Association of Classified Employees Foothill – De Anza

2026.05.13 Update – Property Tax Revenue, Negotiations, Union Position Transition, AI, Climate Pulse Survey

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ACE

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ACE Members,

Property Tax Revenue Update
The May Board of Trustees meeting began with a presentation by Nesa Fligor, Santa Clara County Assessor, who reported that property value growth is similar to last year. FHDA CCD is the largest recipient of revenue due to cities in our jurisdiction. Final roll is on June 30th.

Why does this matter? The largest source of our district’s funding has shifted from the state to local. While we still keep an eye on the State COLA in the Governor’s May revise as a guide for salary negotiations, local property taxes are our new data source to pay attention to. Reminder: Neither the COLA nor this property tax revenue is automatically passed to employees – everything is negotiated. Our team is set to begin negotiations soon. @Chris Chavez will provide updates.

Negotiations, Sunshine, Reopeners
For those that would like to review our sunshine letter which opens negotiations, it is available on the recent Board of Trustees agenda (LINK). We’re opening Article 8 – Pay, 18 – Benefits, 10 – Leaves, and 15 – Classification. The District has chosen to open Article 17 – Retirement.

Traditionally Articles 8 and 18 are always open. ACE opens two additional article and the District opens two additional articles.

Union Position Transition

  • VP for De Anza, @Lisa Ly, is currently working out of class as an administrator and will return in June.
  • VP for Foothill, @Phuong Tran, will be going on Staff Development Leave in Aug/Sep and we will need to seek a replacement to serve out until the end of her current term.
  • Chief Steward for De Anza, @Andre Meggerson, will be going on Staff Development Leave in Aug/Sep and we will need to seek a replacement to serve out until the end of his current term.
  • Chief Steward for Central Services, @Thomas Marks, is currently working out of class as a supervisor. We will need to seek a replacement to serve out until the end of his current term.
  • Bookkeeper, Nancy Reynolds, is ending her practice and the ACE Executive Board has approved to offer the same job at the same rate of pay to a union member.

Are you interested in serving as a DA/CS Chief Steward or FH VP? Do you have the training and experience to be a bookkeeper? Reach out to existing board members in those roles or @Scott Olsen and @Jesse Perez to apply for the bookkeeper position (by next Thursday, May 21st.)

Artificial “Intelligence” Anxiety
While ACE has not established new language related to AI implementation existing union protections continue to serve members:

  • Bargaining Unilateral Change in Working Conditions (LINK)
  • Contracting Out Bargaining Unit Work (Article 7.17) & Use of Temporary Employees (Article 4)
  • Layoff (Article 11)

To date no one has been laid off due to AI implementation and there has been no proposal to eliminate a job because of an AI chabot/tool/contract. Our stance is that AI cannot replace any employee’s function at the District. Contact us if any changes occur in your work area.

Interested in more AI skepticism, doom, and gloom? Watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s episode on AI Chatbots (LINK) [30 minutes]

District 12-question Climate Pulse Survey
Please respond by Friday, May 22nd  (LINK)

In Service,

Scott Olsen (he/him) | ACE President
https://acefhda.org | scott.olsen@acefhda.org 
650-949-7789 | M-F 8:30am-5:00pm

This email was handcrafted by a human being for fellow human beings.

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