# San Diego County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 Compare records and positions simply between Cory Brown or Alicia Muñoz for San Diego County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person is one of five members on the county's Board of Education. The board oversees the San Diego County Office of Education. That office supports local school districts with fiscal oversight. It also runs alternative schools and reviews charter-school appeals. It does not run any single district's classrooms. 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/san-diego-boe-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: 95 out of 100 (Very strong), across 4 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Cory Brown** - **Alicia Muñoz** — Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Alicia Muñoz, on the County Board of Education since 2015, faces challenger Cory Brown for the Trustee Area 3 seat. Muñoz won a majority of June's three-candidate primary vote, but county Board of Education races send the top two to November regardless, so the seat isn't decided yet. This person is one of five members overseeing the San Diego County Office of Education. The office supports the county's local school districts. It handles fiscal oversight, alternative-education and juvenile-court schools, and charter-school appeals. It doesn't run any individual district's classrooms directly. The term is four years. Muñoz is a retired ESL dean and professor. She is campaigning on more than a decade of board experience. She also points to her institutional knowledge. Brown is endorsed by the county Republican Party, the East County Tea Party, and Reform California. They are campaigning on academic recovery, student mental health, and school safety. They also call for parental involvement, transparency, and fiscal accountability. ## Alicia Muñoz Alicia Muñoz, 73, is a retired dean and professor of English as a second language at Cuyamaca College and the incumbent Trustee Area 3 board member since 2015, living in San Diego's San Carlos neighborhood. **Strengths:** More than a decade on the board plus a career in higher-education ESL instruction give her direct professional expertise in serving English learners, a population county education programs must serve. **Trade-offs:** She won a clear primary majority (56.5%) against two challengers, but county rules still send this race to a second round -- her margin isn't guaranteed to hold in a lower-turnout general. **Keep in mind:** No campaign committee for Muñoz turned up in a Cal-Access search -- either she's self-funding below the reporting threshold or running without a formal campaign operation, unusual for a multi-term incumbent. ## Cory Brown Cory Brown is a challenger endorsed by the San Diego County Republican Party, the East County Tea Party, and Reform California; their platform centers on academic recovery, student mental health and school safety, and parental involvement, transparency, and fiscal accountability. **Strengths:** They finished a clear second in a three-candidate primary (37.9%, more than 30 points ahead of third place), suggesting organized support behind a challenge to an 11-year incumbent. **Trade-offs:** Their campaign site states three bullet-point priorities with no further detail on pursuing them as one of five board votes; no elected or appointed public service was found in this pass. **Keep in mind:** Brown's endorsers -- the county GOP, East County Tea Party, and Reform California -- place them within a wave of conservative school-board challenges seen elsewhere in California this cycle, context worth weighing alongside their stated local priorities. ## Sources 1. [San Diego County Registrar of Voters — certified June 2, 2026 results](https://sdvote.com/results) 2. [Ballotpedia -- San Diego County Board of Education District 3 (candidate pages for Alicia Muñoz and Cory Brown, with the full certified June 2, 2026 primary field): incumbent Muñoz drew 56.5%, Brown 37.9%, and eliminated primary candidate Jamal Kanj 5.6% -- both advance to a November general regardless of Muñoz's primary majority](https://ballotpedia.org/Cory_Brown_(California)) 3. [San Diego Union-Tribune -- "Q&A: Meet Alicia Munoz, candidate for San Diego County Board of Education in District 3" (Jemma Stephenson, May 7, 2026): Muñoz, 73, is a retired dean and professor of English as a second language at Cuyamaca College, living in San Diego's San Carlos neighborhood](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/05/07/qa-meet-alicia-munoz-candidate-for-san-diego-county-board-of-education-in-district-3/) 4. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- "BROWN FOR COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION 2026; CORY" (Filer #1489722), status ACTIVE; no Form 460/461/450 electronically filed for the 2025-2026 cycle as of this retrieval](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1489722&session=2025) ## The rest of the ballot San Diego 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, "San Diego County Board of Education, Trustee Area 3 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/san-diego-boe-3 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026). 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