# Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7

Compare records and positions simply between Lori Cisneros, Ernest Bell Jr., and 1 more for Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. 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.

- Jurisdiction: School District
- Election: November 3, 2026 California general election
- Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements.
- Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/kern-boe-area-7
- Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/
- Sources last retrieved: September 7, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 11 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Lori Cisneros** — Incumbent
- **Ernest Bell Jr.**
- **Jeanine Adams**

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

Kern County's Board of Education has a three-way race for the Trustee Area 7 seat on November 3, 2026: incumbent Lori Cisneros faces Ernest "Ernie" Bell Jr., the man she unseated in 2022, and Jeanine Adams, a realty consultant who qualified on the last day of filing. It's a direct November election with no June primary for this office -- whoever gets the most votes 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 after nearly two decades as an educator in public, private and charter school settings. She and her husband operate Cisneros Farm Workshops on their farm in Tehachapi. She defeated then-incumbent Ernest Bell Jr. in her first run, 59.7% to 40.3%.

**Strengths:** Nearly two decades of classroom experience across public, private and charter settings, plus a decisive first-election win against the sitting incumbent.

**Trade-offs:** One term on the board so far, with no additional public office on her record beyond this seat, and no independent news coverage of her specific board votes surfaced this pass.

**Keep in mind:** Her 2026 committee is active but has not filed a campaign-finance disclosure as of this writing; her biography here comes from the county board's own site, not an independent profile.

## Ernest Bell Jr.

Ernest "Ernie" Bell Jr. is a Ridgecrest native and retired Superintendent of Sierra Sands Unified School District who held the Area 7 seat by appointment before losing his bid to keep it in 2022. A local charter school's governing board approved his employment contract in August 2024, so he has stayed active in Ridgecrest-area education since leaving the county board.

**Strengths:** A full career as a school administrator, capped by running an entire local school district, plus prior board experience in this exact seat.

**Trade-offs:** He already lost this seat once, decisively (40.3% to 59.7%), and running to reclaim a seat he was previously voted out of is a harder case to make than a first-time bid.

**Keep in mind:** No campaign committee or candidate filer entry is registered under his name with the state, and no coverage of his specific 2026 platform (as distinct from his professional biography) surfaced this pass.

## Jeanine Adams

Jeanine Adams appears on the county's official candidate list under the ballot designation "Realty Consultant/Mom." They filed their declaration of candidacy on August 7, 2026, the final day of the filing period, and the Elections Division lists them as qualified for the Area 7 seat. They have not held public office. No campaign website, candidate statement, or news coverage of their candidacy surfaced in this pass, so the county's filing record is the only description of them we can offer.

**Strengths:** A candidate from outside the school-administration world, which neither of the other two can claim.

**Trade-offs:** No public office, no published platform, and no coverage of Adams's candidacy surfaced, so voters have only their ballot designation to go on.

**Keep in mind:** This profile rests on the county's filing record alone; there is nothing here about their views on the board's work.

## Sources

1. [Kern County Elections Division -- official "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (report CFMR001) for the November 3, 2026 General Election: within its county-office section, only two contests appear -- Board of Education Trustee Areas 3 and 7 -- naming each area's incumbent (Mary Margaret Little, Lorena Joy Cisneros) and showing each as "ON BALLOT 1 3 3", i.e. three qualified candidates apiece (Area 7: Lori Cisneros, Ernie Bell Jr., Jeanine Adams -- qualified 8/7/2026, p. 15); no Board of Supervisors, Sheriff, District Attorney, Assessor, Auditor-Controller-County Clerk, Treasurer-Tax Collector, or Superior Court Judge contest appears anywhere in the 97-page document](https://www.kernvote.com/home/showpublisheddocument/25735/639225807147400000)
2. [The Bakersfield Californian -- "Local election filing closes, with six potential candidates for Ward 3" (Peter Segall, Aug. 7, 2026): transcribes the full Kern County Elections Division candidate roster as of 5 p.m. Aug. 7 for every county and local school-board office, including Board of Education Trustee Area 3 (Mary Little, incumbent; Regina Velasquez; Anastasia Hopper) and Trustee Area 7 (Lori Cisneros, incumbent; Ernie Bell Jr.)](https://www.bakersfield.com/news/local-election-filing-closes-with-six-potential-candidates-for-ward-3/article_9fd8aab6-a8d5-4ec0-bf01-1fb95bb2c4ec.html)
3. [Kern County Board of Education -- its own landing page: a 7-member board, elected to staggered 4-year terms by area, that decides county budgeting and property matters and hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals from local school districts](https://kern.org/board-of-education/)
4. [Kern County Board of Education -- Trustee Area 7 page: names Lori Cisneros, elected November 2022, a 19-year educator who operates Cisneros Farm Workshops with her husband in Tehachapi](https://kern.org/board-of-education/trustee-area-7/)
5. [Ballotpedia -- Lori Cisneros: confirms she defeated incumbent Ernest Bell Jr. 59.7%-40.3% in the November 8, 2022 general election for Kern County Board of Education Trustee Area 7](https://ballotpedia.org/Lori_Cisneros)
6. [Ballotpedia -- Ernest Bell Jr.: a former Trustee Area 7 board member who left office Dec. 9, 2022 after losing his re-election bid to Lori Cisneros](https://ballotpedia.org/Ernest_Bell_Jr.)
7. [Tehachapi News -- "Two candidates each for county Board of Education..." (Sept. 26, 2022): profiles Ernie Bell, then a 62-year-old lifelong Ridgecrest resident, as retired Superintendent of Sierra Sands Unified School District, running for the Trustee Area 7 seat](https://www.tehachapinews.com/news/two-candidates-each-for-county-board-of-education/)
8. [turnto23.com (KERO, Bakersfield's ABC affiliate) -- "What is the role of a school board member in Kern County?" (Oct. 10, 2022): an explainer on the county Board of Education's powers that names Ernest Bell as a Ridgecrest native who was appointed to the Area 7 seat and was running to be elected to it](https://www.turnto23.com/news/election-2022/what-is-the-role-of-a-school-board-member-in-kern-county)
9. [The Ridgecrest Daily Independent -- "REALMS Board approves Bell contract" (Aug. 29, 2024): reports a Ridgecrest charter school's governing board approved the employment contract of "former Sierra Sands Unified School District Superintendent Ernie Bell," independent confirmation he has stayed active in Ridgecrest-area education since leaving the county board](https://www.ridgecrestca.com/news/realms-board-approves-bell-contract/)
10. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- "CISNEROS FOR TRUSTEE 2026" (Filer #1491572), status ACTIVE; no Form 460/461/450 electronically filed for the 2025-2026 cycle as of this retrieval](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1491572&session=2025)
11. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Ernest Bell": no results; no campaign committee registered under his name for this race](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Ernest%20Bell)

## The rest of the ballot

Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/

## How to cite this page

Vote or Else, "Kern County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/kern-boe-area-7 (sources last retrieved September 7, 2026).

Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.