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Finance consultant and district parent Tara Boyce is running in the election this fall for the Area 2 seat on the Livermore school board.
Boyce is competing Nov. 3 against regional sales manager Stephen Orgain to represent central Livermore in the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District’s first by-trustee-area election. She previously ran in the November 2024 general election, but she placed fourth in the election for two at-large seats.
“At our core, LVJUSD is a great district composed of many talented teachers, staff, and administrators, wonderful neighborhood schools, and families that together work to lift up our children in an education that will prepare them for our topsy turvy world,” Boyce told Livermore Vine in an email interview.
“A functional Board that can work together, despite differences, to move this forward is critical in the next four years. My main priority will be to do my part to make this a reality,” she added.
As the parent of a second- and third-grader at Junction Avenue TK-8 School, Boyce said she is a volunteer at district campuses and on her children’s sports teams.
She also serves on the leadership team of a pro-public education working group dubbed Lift Up Public Schools. The grassroots coalition serves Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
“My motivation to run is rooted in what a Trustee SHOULD be, versus what it has been for many Trustees in the Tri Valley in recent years,” she told Livermore Vine. “The Trustee position is not a photo op, it’s not a platform to embed your ideology within the schools”.
Being a trustee is about bringing to the board skills that cumulatively work toward setting district policy and a structure of accountability for the superintendent, fostering an environment of respect, executing fiscal responsibility and ensuring every decision is student-focused, she said.
Over the last three years, Boyce said she has become well-versed in the district’s budgeting. She has served on the district’s LCAP Advisory Committee for the past two years and its Budget Advisory Committee for the last year.
Outside of her work on district committees, Boyce runs a consulting company for finance operations.
She has also worked for research and analysis group RAND Corp. and she has led groups that execute budgets.
“At a macro level, the district needs to be forward thinking in all financial matters while solving what is right in front of them,” Boyce said. “At a micro level, the collaboration between Cabinet, our labor groups, and others that began last Spring must be woven into our fabric to ensure decisions made around both budgets and spending are understood, transparent, and use good fiscal acumen.”
Holding the superintendent accountable to this financial method is vital, she added.
LVJUSD must also focus on passage of a bond in 2028, Boyce said.
“We have aging facilities that need attention in a way that only a bond can fund, and working with the community to solidify a bond package that is acceptable to voters will be critical,” she explained.
Boyce holds an MBA in accounting and marketing from the University of Scranton. She also holds a bachelors in political science and economics with a minor in gender studies from Wilkes University.
Prior to college, Boyce was a public school student, she said.
Boyce has received the endorsements of the Livermore Education Association, LVJUSD Board President Steven Drouin and Trustee Craig Bueno, former LVJUSD trustee Kate Runyon, Livermore City Councilmember Evan Branning, Fremont Unified School District Trustee Dianne Jones and the Building & Construction Trades Council of Alameda County.
“I am confident in her ability to step up as a board trustee and serve to protect a high quality education for all of our students,” Drouin said of Boyce.
