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Our call — see the breakdown
The race
Los Altos School District elects its board at large. Three seats are up on November 3, 2026, and four candidates are running — three incumbents and one challenger; 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.
The candidates are: David Poll (challenger), Brandon Stroy, Vaishali "Shali" Sirkay, and Bryan Harvey Johnson (incumbents). The race was debated in public at the League of Women Voters of Los Altos–Mountain View forum on October 13, 2026, and covered in depth by the Palo Alto Daily Post — this is the best-documented race in this batch, and its central fight is oversight: whether the board will hear teachers without the superintendent in the room.
District context from the board's 2026 meetings: trustees were warned that transfers to an out-of-district charter program (the long-running Bullis Charter dispute is this district's defining fiscal fight) could reach roughly $12 million next year.
The candidates
David Poll (challenger) — Record (Palo Alto Daily Post debate coverage, Oct. 15, 2026): Poll accused the incumbents of being unwilling to meet with teachers without Superintendent Sandra McGonagle present: "That's no way to provide effective oversight. It has to be possible for our teachers to raise concerns without their boss in the room." He said he has spoken with teachers and families and found "a real sense of not being heard at the district and board level." Poll is the only candidate endorsed by the district's teachers' union (led by president Allison White), a fact he raised in the debate itself; his campaign site carries parent endorsements describing a long record of showing up at school events district-wide, and he previously applied for the board's vacant seat in the spring appointment process. Credit: A specific, falsifiable oversight critique aimed at how the board actually governs, plus the teachers' endorsement. Dirt: None located. The oversight critique is his claim — the incumbents dispute it (below) — and we print both sides.
Brandon Stroy (incumbent) — Record: Stroy answered Poll directly at the debate: board members don't meet union leaders without the superintendent because those are the parties in labor negotiations, and "the board takes great pains to make sure that we are abiding by good governance standards… our doors are always open." He noted the union never reached out to ask his views before endorsing, and countered with his own endorsements: the Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Los Altos Mayor Sally Meadows, and several past board members. Credit: Establishment endorsements across the board and a stated governance rationale. Dirt: None located; the con is alignment — he is the candidate of the county Democratic Party and the status quo this challenger is running against.
Vaishali "Shali" Sirkay (incumbent) — Record: Sirkay defended her record at the October 13 debate alongside Stroy and Johnson (Daily Post). Her public file also includes deep district civic service: she served as president of the Los Altos–Mountain View PTA Council and co-chaired the campaigns for Measure N, Measure GG (the 2016 parcel tax), and Measure E (the Mountain View–Los Altos bond), per earlier Daily Post race coverage. Credit: Years of parent-organization leadership and successful district funding campaigns. Dirt: None located. Gap: No 2026 platform distinct from the incumbents' joint defense was located.
Bryan Harvey Johnson (incumbent) — Record: Johnson defended the incumbents' record at the October 13 debate (Daily Post); in earlier race coverage he is on record thinking through the district's hardest equity-and-enrollment question — whether a new neighborhood school would concentrate socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English learners — in careful, both-sides terms. Credit: Incumbent experience and visibly deliberative public reasoning. Dirt: None located. Gap: No 2026 platform distinct from the joint incumbent defense was located.
Pros and cons
- Poll — Pro: The race's only oversight-and-transparency platform: teachers heard without their boss present, families who feel unheard given a channel. Transparency is a stated value of this page, documented in his own debate words. Con: His one organizational endorsement is the teachers' union — labor's pick against three incumbents is a coalition fact voters should weigh; he is unproven in office, and no positions on curriculum content or school choice were located.
- Stroy — Pro: Full establishment backing (county Democratic Party, mayor, past trustees); a coherent governance defense. Con: The establishment candidate defending a closed-meeting practice a challenger has made the race's issue.
- Sirkay — Pro: PTA Council presidency and three successful funding campaigns — real district service. Con: No distinct 2026 positions located; runs as part of the incumbent slate under challenge.
- Johnson — Pro: Deliberative, experienced incumbent. Con: No distinct 2026 positions located.
Record gaps
Searches run for every candidate (October 25, 2026): Registrar's Final Qualified List (roster); Palo Alto Daily Post's October 15, 2026 debate coverage and its earlier Los Altos race file (Sirkay's and Johnson's records); the League of Women Voters' October 13, 2026 forum recording; Poll's campaign endorsement page; Citizen Portal's Los Altos meeting coverage (charter-transfer fiscal warning; the January 2026 vacancy-appointment decision Poll applied under). What is missing, honestly stated: no candidate in this race — incumbent or challenger — published a position on parental rights in curriculum, book and materials decisions, or school choice that we could locate. The documented fight is about oversight, and our call is confined to it.
OUR CALL
Endorse David Poll (one of your three votes). Unproven-but-aligned on the value this race actually documents: oversight and transparency. A board that will only hear its teachers with the superintendent sitting in is a board that has stopped overseeing — Poll named that practice in public, by name, against three incumbents, and it is the kind of check this page exists to back. We record the teachers'-union endorsement as a con in the open and endorse anyway: his alignment here is stated, specific, and his own.
No endorsement for the remaining two seats. Stroy, Sirkay, and Johnson are all credible public servants on this record, and none of them documented a position on parental rights, curriculum, or fiscal restraint that an endorsement could rest on; Stroy additionally carries the county party's endorsement as the slate's establishment anchor. Three incumbents are running for three seats — voters who share Poll's oversight concern should know their other two votes are, on the sourced record, a choice among equals.
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 - Palo Alto Daily Post — Challenger David Poll takes on the incumbents in debate for Los Altos school board (Oct. 15, 2026) — https://padailypost.com/2026/10/15/challenger-david-poll-takes-on-the-incumbents-in-debate-for-los-altos-school-board/ - League of Women Voters of Los Altos–Mountain View — Los Altos School District Board of Trustees Candidate Forum, Oct. 13, 2026 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDue4wAZvOk - David Poll for LASD — Endorsements — https://www.davidpollforlasd.com/endorsements - Palo Alto Daily Post — Bullis battle plays out in Los Altos school board race (Sirkay and Johnson earlier records) — https://padailypost.com/2018/10/14/bullis-battle-plays-out-in-los-altos-school-board-race/ - Citizen Portal — Los Altos board: charter transfers strain budget (June 2, 2026 meeting) — https://citizenportal.ai/articles/8106223/california/school-districts/los-altos-elementary/california/school-districts/los-altos-elementary/California/Board-warns-charter-transfers-strain-budget-approves-developerfee-increase-and-orders-November-election AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.