# Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 6 Mary Claypool is running uncontested for Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 6. Full ballot 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-6 - 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 3, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 93 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 - **Mary Claypool** — 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 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 they have 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 them continuity on a board taking on a newly elected county superintendent this term. **Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage of their specific board votes or record surfaced this pass, and both of their 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. ## 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 "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](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Mary%20Claypool) 5. [Monterey County Elections' official NetFile campaign portal (agency MCE) — Mary Claypool's complete public filing history contains her 2022 committee but no filing covering 2026; the newest item is a January 2025 amendment for a 2022 reporting period](https://netfile.com/public/MCE/campaign) ## The rest of the ballot Monterey County Board of Education, Trustee Area 6 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 6 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/monterey-boe-area-6 (sources last retrieved September 3, 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.