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School District · Statewide General Election

Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 6

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 an uncontested race for its Trustee Area 6 seat on November 3, 2026: incumbent Mary Claypool, representing Seaside, is the only candidate who qualified -- so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

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.

With no opponent, the useful question is what the incumbent has done and what to watch, not who to choose. Accountability for this seat over the next four years runs through the board and the public rather than through the ballot.

Mary Claypool

Mary Claypool is the Trustee Area 6 incumbent, representing Seaside, running unopposed for reelection. Cal-Access shows she has filed campaign committees for this seat in both 2013 and 2022, indicating well over a decade on the board.

Strengths

Longstanding board tenure -- committee filings date to at least 2013 -- gives her continuity on a board taking on a newly elected county superintendent this term.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage of her specific board votes or record surfaced this pass, and both of her prior campaign committees are marked terminated with the state.

Keep in mind

The board's work is largely policy-setting and appeals -- special education, inter-district transfers, expulsions -- so continuity in the seat matters more here than in offices with more day-to-day discretion.

Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 4 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 "Mary Claypool": her most recent committee, "CLAYPOOL FOR MONTEREY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION 2022," is marked TERMINATED; no active 2026 committee is registered under her name

Last updated August 31, 2026.