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School District · Statewide General Election

Contra Costa County Board of Education, Area 4

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person holds the Area 4 seat on the 5-member Contra Costa County Board of Education: it sets policy for the County Superintendent of Schools' office, which runs the county's special-education and alternative-education programs and supports and hears appeals from the county's public school districts. A 4-year term.

Mike Maxwell is running unopposed for reelection to Contra Costa County's Board of Education, Area 4, on November 3, 2026 -- no other candidate qualified for the ballot.

The winner serves a 4-year term on the county's 5-member Board of Education, one of five geographic areas. The board sets policy for the County Superintendent of Schools' office, which runs the county's special-education and alternative-education programs and hears appeals from the county's public school districts. Area 4 covers Blackhawk, Clayton, Danville, San Ramon, and parts of Alamo and Concord.

With no opponent, this contest is less a choice between platforms than a look at what Maxwell has done with the seat he's held since 2014: a working high school educator whom his board colleagues have repeatedly chosen as their president, most recently for 2024, and who also serves on the board of a nonprofit serving foster and at-risk youth.

Mike Maxwell

Mike Maxwell is the incumbent Area 4 trustee, first elected in 2014 and running unopposed for another term. He works as a high school educator and has served multiple terms as the county Board of Education's president, including in 2024. He also sits on the board of directors of Youth Homes, a Contra Costa nonprofit serving foster and at-risk youth.

Strengths

More than a decade on the board since 2014, repeated selection by colleagues as board president, and a day job as a working high school educator.

Trade-offs

Running unopposed means no rival is pressure-testing his record this cycle, and no independent evaluation of his specific board votes surfaced in this pass.

Keep in mind

He also sits on the board of directors of Youth Homes, a Contra Costa nonprofit serving foster and at-risk youth -- a civic role beyond the county board itself.

Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 9 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Positions Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": the only county-section contest in the document is County Board of Education Areas 2, 4, and 5 (under Schools) -- no Board of Supervisors, row office, or Superior Court seat appears anywhere, consistent with both Supervisor seats up this cycle (Districts 1 and 4) having been decided outright in the June 2026 primary
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (8-27-26_candidatelist_detail_final.pdf), the county's post-certification ballot-order-proofing export: shows Area 2 as a 3-candidate contest (Sarah Butler, incumbent; Pamela West; Sibyl Minighini) with each candidate's filed ballot designation and qualification date -- this export omits single-filer contests entirely, which is why Areas 4 and 5 do not appear in it (see cc-candidate-summary-2026)
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Candidate List" (8-14-26_candidatelist_summary_final.pdf), the county's complete qualified-candidate roster including single-filer contests: confirms Area 2 (Sarah Butler, Pamela West, Sibyl Minighini), Area 4 (Mike Maxwell, sole qualified candidate), and Area 5 (Clyde Henry Lewis, Jr., sole qualified candidate)
  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Nomination Period Extended" notice (26Nov03_PositionsUpForElection_In-Extension-1.pdf, revised 8/11/26): lists "Contra Costa County Board of Education, Area 5" among the offices extended to Aug. 12, 2026 because no incumbent filed by the regular Aug. 7 deadline -- Areas 2 and 4 do not appear on this list
  • cccoe.k12.ca.us (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Office of Education -- "County Board of Education" page: names all five sitting trustees by numbered area (Daniel Nathan-Heiss, Area 1; Sarah G. Butler, Area 2, board president; Yazmin Llamas, Area 3; Mike Maxwell, Area 4; Annette Lewis, Area 5) and each area's term-expiration date, independently confirming Areas 2, 4, and 5 expire in 2026 while Areas 1 and 3 expire in 2028
  • contracosta.news (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa News -- "November Ballot Taking Shape in Contra Costa County" (Aug. 7, 2026): independent local-news roundup of the county's own candidate filings, listing the same three-candidate Area 2 field, Mike Maxwell alone for Area 4, and Clyde Lewis, Jr. alone for Area 5
  • youthhomes.org (opens in a new tab)Youth Homes -- Mike Maxwell board-member bio: a high school educator and member of Contra Costa County's Board of Education, also involved with the YMCA and San Francisco Giants baseball camps, who joined the nonprofit's own board of directors
  • google.com (opens in a new tab)SFGATE ("County Board Of Education Elects New President," Dec. 20, 2023) and the nonprofit newsroom Local News Matters ("Maxwell appointed to third term as president of CoCo... ," Dec. 23, 2023) each independently report Mike Maxwell was selected to serve as Contra Costa County Board of Education president for 2024, his third term in that role -- read from search-result snippets of both outlets; direct fetches of either outlet's own URL for this story returned a dead link
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- "MAXWELL FOR COUNTY EDUCATION 2014" (Filer #1370414), status ACTIVE -- Maxwell's committee from his original 2014 election, carried forward rather than a newly named 2026 committee; no Form 460/461/450 electronically filed for the 2025-2026 cycle as of this retrieval

Last updated August 31, 2026.