# Sonoma County Board of Education, Trustee Area 2 (Southwest County)

Compare records and positions simply between Jonathan Lenz and 1 more for Sonoma County Board of Education, Trustee Area 2 (Southwest County) at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds the Trustee Area 2 (Southwest County) seat on the 5-member Sonoma County Board of Education. It sets policy for the County Superintendent of Schools' office, which runs the county's special-education and alternative-education programs and hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals from the county's local school districts. 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/sonoma-boe-area-2
- 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: 89 out of 100 (Strong), across 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Jonathan Lenz** — Educator
- **Caitlin Quinn** — Nonprofit Union President

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

Sonoma County's Board of Education has an open-seat race for its Trustee Area 2 (Southwest County) seat: Board President Peter Kostas didn't file for another term, and two first-time county-board candidates, educator Jonathan Lenz and Petaluma City Schools board president Caitlin Quinn, qualified for the ballot.

The winner serves a 4-year term on the 5-member County Board of Education. The board sets policy for the County Superintendent of Schools' office. That office runs the county's special education and alternative education programs. It also hears expulsion and inter-district transfer appeals. Those appeals come from Sonoma County's local school districts.

Both candidates already work in K-12 education, just from different chairs. Lenz brings a career in special education administration. He also served a past turn on a local elementary district board. Quinn brings four years chairing a different, city level school board. She also has a nonprofit sector day job. Neither has run for this seat before. So the choice is less about a contested record. It is more about which kind of education experience voters want on the county board. That means administrative or governing experience.

## Jonathan Lenz

Jonathan Lenz is a Petaluma-based special-education administrator running for the open Trustee Area 2 seat. He was elected to the Old Adobe Union School District board in 2016 and has worked as an assistant superintendent for special education at a neighboring county's office of education. He qualified for the ballot on July 20, 2026, the first of the two candidates to do so.

**Strengths:** A career in special-education administration plus a prior elected term on a local Sonoma County school board, giving him both classroom-adjacent and governance experience.

**Trade-offs:** His prior elected term was single-district, not county-level, and no independent coverage of his 2026 platform for this specific race surfaced in this pass.

**Keep in mind:** No campaign committee for Lenz was found registered with the state -- county Board of Education races often don't reach the fundraising threshold that requires one. See Financial info below.

## Caitlin Quinn

Caitlin Quinn is the president of the Petaluma City Schools Board of Education, running for the open, separate Sonoma County Trustee Area 2 seat rather than seeking another term on the city district board she currently leads. She works professionally as a nonprofit union president. She's served on a Petaluma-area school board continuously since first winning election in 2018, when local reporting described her profession as a nonprofit communications director.

**Strengths:** Nearly eight years of continuous school-board service, including her current turn as PCS board president, plus a nonprofit-sector day job that touches labor and union work.

**Trade-offs:** Her governing experience is city-district level; the county board's docket spans every district in Sonoma County, broader than any one district's.

**Keep in mind:** She's not seeking reelection to her current PCS seat, so a win here would end, not add to, her time on that board. No campaign committee for this 2026 county race was found registered with the state -- see Financial info below.

## Sources

1. [Sonoma County Registrar of Voters -- "Local Candidates Who Have Filed," November 3, 2026 General Election: the county's own provisional roster, showing exactly two county-section contests (Board of Education Trustee Areas 2 and 4), each candidate's ballot designation, qualification date, and incumbent flag. States a final list won't post until "the end of August or the beginning of September"; last updated 8/17/26 and unchanged on a live re-check 2026-08-31, after both the regular (Aug. 7) and extended (Aug. 12) nomination deadlines had passed](https://sonomacounty.gov/administrative-support-and-fiscal-services/registrar-of-voters/elections/november-3-2026-general-election-local-candidates-who-have-filed)
2. [Sonoma County Office of Education -- "County Board of Education" page: names all five sitting trustees by area (Cuclis Area 1, Kostas Area 2, Watts Area 3, Herrington Area 4, Hernandez Area 5), confirming Peter Kostas -- not a 2026 candidate -- as the outgoing Area 2 incumbent and Steve Herrington (elected 2022, term expires 2026) as the sitting Area 4 incumbent, independent of the candidate roster](https://www.scoe.org/about-scoe/county-board-of-education)
3. [Petaluma Voice -- local elections filing roundup (Aug. 5, 2026; updated Aug. 6, 2026, 3:11 p.m.): lists "Sonoma County Board of Education, Trustee Area #2, one seat: Caitlin Quinn; Jonathan Lenz" -- an independent local outlet's roster, corroborating the county's own two-candidate field](https://www.petalumavoice.org/candidates-file-to-run)
4. [Petaluma City Schools -- "Board of Education" page: lists Caitlin Quinn as the sitting Trustee Area 2 board member (term Dec. 2022-Dec. 2026) on that separate district-level board -- confirms her current elected role independent of the county candidate roster](https://petalumacityschools.org/our-district/board-of-trustees/)
5. [The Press Democrat / Petaluma Argus-Courier -- "Here are the candidates running for Petaluma's school board seats" (Aug. 18-19, 2026): reports that PCS board members Caitlin Quinn, Mady Cloud, and Joanna Paun are not seeking reelection to their district-level board seats -- independent corroboration that Quinn's 2026 candidacy is for the separate county board, not a repeat run for her current seat](https://www.petalumanews.com/2026/08/18/here-are-the-candidates-running-for-petalumas-school-board-seats/)
6. [The Press Democrat -- "Petaluma school board draws a crowded race" (Oct. 25, 2018): identifies Caitlin Quinn's profession at the time as "nonprofit communications director" during an earlier, separate Petaluma City Schools board run -- independent, dated corroboration of a career consistent with her 2026 "Nonprofit Union President" county-ballot designation](https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2018/10/25/petaluma-school-board-draws-a-crowded-race/)
7. [Marin Independent Journal -- "Marin mother who lost son to suicide pleads for early ..." (Aug. 4, 2018): identifies Jonathan Lenz as Marin County's assistant superintendent for special education, quoting him on the county office's protocol work -- independent corroboration of a career consistent with his 2026 "Educator" ballot designation](https://www.marinij.com)
8. [Petaluma Argus-Courier -- "Petaluma school board races set" (Aug. 25, 2016): reports Jonathan Lenz as one of three newcomers elected that year to Sonoma County's own Old Adobe Union School District board -- Old Adobe sits within Trustee Area 2's Southwest-county footprint; independent, dated local reporting of a prior local-board win, not a fabricated credential](https://www.petalumanews.com/2016/08/25/petaluma-school-board-races-set/)
9. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Lenz": no filer of any kind under Jonathan Lenz's name -- no committee registered for this race](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Lenz)
10. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Caitlin Quinn": the only filer found is a terminated "QUINN FOR PETALUMA JOINT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD TRUSTEE 2018" committee, for a different, earlier PCS-family race -- no committee registered for this 2026 county race](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Caitlin%20Quinn)

## The rest of the ballot

Sonoma County Board of Education, Trustee Area 2 (Southwest County) 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, "Sonoma County Board of Education, Trustee Area 2 (Southwest County) — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/sonoma-boe-area-2 (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026).

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