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School District · Statewide General Election

Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3

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 sits on the 7-member Monterey County Board of Education: it sets policy for the County Superintendent of Schools' office, which runs the county's own special-education and alternative-education programs, hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals from local school districts, and decides county-level budget and property matters. A 4-year term.

Monterey County's Board of Education has a contested race for its Trustee Area 3 seat on November 3, 2026: incumbent Heather Owen faces Rick Diaz Jr., a sitting trustee on a different local school board. 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. The board will also work with incoming County Superintendent of Schools Dan Burns, who was elected in June 2026.

The choice weighs Owen's incumbency against a challenger who already holds a different local school-board seat: Diaz is a sitting North Monterey County Unified School District trustee, and Cal-Access shows he has also filed a committee to seek reelection to that seat this same cycle -- running for two school offices at once.

Heather Owen

Heather Owen is the Trustee Area 3 incumbent, representing the North County area. She has 23 years of experience as an education professional and is seeking a second term.

Strengths

23 years in education gives her direct professional grounding in the system the board oversees, on top of a first term's worth of board experience.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage of her specific votes or record on the board surfaced this pass.

Keep in mind

She has no campaign committee registered with the state for this cycle, per a Cal-Access filer search.

Rick Diaz Jr.

Rick Diaz Jr. is a sitting North Monterey County Unified School District trustee challenging Owen for the county seat. Cal-Access records show he has also filed a committee this cycle to seek reelection to his current NMCUSD seat, running for both offices at the same time.

Strengths

Current board experience at a different local school district gives him a working knowledge of district-level operations the county board interacts with directly.

Trade-offs

Running for two school-board seats in the same cycle raises the question of which he would actually serve if he won both; no public statement addressing that surfaced this pass.

Keep in mind

No independent news coverage of his platform for the county seat beyond Monterey County Weekly's own reporting was found.

Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 5 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Candidate List" page for the November 3, 2026 General Election: within the School section, County Board of Education Governing Board Member contests are listed for Trustee Areas 1, 3, 6, and 7 only -- the same four seats as the county's own Elected Officials roster, confirming these are the only county-section contests this cycle (Areas 2, 4, and 5 are not up until 2028)
  • countyofmonterey.gov (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Elections -- official "Elected Officials: Schools Superintendents" roster: names each sitting Monterey County Board of Education trustee by area and next-election date -- Annette Yee Steck (Area 1), Heather Owen (Area 3), Mary Claypool (Area 6), and Sandra Ocampo (Area 7) all show "Next Election: 11/03/2026," while Areas 2, 4, and 5 show 2028, confirming which four seats are up this cycle and who currently holds each
  • montereycountynow.com (opens in a new tab)Monterey County Weekly (montereycountynow.com) -- "Monterey County Office of Education board may have three new trustees next year" (Celia Jimenez, Aug. 25, 2026): reports all four county-section races on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot -- Trustee Areas 1, 3, 6, and 7 -- naming every candidate, which incumbents are and are not seeking reelection, and background on each contender, including that outgoing Area 7 incumbent Sandra Ocampo is running instead for Alisal Union School District Area 2, the seat her husband Robert Ocampo currently holds, while he runs for her open MCOE seat
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Heather Owen": no results; no campaign committee or candidate filer entry registered under her name
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Rick Diaz": an active recipient committee "DIAZ FOR MCOE TRUSTEE AREA 3 2026" confirms his candidacy for this seat; the same search surfaces a separate active committee, "DIAZ FOR NMCUSD TRUSTEE AREA 4 2026," for his concurrent reelection bid to his sitting North Monterey County Unified School District trustee seat

Last updated August 31, 2026.