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Insufficient record — roster only
The race
Cambrian School District (San Jose's Cambrian neighborhood) elects its five-member board at large. Three seats are up on November 3, 2026, and four candidates are running — voters choose up to three. There are no trustee areas and no appointed-in-lieu seats in this race, per the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters' Final Qualified List.
This race was reshaped mid-cycle: incumbent trustee Nick Villalobos, who was running for re-election, died unexpectedly, and the nomination period was reopened through August 27, 2026 under Elections Code §8027, per the district's 2026 Board Elections notice. The final roster is: Carol Presunka (incumbent), Sergio Martínez (appointed incumbent), Debora Bodenheimer, and Harmony "Jay" McMillin. Roster note vs. the county's earlier list: the Registrar's unofficial candidate list printed August 18, 2026 showed only three qualified candidates (Presunka, Bodenheimer, Martínez) — McMillin's candidacy arrived through the reopened nomination period, and the Registrar's Final Qualified List controls.
The district's live fiscal facts, from its own Measure Q page: declining enrollment and rising costs forced $2.6 million in identified reductions and a consolidation from six schools to five (saving ~$1 million annually), and the board voted June 18, 2026 to place a parcel tax (Measure Q) on this same ballot.
The candidates
Carol Presunka (incumbent) — Credit: Sitting trustee (she appears on the board's adopted March 19, 2026 governance standards) during the consolidation and budget-reduction process. Dirt: None located. Gap: Presunka did not respond to the Vote411 questionnaire, and no re-election platform was located in this pass.
Sergio Martínez (appointed incumbent) — Credit: Martínez was provisionally appointed to the board (the district ran a public provisional-appointment process in early 2025) and is listed on his county filing as "Appointed Incumbent"; he now stands for election in his own right. Dirt: None located. Gap: No Vote411 response and no published platform were located.
Debora Bodenheimer (challenger) — Record (in her own words, Vote411): Retired educator; registered Democrat (her own questionnaire disclosure). Harvard undergraduate, Stanford master's in education; 30+ years in public education from classroom teacher (Ida Price Middle School) through assistant/associate superintendent at school, district, and county levels. Her platform: financial stability plus prioritizing recruitment and retention of teachers and classified staff; "whole child" supports — counseling, wellness centers, social-emotional learning; "inclusive and welcoming schools," anti-discrimination and anti-bullying work. Credit: The deepest education-administration résumé in the race, and the candor to publish a full platform. Dirt: None located; the con is programmatic — this is the professional-establishment, SEL-and-inclusion platform (see Pros and cons).
Harmony "Jay" McMillin (challenger) — Record (in her own words, Vote411): A parent of three young children in the district and a behavior therapist who has worked across several school districts, with a decade facilitating nonprofit parenting-education groups (Bay Area Babywearing). Her stated priorities: maintaining quality education and programs, attracting and keeping qualified educators, and "providing opportunities to the families in the district to have their concerns and priorities heard by the Governing Board." She pledges more avenues for community input before decisions are made, increased communication with families, and advocacy for parents who feel unheard; she also argues she knows how funding cuts can be managed to minimize impact on students and teachers. Credit: The race's only parent-voice platform, in writing. Dirt: None located. She is unproven as an officeholder — which, under this page's rules, is not a demerit.
Pros and cons
- Presunka — Pro: Incumbent continuity through consolidation. Con: No published re-election platform; no documented positions on parental rights or curriculum.
- Martínez — Pro: Board experience via appointment; stood for election promptly. Con: No published platform located.
- Bodenheimer — Pro: Thirty years of education experience at every level; full, specific platform. Con: That platform is the establishment program — social-emotional learning, wellness infrastructure, inclusion programming — with staff retention ranked alongside achievement; it is not the basics-and-parental-rights program this page endorses.
- McMillin — Pro: Documented parent-first platform: input before decisions, communication with families, advocacy for unheard parents — transparency and parental voice are stated values of this page, in her own words. Con: Unproven in office; her platform does not address curriculum content or school choice.
Record gaps
Searches run for every candidate (October 25, 2026): Registrar's Final Qualified List and the August 18 unofficial list (roster reconciliation above); the district's 2026 Board Elections page (Villalobos death and reopened nomination); the district's Measure Q page (fiscal context); Vote411 questionnaire for this race (Bodenheimer and McMillin responded; Presunka and Martínez are recorded as not responding); GoodParty.org pages; candidate-name web searches for campaign sites, news, and endorsements. No campaign site or endorsement was located for Presunka or Martínez beyond their filings.
OUR CALL
Endorse Harmony "Jay" McMillin (one of your three votes). She is unproven-but-aligned: the only candidate in this race who put a parent-voice and decision-transparency platform in writing — input before decisions, not after. That is documented alignment on two of this page's stated values, and unproven status is never a demerit here.
No endorsement for the remaining two seats (insufficient record / no alignment basis). Bodenheimer's platform is documented and is the establishment program we do not endorse; Presunka and Martínez published nothing on which an endorsement could rest.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website. Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same. --- Sources — bulleted with URLs. - Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters — Final Qualified List of Local Eligible Candidates, Nov 3 2026 General Election — https://files.santaclaracounty.gov/exjcpb1296/2026-09/qualified-list-of-local-candidates-9-28-26.pdf?VersionId=CM6jbwAVTLFIjLakj6hJku2l9KPAIxli - Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters — Unofficial List of Cambrian School District Candidates (Aug. 18, 2026; pre-reopening roster) — https://files.santaclaracounty.gov/exjcpb1296/2026-08/unofficial-list-of-cambrian-candidates-08.18.26.pdf?VersionId=EEs.WswTwTx2DoaLWdgG9Ectjd6JmSrI - Cambrian School District — 2026 Board Elections (reopened nomination after Trustee Villalobos's death) — http://www.cambriansd.org/board-of-trustees/2024-board-election-clone - Cambrian School District — Measure Q, 2026 Parcel Tax (consolidation and budget facts) — https://www.cambriansd.org/departments/business-services/parcel-tax/measure-q-2026-parcel-tax - Vote411 / League of Women Voters — Cambrian School District Governing Board Member questionnaire (Bodenheimer and McMillin responses) — https://onyourballot.vote411.org/race-detail.do?id=69304159 - GoodParty.org — Cambrian School Board candidates — https://goodparty.org/elections/ca/cambrian-elementary-school-district/position/local-school-board AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.