It appears the Stockton Unified School District Board of Trustees is facing another round of shake-ups based on early election results.
Only two of the four incumbents — Donald Donaire and Sofia Colón — were holding onto slim leads after the latest vote count was reported by the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Office early Wednesday.
Nine candidates were vying for four seats on the board, representing areas 2, 5, 6 and 7.
SUSD, the county’s largest school district, has faced increased scrutiny over financial mismanagement that was uncovered in a 2022 grand jury report. The school district was only recently removed from the state’s list of those at high risk of insolvency. Many of those running in the election included financial oversight in their campaign pledges.
Area 2
Patrick Martin, an applied behavior analyst and paraprofessional at Bear Creek High School in the Lodi Unified School District, was appointed to the school board in November 2025. In Wednesday’s returns, the lifelong southeast Stockton resident was trailing far behind challenger Alicia Hernandez, who currently holds 63.1% of the vote, compared to Martin’s 23.2%. A third candidate, Sam Carpenter, was holding a distant 13.8%.
Neither Martin nor Hernandez responded to Stocktonia’s earlier requests for interviews or answered emailed questions about their backgrounds and campaigns.
During his November 2025 appointment interview, Martin said literacy and addressing gaps in support for students in special education were his priorities. In more recent public comments, he has emphasized financial oversight, early intervention, expanded behavioral health services and directing district spending toward measurable student outcomes.
The only publicly available campaign material for Hernandez was an advertisement on 209 Times’ Facebook and Instagram stories featuring her photo alongside the Spanish phrase “Lucharé por nuestros niños,” or “I will fight for our children.”
Campaign finance documents show she paid 209 Times $1,500 for print advertising and reported an additional $1,500 in advertising expenses.
Carpenter, a small business owner who grew up in south Stockton, has said student safety, academic achievement and financial transparency are his top priorites. He said he would support evidence-based reading instruction focused on phonics and foundational skills, expand high-dosage math tutoring during the school day and require regular public reporting on student performance.
He credited Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez with helping the district achieve greater leadership stability and leave the state’s high-risk list, but said academic performance remains a concern.
“Stability isn’t the same as results,” he previously told Stocktonia. “Our academic scores are still below the state level, and the board’s job is to hold leadership accountable for that, not simply approve what’s put in front of it.”
Area 5
Donaire, who has served on the school board since 2022, was outpacing challenger Malina Sanchez by just over 100 votes in the latest update from county voting officials.
He ran on a platform of ensuring safe schools and expanding student well-being and success, including improving literacy and mathematics. He acknowledged that good work has been done in the district but also said a certain level of scrutiny remains.
“I know there’s going to be continued monitoring through our public meetings, our regular meetings and our budget oversight committee,” Donaire said. “We try to be as transparent as we can be through other meetings like that.”
To help the district remain off the state’s high-risk list, Donaire said he would support public budget oversight meetings, stronger procurement procedures and continued monitoring of the financial effects of declining enrollment. He also proposed reducing spending on consultants and third-party contractors to invest in training and developing district employees.
Sanchez has said student and campus safety are her top priorities. On her candidate Facebook page, launched less than a month before the election, she called for the district to “modernize and upgrade” its elementary schools and put the focus “back on the students and not the adult issues.” She also pledged to hold monthly meetings with parents in her area if elected.
From a Democratic watch party at Valley Brew in Stockton on Tuesday night, Donaire said he has worked to increase his visibility within the community by showing up to forums, board meetings and other community events.
“I really wanted to go out and meet every single voter that I could,” he said.
Donaire’s lead over Sanchez — 52.5% to 47.5% — could be eroded as more votes are tallied in the coming days and weeks.
Area 6
Like Donaire, Colón was holding onto a razor-thin lead against challenger Christina Bacca McBrian, with elections officials reporting only 80 votes separating the two candidates as of early Wednesday.
Colón, who has served on the school board since 2022, said her priorities were fiscal responsibility for SUSD, literacy among students and fostering community involvement and collaboration.
“We don’t want to reset. We don’t want to go back to the last four years of chaos and financial challenges,” she said Wednesday night at Valley Brew in Stockton.
McBrian’s ballot designation lists her as a teacher. A search of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing website did not return a result under her name, and she did not respond to Stocktonia’s earlier requests for an interview or answer emailed questions about her background and campaign.
In a letter to Area 6 voters, McBrian described herself as a “common sense Democrat” and opposed boys competing in girls’ sports, saying young girls “deserve fair competition and a safe locker room.” She also called for affordable day care and after-school programs, writing that they “shouldn’t be a luxury, they should be mandatory.”
The latest ballot tallies show Colón edging McBrian, 51.4% to 48.6%.
Area 7
Incumbent school board trustee Kennetha Stevens was trailing challenger David Padilla by a wide margin early Wednesday.
Returns show Padilla — who has no campaign website or publicly available contact information and who did not participate in any candidate forums — with 61.9% of the vote. Stevens, who took office in December 2022, had 48.6%, according to data from the Registrar of Voters Office.
Padilla worked from 2023 to 2025 as a physical education teacher for kindergarten through eighth grade at Stockton Unified, according to Transparent California, a database of government employee compensation. He did not respond to Stocktonia’s earlier requests for interviews or answer emailed questions about his background and campaign.
Stevens served as Stockton Unified’s board president from December 2023 to December 2025. Outside her work with the district, she founded Exceptional Journey Consulting, where she serves as chief executive officer, and sits on the board of the nonprofit Amelia Ann Adams Whole Life Center.
She has faced scrutiny for voting to award the nonprofit more than $130,000 in district contracts, despite serving on its board as an unpaid member. A Stockton Unified spokesperson, however, said the district did not believe Stevens’ participation in the contract votes was improper because she was not compensated for her role at the nonprofit and did not have a disqualifying financial interest.