Five incumbents and two newcomers elected to Richmond school board

Richmond voters have chosen the seven trustees who will lead the Richmond Board of Education for the next four years. In the 2026 Richmond Election on Saturday, Oct. 17, five incumbents won re-election and two newcomers joined the board.

Richmond Education Party incumbent Ken Hamaguchi topped the ballot, followed by party colleague and fellow incumbent Heather Larson. Advance Richmond incumbent Rod Belleza also won a seat, as did the slate’s newcomers Danny Chang and Dean Billings.

The final two seats went to incumbent Alice Wong with the Common Sense slate and incumbent Donna Sargent, who ran independently. Sargent was neck and neck with Advance Richmond’s Sophia Woo until the end, then secured the last seat by a 305-vote difference.

Empower Education Richmond incumbents Debbie Tablotney and David Yang both lost their seats.