# Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 Compare records and positions simply between Rick Diaz Jr. or Heather Owen for Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person serves on the Monterey 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/monterey-boe-area-3 - 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: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 94 out of 100 (Very strong), across 5 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Rick Diaz Jr.** - **Heather Owen** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. 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 they have 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. They have 23 years of experience as an education professional and are seeking a second term. **Strengths:** 23 years in education gives them 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 their specific votes or record on the board surfaced this pass. **Keep in mind:** They have 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 they have also filed a committee this cycle to seek reelection to their current NMCUSD seat, running for both offices at the same time. **Strengths:** Current board experience at a different local school district gives them 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 they would actually serve if they won both; no public statement addressing that surfaced this pass. **Keep in mind:** No independent news coverage of their platform for the county seat beyond Monterey County Weekly's own reporting was found. ## Sources 1. [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)](https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/government/departments-a-h/elections/elections/candidate-list) 2. [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](https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/government/departments-a-h/elections/candidates/elected-officials-schools-superintendents/) 3. [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](https://www.montereycountynow.com/svnow/news/monterey-county-office-of-education-board-may-have-three-new-trustees-next-year/article_f984b249-0090-4200-a4d9-798c37df3c58.html) 4. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Heather Owen": no results; no campaign committee or candidate filer entry registered under her name](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Heather%20Owen) 5. [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](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Rick%20Diaz) ## The rest of the ballot Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 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, "Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/monterey-boe-area-3 (sources last retrieved August 31, 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.