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School District · Statewide General Election

Santa Barbara County Board of Education, Trustee Area 7

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 is one of seven members on the Santa Barbara County Board of Education, which sets policy for the County Education Office -- the office that runs the county's special-education and alternative-education programs, supports local school districts, and hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals. A 4-year term.

Santa Barbara County's Board of Education has a contested race for its Trustee Area 7 seat on November 3, 2026: incumbent Vedamarie Alvarez Flores, the board's vice president, faces challenger Sally E. Lopez -- who also applied for this same seat's December 2023 provisional appointment, which went to Alvarez Flores instead.

The winner serves a 4-year term on the county's 7-member Board of Education, one of seven trustee areas. The board sets policy for the County Education Office, which runs the county's special-education and alternative-education programs, supports local school districts, and hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals. Area 7 covers significant portions of the City of Santa Maria.

The choice is between an appointed incumbent seeking her first elected term and a challenger who was passed over for this same seat's 2023 appointment -- a rematch of sorts, this time decided by voters rather than the board itself.

Vedamarie Alvarez Flores

Vedamarie Alvarez Flores is the incumbent Area 7 trustee and the board's vice president, appointed to the seat in 2024 after a term on the Santa Maria-Bonita School District board. She's a retired Santa Maria elementary school teacher and longtime teacher trainer. A Santa Maria native, she says she's running to continue what she calls "the meaningful journey" of helping local students and schools.

Strengths

A full career as a Santa Maria educator and teacher trainer, prior elected service on the Santa Maria-Bonita school board, and the county board's vice presidency.

Trade-offs

First elected to this seat only by appointment, not yet by a public vote; no campaign-finance committee at all is registered under her name with the state.

Keep in mind

Unlike fellow incumbent Judy Frost, she has no active 2026 committee on file; no independent news coverage of her specific board votes surfaced in this pass.

Sally E. Lopez

Sally E. Lopez is a Santa Maria business development manager challenging incumbent Vedamarie Alvarez Flores for the Area 7 seat. She previously applied for this same seat's December 2023 provisional appointment, which ultimately went to Alvarez Flores. No campaign website, public platform statement, or news coverage of her 2026 candidacy was found in this pass.

Strengths

A "Business Development Manager" ballot designation and a documented 2023 interest in this same seat, via the county's own appointment-interview record.

Trade-offs

No campaign website, public statement, or news coverage of her 2026 candidacy was found in this pass; no state campaign-finance committee is on file under her name.

Keep in mind

Beyond her 2023 appointment application and her 2026 ballot designation, this dataset found no independent information about her background or priorities -- an absence, not a judgment.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • content.civicplus.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara County Elections Division -- "Qualified Off Ballot Contest/Candidate List for Schools and Special Districts, November 3, 2026 General Election" (CFMR001, printed 8/17/26): County Board of Education Trustee Area 1 shows exactly one qualified candidate, incumbent Marybeth Carty, and is marked NOT ON BALLOT -- filled by acclamation, not decided by voters this cycle. Trustee Areas 5 and 7 do not appear anywhere in this off-ballot document
  • content.civicplus.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara County Elections Division -- "Qualified On Ballot Contest/Candidate List for Schools and Special Districts, November 3, 2026 General Election" (CFMR001): County Board of Education Trustee Area 5 shows two qualified candidates -- incumbent Judith Ann Frost (Judy Frost) and Griselda M. Ruiz ("Business Owner/Mom") -- and Trustee Area 7 shows two -- incumbent Vedamarie (AIL) Alvarez-Flores and Sally E. Lopez ("Business Development Manager") -- both ON BALLOT
  • sbceo.org (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara County Education Office -- "Board Members & Area Maps": the county Board of Education's own page, naming each of the seven trustee-area members and their year elected/appointed and term-expiration year -- Marybeth Carty (Area 1, elected 2013, term expires 2026), Judy Frost (Area 5, elected 2018, term expires 2026), and Vedamarie Alvarez Flores (Area 7, Board Vice President, appointed 2024, term expires 2026) among them
  • sbceo.org (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara County Education Office -- Vedamarie Alvarez Flores board-member bio: Board Vice President, Trustee Area 7 (significant portions of the City of Santa Maria); a retired Santa Maria elementary school teacher and longtime teacher trainer who served a four-year term on the Santa Maria-Bonita School District board before her 2024 provisional appointment to this seat
  • google.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara County Education Office -- "Interview Questions for Candidates for Provisional Appointment to the Santa Barbara County Board of Education" (Dec. 19, 2023): lists "Sally Lopez, Business Development" among the applicants interviewed for the same Trustee Area 7 vacancy that year (Vedamarie Alvarez Flores was ultimately appointed) -- read from a search-engine snippet of the document after the PDF itself would not render; her 2026 ballot designation ("Business Development Manager") is consistent with this 2023 record
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Alvarez Flores": no results -- no campaign committee registered with the state under her name
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Sally Lopez": no results -- no campaign committee registered with the state under her name
  • countyofsb.org (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara County -- "Candidate Filing Information for November 3, 2026 General Election": the county's own 'Offices to be Filled' table lists Board of Supervisors, 5th District and County Board of Education Trustee Areas 1, 5, and 7 as the four county-section seats with terms expiring this cycle -- confirming which seats are up, not who filed or whether each reaches the ballot

Last updated August 31, 2026.