# Tulare County Board of Education, Trustee Area 1 Compare records and positions simply between Juan Arzola or Sandra R. Burnitzki for Tulare County Board of Education, Trustee Area 1 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person serves on the Tulare 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/tulare-boe-area-1 - 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 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Juan Arzola** — College Professor - **Sandra R. Burnitzki** — Retired Staff Analyst A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Tulare County's Board of Education has an open seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot for Trustee Area 1: Juan Arzola against Sandra R. Burnitzki. It's a direct November election with no June primary for this office -- whoever gets the most votes wins outright. Neither candidate is the sitting appointed incumbent, Felipe Martinez, who is not seeking election to the seat. The winner serves a 4-year term on the county's 7-member Board of Education. The seat represents Trustee Area 1. That area covers Dinuba Unified, Kings River Union, and Traver Joint school districts. It also covers part of Visalia Unified. The board sets policy for the County Superintendent of Schools' office. That office runs the county's special-education and alternative-education programs. It hears expulsion and inter-district-transfer appeals from local school districts. It also decides county-level budget and property matters. The appointed incumbent is not running, so this is a fresh start for the seat. Neither candidate has held elected office before. The choice comes down to two kinds of local experience. One has a career in higher-education instruction. The other has a background in county government and volunteer child advocacy. ## Juan Arzola Juan Arzola is a College of the Sequoias political science professor, per both the county's candidate filing and the college's own faculty directory. They are not a current officeholder. They filed to run in July 2026. **Strengths:** A career teaching political science and civic institutions at the local community college, independently confirmed by the college's own faculty listing. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected or appointed office, and no K-12 school district governance experience specifically, distinct from higher education. **Keep in mind:** No campaign committee or candidate filer entry is registered under Arzola's name with the state, and no independent news coverage of their campaign or platform surfaced this pass. ## Sandra R. Burnitzki Sandra R. Burnitzki is a retired county staff analyst, per the county's candidate filing, and a CASA of Tulare County volunteer who cares for children with special needs in honor of their late son, per the Visalia Times-Delta's 2025 feature naming them a community changemaker. They filed to run in August 2026. **Strengths:** A documented record of hands-on child-welfare volunteer work through CASA, plus a career inside Tulare County government as a staff analyst before retiring. **Trade-offs:** No prior elected office, and Burnitzki's CASA volunteer work, while independently confirmed, is not school-district governance experience specifically. **Keep in mind:** No campaign committee or candidate filer entry is registered under their name with the state, and the one independent news coverage found profiles their volunteer work, not this campaign specifically. ## Sources 1. [Tulare County Elections -- official "Contest/Candidate Proof List" (report CFMR001) for the November 3, 2026 General Election: within its county-office section, only two contests appear -- Supervisor District 4 (Ian Bakke, Eddie Valero incumbent, flagged as going into extension/runoff) and Board of Education Trustee Area 1 (Juan Arzola, Sandra R. Burnitzki; Felipe Martinez listed only as the appointed incumbent, not a candidate) -- no Sheriff, District Attorney, Assessor, Auditor, Treasurer, Clerk-Recorder, Superior Court, or Public Defender contest appears anywhere in the 63-page document](https://tc-web.widen.net/s/sgnr5sgmjc/novgenuocl) 2. [Tulare County Office of Education -- its own Board of Education page: a 7-member board by trustee area; names Felipe Martinez (Trustee Area 1) with his biography -- a retired California Highway Patrol sergeant and former Selma Police Department reserve officer -- and states his term expires December 2026 with no indication he refiled; describes Trustee Area 1's boundary as Dinuba Unified, Kings River Union, Traver Joint, and a portion of Visalia Unified school districts, all within Tulare County](https://www.tcoe.org/about/board) 3. [College of the Sequoias Academic Catalog -- Political Science department faculty contact page: lists Juan Arzola among the department's political science faculty, independently corroborating his "College Professor" designation on the county's candidate-filing document](https://catalog.cos.edu/areas-study/political-science/) 4. [Visalia Times-Delta -- "'Hands on Heroes' honors changemakers in Tulare County" (April 8, 2025): First 5 Tulare County's community-changemaker honorees include Sandra Burnitzki, named and quoted as a CASA of Tulare County volunteer who cares for children with special needs "in honor of her late son" -- independent corroboration of her identity and community background, consistent with the "Retired Staff Analyst" designation on the county's candidate-filing document](https://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/news/2025/04/08/first-5-tulare-county-honors-community-changemakers/82981419007/) 5. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Arzola": no results; no campaign committee or candidate filer entry registered under his name](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Arzola) 6. [California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer search for "Burnitzki": no results; no campaign committee or candidate filer entry registered under her name](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Misc/filerSearch.aspx?SEARCH=Burnitzki) ## The rest of the ballot Tulare County Board of Education, Trustee Area 1 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, "Tulare County Board of Education, Trustee Area 1 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/tulare-boe-area-1 (sources last retrieved September 7, 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.