Downtown Center Pause–A Flawed Process

For 47 years, CCSF’s Downtown Center has been a vital resource to Bay Area students and in particular the diverse immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities of San Francisco’s Downtown, Tenderloin, and SoMa neighborhoods. We encourage all AFT members to attend our next Downtown Impacts Bargaining session at the Downtown Center on Monday, May 11, from 12-3pm in Room 821. Reply yes to this email to RSVP.

The District’s March 6 decision to pause programming at the Downtown Center for fall 2026 was thus a significant one for the entire City College community, and AFT unfortunately must raise concerns about the process through which this decision was made. The District’s initial March 6 announcement left many in our community shocked and confused–was the District closing the center Downtown? Why were students, employees, and community members not adequately consulted in advance? Why was the historically largest and last remaining department operating out of Downtown, ESL, not consulted?

On April 13, AFT’s Impacts Bargaining team met with the District for an initial bargaining session, and one week later made the following proposals to address, among other issues, the clear problem of the lack of engagement and consultation in advance of the District’s decision. Two days later, the District responded with the following, eliminating nearly the entirety of AFT’s proposals without explanation. 

AFT has responded with the following Request for Information from the District regarding its decision and the impacts it may have:

• If this is merely a pause, how long will it be ? Where’s the committee in charge of developing a plan for rebuilding enrollment at Downtown, and which constituencies are involved in the discussion? What progress has been made in developing said plan? What’s the target date for communicating and implementing the plan?
• If this is a permanent closure, what evidence does the District have that the decline in enrollment at Downtown is due to decreasing student demand rather than class cuts? Since 2015, the District has eliminated 86% of its classes from Downtown, and lost 75% of its enrollment.  

AFT will be asking the District to explain its answers to these questions and to negotiate in good faith at our next Impacts Bargaining session at the Downtown Center on Monday, May 11, from 12-3pm in Room 821. Reply yes to this email to RSVP. We encourage all concerned AFT members to attend the session. 

Last Delegate Assembly of the Semester: Tuesday, 5/12, 3-5pm

We will hear updates on bargaining (Downtown Impacts and Contract Bargaining) as well as have a discussion/debrief of the 2025/2026 school year. We want to hear from you! What went well? What can be improved? Here is the agenda and zoom link.  All members are welcome!

Full meeting link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81016718065 

More than 1.6 million signatures submitted to permanently renew the Millionaires Tax

Last week our coalition of labor and community allies submitted over 1.6 million signatures to county elections officials to qualify the extension of Proposition 55, also known as the Millionaires Tax, for the November 2026 ballot. A tax originally spearheaded by CFT in 2012, Prop. 55 brings in about 15% of school funding in California by taxing many of the wealthiest in the state. It is set to expire in 2030 if it does not get renewed this November.

CFT President Jeff Freitas says he is grateful for all the CFT members who helped collect thousands of signatures to qualify this critical measure for the ballot.

“CFT members have been on the front lines of the fight to fully fund our schools through progressive taxation,” says Freitas, “because we know California shouldn’t give the wealthiest a tax break while our schools lose funding.”

(from 5/1/26 email)