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Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7

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School District

Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7

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 the Trustee Area 7 seat. Incumbent Lori Cisneros faces Ernest "Ernie" Bell Jr., whom she beat for the seat in 2022, and Jeanine Adams, a realty consultant. 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. 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 7 is the other trustee area on this ballot that crosses county lines: the county's own candidate-filing document lists it as "shared with" San Bernardino and Ventura counties, reflecting the sprawling eastern Kern desert geography around Ridgecrest and Tehachapi that the seat covers.

Two of the three candidates are replaying the 2022 race, which Cisneros won by nearly 20 points. Cisneros argues her two decades as an educator and a first term already on the board make the case for continuity; Bell, a retired school superintendent who previously held this same seat by appointment before losing it, is making a second bid to reclaim it. Adams, the third candidate, has no prior public office and no published platform we could find, so the county's filing record is all that describes them here.

Lori Cisneros

Lori Cisneros is the Area 7 incumbent, elected in November 2022. She worked nearly two decades as an educator in public, private, and charter schools. She and her husband run Cisneros Farm Workshops on their farm in Tehachapi. She beat Ernest Bell Jr. in her first run, 59.7% to 40.3%.

Ernest Bell Jr.

Ernest "Ernie" Bell Jr. is a Ridgecrest native. He is the retired Superintendent of Sierra Sands Unified School District. He held the Area 7 seat by appointment, then lost it in 2022. A local charter school approved his employment contract in August 2024. He has stayed active in Ridgecrest area education since leaving the county board.

Jeanine Adams

Jeanine Adams is running under the ballot designation "Realty Consultant/Mom." They filed their declaration of candidacy on August 7, 2026, the last day of the filing period, and the county lists them as qualified. They have not held public office. We found no campaign website or news coverage of their candidacy.

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

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