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The two candidates competing for the open Area 2 seat on the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District board offered differing perspectives on district priorities and waded into the national debate on transgender athletes at a Monday forum hosted by the Livermore Vine.Â
District parents Tara Boyce and Stephen Orgain are each running for a four-year term to represent Area 2, which covers central Livermore on the five-member board. As the district’s first by-trustee-area election, the race features no incumbent.
In her opening statement, Boyce expressed a commitment to building a cohesive board that governs through innovative policies and respectful accountability while also fostering an inclusive environment.
She is the mother of two children who attend Junction Avenue TK-8 School and works as a finance consultant. During her career, she said, she helped manage a $500 million budget. She has also spent the last two years serving on the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan committee and the last year serving on the district’s budget advisory committee. Boyce ran an unsuccessful campaign in the 2024 general election for an at-large seat on the LVJUSD school board.
“My background and skillset are not present on today’s board, nor within the current field of candidates,” Boyce said. “They are critical in our current reality of declining enrollment, expiration of certain funding streams, uncertainty in federal funds and no decrease in need.”
In his opening statement, Orgain expressed a commitment to representing parents and the wider community.
He said he intends to bring to the board his experience as a regional sales manager, a role he said has taught him that success is based on communication, clear goals, accountability and a common purpose.
“I want to bring that same approach to our district to help build stronger collaboration between board members and the community they represent,” he said. “We may not always agree on every issue — that’s OK.”
The district must also recognize what is currently working and apply those methods elsewhere, he said.
“When teachers are doing great things, we should celebrate them, support them and learn from their success,” he said. “At the same time, we can’t ignore the students who are struggling or the teachers who may need additional support.”
Boyce said the top issues facing Area 2 are equity, facilities upkeep and the availability of afterschool programming.
She said Junction stands apart from Marylin Avenue STEAM Academy and Lawrence Elementary School as needing maintenance.
“Junction was built in the early 1950s and, man, does it show,” she said.
Junction parents fought hard about a year and a half ago to get the bare minimum for the campus, she said. Families flocked to a board meeting last May detailing reported facility and maintenance issues at the school.
Boyce called for a bond to fund facility projects, a follow-up to Measure G, a $450 million bond rejected by voters in 2022.
“There is no way the next bond can fail,” she said. “Without a bond, we cannot upgrade our facilities.”
Boyce also stressed the importance of increasing the capacity of the district’s afterschool programming, such as its Expanded Learning Opportunities Program.
Orgain said the most important issue to address in Area 2 is community involvement.
“We’ve seen a decline in trust. We’ve seen a decline in enrollment. We’ve seen all manner of decline over the last eight years or so here in the Livermore community,” he said. “Parental involvement helps us bridge these gaps.”
Orgain said it is key for board members to represent constituents without personal goals.
“It’s been lost somewhere in translation along the way that we are not here to force our agendas, our progressive ideals or any form of ideals on the community,” he said. “Our job is to listen to those in the community and be their voice here on the board.”
The district board’s transition from at-large seats to by-area representation will help make sure trustees represent their constituents because there is a smaller group of people to represent, he said.
“The best way to formulate that trust is to pound that pavement and start meeting those people,” he said.
To foster transparency, Boyce said the district must figure out how to deliver “bite-sized” information, as families are busy and email communications can get lost.
In addition to direct communication with families, Boyce suggested the district begin noting action items in board meeting minutes for follow-up at the subsequent meeting. She said this would solve the issue of questions going unanswered publicly after being raised at a board meeting.
The candidates also joined the national conversation surrounding LGBTQ+ students’ access to facilities and athletic participation.
Grounding the discussion was Title IX, a federal civil rights law initially passed in 1972 for prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools and education programs that receive federal funding. The Trump administration officially rescinded Title IX protections for sexual orientation and gender identity the same day as the Livermore forum.
The state of California, however, has additional protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
All people should use the bathroom and locker room of their gender, Boyce said, adding that the board must follow the state’s education code, which says athletes play for the team of the gender they identify with.
Orgain said he is comfortable with gender-neutral bathrooms and a welcoming community for LGBTQ+ individuals.
“But when it comes to children’s sports, biological males will play with biological males and biological females will play with biological females,” he said. “That’s not taking something away from the LGBT+ community, that’s giving back to little girls and little boys and keeping that holistic and once-simple concept.”
Although the seat is considered nonpartisan, the candidates have been backed by organizations from opposing political parties, with Boyce earning endorsements from the Alameda County Democratic Party, the Tri-Valley Democratic Club.
The Tri-Valley Republicans consider Orgain as having a conservative slate, according to the club website, though Orgain clarified he has not “personally sought the endorsement from any political organization from any side of the aisle, nor have I accepted any funding or campaign donations.” He spoke at a Tri-Valley Republicans event this month, according to the club website.
“I think that teaching politics is important, but politics don’t belong in our school,” he said.
He said some groups purport unity but then go online and attack candidates instead of having a rational conversation.
“If those groups want to bring some value, then my personal request to those of you who may be out there is, treat everyone with respect,” he said. “I hope that the political groups sitting on both sides of the aisle can do better.”
Boyce has also been endorsed by the Livermore Education Association and the California School Employees Association; departing district board members Craig Bueno and Steven Drouin; Alameda County Office of Education board President Cheryl Cook-Kallio; the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club; and the Building & Construction Trades Council of Alameda County.
She said she has not yet received any financial contributions from her endorsers.
The forum, which was recorded and will be posted on the Livermore Vine, also covered the use of artificial intelligence, the district’s financial status and assessments on the goals of district Superintendent Tony Limoges.
Livermore school board candidates Boyce, Orgain offer differing platforms for Area 2October 1, 2026 11:39 am
