# San Diego County Board of Education, Trustee Area 5 Compare records and positions simply between Rick Shea or Bianca Ragonesi-Lasche for San Diego County Board of Education, Trustee Area 5 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-5 - 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 4 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Rick Shea** — Incumbent - **Bianca Ragonesi-Lasche** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Rick Shea, the county Board of Education's vice president and a member since 2015, faces challenger Bianca Ragonesi-Lasche for the Trustee Area 5 seat. Shea won a majority of June's three-candidate primary vote, but the race still goes to a November runoff under the county's rules for this office. This person is one of five members overseeing the San Diego County Office of Education, which supports the county's local school districts with 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. Shea is campaigning on continuity and institutional knowledge from more than a decade on the board, including its current vice presidency. Ragonesi-Lasche's platform was not found in this pass -- unlike Trustee Area 3's challenger, they have not built a public campaign website or Cal-Access committee that this research could locate, leaving their June second-place finish as the clearest public signal of their support. ## Rick Shea Rick Shea, 76, is the current vice president of the San Diego County Board of Education, an Encinitas native who has served on the board since 2015 and previously worked for the San Diego County Office of Education and as a teacher. **Strengths:** Eleven years on the board, including its current vice presidency, plus direct prior employment at SDCOE itself, give him institutional knowledge few challengers could match. **Trade-offs:** Like Muñoz in the neighboring race, Shea won a primary majority (58.9%) that county rules still send to a second round -- a margin that would settle a Supervisors race outright but not this one. **Keep in mind:** His active 2026 campaign committee is a carried-over, renamed version of his 2022 re-election committee, not a newly filed one, and it shows no itemized 2025-2026 contributions or expenditures. ## Bianca Ragonesi-Lasche Bianca Ragonesi-Lasche is a challenger who finished second in June's three-candidate primary with 30.2% of the vote. No campaign website, published platform, or Cal-Access committee for them was found in this pass. **Strengths:** A 30.2% primary finish against a sitting board vice president, with no visible campaign infrastructure found, suggests grassroots recognition or dissatisfaction with the incumbent. **Trade-offs:** Without a campaign website, platform, or finance filing, voters have no independent way to learn what they'd prioritize on the board. **Keep in mind:** This is a documentation gap, not a finding about their candidacy -- if their campaign publishes a platform before Election Day, it would meaningfully change what voters can learn about this race. ## 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 5 (candidate pages for Rick Shea and Bianca Ragonesi-Lasche, with the full certified June 2, 2026 primary field): incumbent Shea drew 58.9%, Ragonesi-Lasche 30.2%, and eliminated primary candidate Tammy Alam 10.8% -- both advance to a November general regardless of Shea's primary majority](https://ballotpedia.org/Rick_Shea) 3. [San Diego Union-Tribune -- "Q&A: Meet Rick Shea, candidate for San Diego County Board of Education in District 5" (Jemma Stephenson, May 7, 2026): Shea, 76, is the current vice president of the county Board of Education, an Encinitas native who has served on the board since 2015 and previously worked for SDCOE and as a teacher](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/05/07/qa-meet-rick-shea-candidate-for-san-diego-county-board-of-education-in-district-5/) 4. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- "SHEA TO COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION 2022; RE-ELECT RICK" (Filer #1454250), status ACTIVE -- Shea's committee from his 2022 re-election carried forward rather than a newly named 2026 committee; 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=1454250&session=2025) ## The rest of the ballot San Diego County Board of Education, Trustee Area 5 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 5 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/san-diego-boe-5 (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.