.

Over the years, I brought Amy my toughest questions and biggest concerns, including about the direction of UFT leadership. Amy never shied away from engaging in those hard conversations. Her honesty and integrity were the only reasons I ever considered giving the leadership the benefit of the doubt at all.

Amy’s reputation, both inside and outside the DOE, is a testament to her professionalism, loyalty, and the trust she has earned across the board. The biggest mistake Michael Mulgrew ever made was letting his insecurities get in the way of what’s best for this union. When Amy Arundell becomes UFT president, it will mark the moment the Unity machine was humbled by the very leader it once overlooked.

If Amy Arundell went out of her way for me when she had no reason to, just imagine what she will do for every UFT member as president.

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