ACE Members,

President’s Message Opening Day
The work we all do is a crucial in achieving our district/college mission and creating the best opportunity for the success of students. Year after year I continue to be impressed by the ingenuity of classified staff when accomplishing the ever-growing tasks before us. The ACE organization is a product of that same ingenuity. Thank you to members for supporting our continued success as we move into a new academic year.

Open Enrollment
CalPERS’ 2024 Health Benefit Summary is an informative document for comparing plans we have access to (LINK) but take the opportunity to connect with our Benefits department on opening day or schedule an appointment to discuss options. If you need assistance with health benefits enrollment, please email MyBenefits@fhda.edu ; or call 650-949-6224.

See the Benefits website for more information (LINK.)

403b/457b Retirement Vendors
Vendors who show up on opening day are not vetted by the district nor ACE. You may also receive email messages from outside companies to manage your retirement. Be cautious – scrutinize these vendors.

The most popular companies with employees have consistently been Fidelity, Vanguard, and CalSTRS Pension2. For details on how to sign up, see the Payroll website (LINK.)

In the past we have worked with 403bwise.org to provide member education. They have a podcast series “Learn by Being Burned” along with self-paced education topics on their website (LINK.) Their next Q&A “Office Hours” event is October 5th from 4-5pm PST (LINK.) While it is very K-12 focused, much of it is applicable to FHDA. They have their own vendor rating here (LINK) which aligns with our most popular vendors.

7.22% COLA Ratification Voting Begins @ 2pm Today
If you do not receive an email from ElectionRunner with voter information by 3:30pm, contact our recorder @Shawna Santiago with your CWID number. Voting closes 5pm on Thursday.

Results will be shared with the membership by the end of this Friday. Notice will be sent on Friday to the district in time for the item to appear on the board of trustees agenda.

Reminder – Teleworking/COVID Return to Work MOU
In late 2022 ACE signed a memorandum of understanding which established an appeal process for teleworking. (See full MOU here – LINK.)

  • If your written request to work remotely is denied you may appeal the decision to ACE and the Associate Vice Chancellor of Human Resources for a final decision.
  • If your teleworking agreement schedule is ending, you should be provided a minimum of 10 working days’ notice in writing.

Unfortunately COVID has not completely gone away. Lately cases have been on the rise in Santa Clara County per wastewater monitoring (LINK) as we return to pre-pandemic habits. If you are sick, stay home – use your sick leave. If you are able to work, you may make arrangements with your supervisor to work remotely (although it is not guaranteed to be approved.) If your child tests positive for covid, you may use sick leave or potentially be allowed to work from home with approval from your supervisor until the end of an isolation period or while awaiting test results after exposure.

Appropriate teleworking arrangements will be made with any affected employees who must quarantine upon request by the district. If an employee cannot telework, then they shall be placed on paid administrative leave until the end of the quarantine period. This section shall also apply to employees awaiting covid test results after an exposure.

Contact a steward if you need help.

Bilingual Pay
Thank you to our negotiations team for their work reviewing classified employee agreements with the district and at neighboring districts. They are all available on the human resources web page (LINK.) Currently we have proposed the same language that exists within the FHDA-Police Officers Association (POA) for bilingual pay – see POA Agreement 6.6 (LINK.) It provides $100 per month for employees who are requested to use their bilingual skills along with a means for validation language fluency. To date the district has responded that they are not interested in parity between ACE and POA. At the moment, the district is declining to agree to pay ACE members for the same skill that they have negotiated with another bargaining unit.

Per our attorney, unless a language is specially called for in your classification, such as American Sign Language in the Sign Language Interpreter JD, you cannot be reprimanded or considered insubordinate for refusing to communicated in anything other than English. It is up to members to decide if refusing to exercise bilingual skills is worthwhile toward receiving equal compensation.

We will provide more negotiations updates throughout the process. The latest message has been posted on our homepage.

In Solidarity,

Scott Olsen (he/him) | ACE President
https://acefhda.org | scott.olsen@acefhda.org 
650-949-7789 | M-F 8:00am-5:00pm