County

County Superintendent of Schools

This person leads the county office of education. The job is nonpartisan.

Richard Lopez led Merced County's June 2 primary for Superintendent of Schools. He won 31.26% of the vote, or 12,804 votes. Ana Boyenga took second with 29.54%, or 12,099 votes. She edged out a third candidate by fewer than 1,000 votes. Neither reached a majority, so the two meet again on November 3. The seat is open. Dr. Steve Tietjen has held the office since 2017, elected again in 2018 and 2022. In November 2025 he announced he would not run for reelection.

The county superintendent runs the Merced County Office of Education. That office does not run your local school district — it oversees district budgets and can intervene when one is in financial trouble, runs county-wide programs including special education and juvenile court schools, and provides services individual districts are too small to run alone. It is one of the most consequential education jobs most voters have never heard of.

This is one of the closest contests on the county part of this ballot, between two candidates who both come from inside the county's school system — Lopez a sitting district superintendent, Boyenga a sitting assistant superintendent. A third candidate, El Nido Superintendent Paula Heupel, finished 1.96 points behind Boyenga for second place and was eliminated; a fourth, recently retired superintendent Alberto Velarde, publicly questioned Lopez's "ethical standing" during the primary while acknowledging his own long-shot odds. Lopez campaigns on school safety, fiscal responsibility, and college-to-career pathways; Boyenga campaigns on third-grade literacy, teacher retention, and career development.

Richard Lopez

Richard Lopez is superintendent of the Merced River School District in Winton. He grew up attending Merced County's own public schools and later served on a local school board. At a candidates forum, he said he plans to keep attending district board meetings across the county in person, since rural communities need someone to turn to.

At the same forum, he said the county's districts should treat special education as a shared program instead of competing separately for money. In 2025 an outside audit of his own district found problems, including student activity funds that were used for payroll and cash deposits that sat unrecorded for months. County officials referred a misappropriation allegation to a state fiscal watchdog in March 2026 for review. Lopez says the audit found no misappropriation and that his district has fixed the problems.

He promises to stay visible in the county's smaller, rural districts rather than running things only from the county office. He also promises to coordinate special education funding regionally instead of district by district.

Ana Boyenga

Ana Boyenga is assistant superintendent for educational services at the Atwater Elementary School District. She says she oversees about 5,000 students across 11 schools, a bigger district than either opponent has run. She is a first generation immigrant who worked as a teacher and a principal before moving into administration.

She says county schools need a leader who plans years ahead. At a forum she said school boards already have three year budget projections and should use them to see problems coming instead of waiting. No audit, lawsuit or other public dispute involving her own district turned up in available coverage.

She promises to recruit more special education teachers and to build stronger reading and early intervention programs so problems are caught sooner.

Your pick

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

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