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Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3

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School District

Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3

This person serves on the Kern County Board of Education. The board has 7 members. It runs special education and alternative education programs for the county. It also hears school appeals and decides county budget matters. The term is four years.

Three candidates are running for Kern County's Trustee Area 3 school board seat. 30-year incumbent Mary Little faces first-time challengers Regina Velasquez and Anastasia Hopper. This race has no primary, so whoever gets the most votes on November 3, 2026 wins outright.

The winner serves a 4-year term on the county's 7-member Board of Education, one of seven geographic trustee areas. The board sets policy for the County Superintendent of Schools' office, decides county-level budget and property matters, and hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals from local school districts. Area 3 is one of two trustee areas on this ballot that cross county lines: the county's own candidate-filing document lists it as "shared with" Tulare County.

The choice weighs three decades of board continuity against two fresh entrants. Little points to her tenure since 1994, while Velasquez -- a repeat candidate for county supervisor and state Assembly -- and Hopper, a first-timer who has already shown up at board meetings to push specific proposals, both offer a break from an incumbent whose last two elections were closer than her first 24 years in office.

Mary Little

Mary Little is the Area 3 incumbent, first elected in 1994. She has lived in Bakersfield since 1974. She worked 20 years as a CPS social worker. She now works part time as a legal videographer and Social Security disability advocate. She ran unopposed in 2018. In 2022 she beat challenger Dena Murphy by less than one percentage point.

Regina Velasquez

Regina Velasquez is a first-time candidate for this board seat. In 2020 they ran a write-in bid for the 34th Assembly District. They got 321 votes. They also ran in the 2020 primary for Kern County Supervisor, District 4. This cycle they pulled papers for Bakersfield City Council Ward 3. They never returned them and ran for the county board seat instead.

Anastasia Hopper

Anastasia Hopper is a first-time candidate for this board seat. They have often spoken at Kern County Board of Education meetings this cycle. They want the board to fund UVC air purifiers. They want an audit of transportation for homeless and special education students. They want school attendance added as a regular board agenda item.

Your pick

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

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