# County Superintendent of Schools — Ventura County

Compare records and positions simply between Karen Sher or Maggie Marschner for County Superintendent of Schools — Ventura County at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person leads the county office of education. The job is nonpartisan.

- Jurisdiction: Ventura County
- 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/ventura-superintendent-of-schools
- 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 24, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Karen Sher**
- **Maggie Marschner**

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

The incumbent lost in June. Karen Sher led the primary with 41.7% and Maggie Marschner took 33.0%, pushing sitting superintendent Cesar Morales into third and off the November ballot entirely. The two who advanced meet on November 3. This is a nonpartisan countywide office.

The county superintendent runs the Ventura County Office of Education. That office does not run your local school district — it oversees district budgets and can intervene when one is in financial trouble, runs county-wide programs including special education and juvenile court schools, and provides services individual districts are too small to run alone. It is one of the most consequential education jobs most voters have never heard of.

A sitting county superintendent finishing third is unusual and is the central fact of this race: whatever the county wanted, it was not continuity. Neither remaining candidate holds the office. Ask what you want from its two real powers — fiscal oversight of districts, and the county-run programs serving students no single district can serve alone — and note that both candidates now carry the burden of explaining what they would do differently.

## Karen Sher

Karen Sher has served on the Oxnard Union High School District board since 2014 and is now its president, a term that runs through November 2026 (Oxnard Union High School District). She has more than three decades of teaching experience in public schools. She holds a bachelor's degree, two master's degrees, and a doctorate in organizational leadership and change from the University of Southern California. She now works as the California Department of Education's Director of Teacher Recruitment and serves as a consultant to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. She has also worked with UC Santa Barbara's South Coast Writing Project and Stanford's Instructional Leadership Corps (Oxnard Union High School District).

She says "our county needs steady, transparent leadership focused on outcomes for kids," and she has campaigned under the banner "Real Accountability," criticizing the current administration's "real results" (The Acorn). The clearest documented fact on her own record: she has held elected office on the Oxnard Union board since 2014.

She promises what she calls transparent leadership that keeps decision-making with local school districts, rather than centralizing it at the county office (The Acorn). She points to her three decades in the classroom and her current role directing teacher recruitment for the state. She says that record would shape how she runs the county office (Oxnard Union High School District; The Acorn).

**Strengths:** A long record as an elected school board trustee, plus three decades of classroom and state-level education experience.

**Trade-offs:** No county-office administrative experience; her case rests on a local-district record, not this office's specific duties.

**Keep in mind:** Her campaign frames the race as a referendum on the outgoing administration's results, but her own record is at the district level, not the county office.

## Maggie Marschner

Maggie Marschner has spent more than two decades in education, starting as a classroom teacher in Nevada's Clark County School District, the nation's fifth-largest. She was named Teacher of the Year there in 2010 (campaign site). Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval later appointed her to co-chair the state's Teachers and Leaders Council in 2016, and she presented research on English-language learners nationally. She became an assistant principal in Las Vegas in 2018. She then became principal of La Reina High School and Middle School in Thousand Oaks, where she led the return to in-person instruction and won a 2020 Teachers of Teachers award (campaign site).

She says she wants to "bring my classroom and school experience to every school district" in Ventura County, and she promises accountability and results for students and families (campaign site). The one documented fact on her record: she led La Reina as principal until 2024. That year, the school's governing board voted to close it after the Sisters of Notre Dame, its sponsoring order, declined to approve the next year's budget. The closure decision was the board's, not hers (The Acorn).

She promises what her campaign calls "People Over Programs": empowering teachers and principals rather than "imposing programs from above" (The Acorn). Her platform lists accountability and transparency grounded in public data, student-centered leadership, and investing in people over programs as her priorities. She says "every student deserves a superintendent who fights for them first, not last" (campaign site).

**Strengths:** Two decades of classroom, specialist, and school-leadership experience, including a state teacher-evaluation council appointment.

**Trade-offs:** No elected-office record to judge; her one leadership post, as a private-school principal, ended when that school closed.

**Keep in mind:** The school's closure was a decision by its governing board and sponsoring order, not by her, according to reporting.

## Review notes

- Maggie Marschner for Ventura County Superintendent may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

## Sources

1. [Ventura County elections office — certified June 2, 2026 primary results](https://clerkrecorder.venturacounty.gov/2026-election-results-and-voting-reports/)
2. [Vida Newspaper — Ventura County primary election results](https://vidanewspaper.com/2026/06/03/primary-election-results/)
3. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org)
4. [NetFile official public agency registry and live county campaign portals — candidate/committee searches run for Fresno (CFRE), Merced (MCO), San Bernardino (SBD), Ventura (VCO), Monterey Elections (MCE), and Placer (PLA), with the registry also checked for Siskiyou and Tuolumne](https://netfile.com/api/public/sites/api/agencies)
5. [The Acorn — Three vie for schools top office (candidate platforms and quotes for the June primary)](https://www.toacorn.com/articles/three-vie-for-schools-top-office/)
6. [Oxnard Union High School District — Board of Trustees page, Karen Sher biography](https://www.oxnardunion.org/board-of-trustees)
7. [Maggie Marschner for Ventura County Superintendent — campaign site (home and about pages: bio, platform, quotes)](https://maggie4ventura.com/about)
8. [The Acorn — La Reina announces school closure (governing board's closure decision)](https://www.toacorn.com/articles/la-reina-announces-school-closure/)

## The rest of the ballot

County Superintendent of Schools — Ventura 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, "County Superintendent of Schools — Ventura County — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/ventura-superintendent-of-schools (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026).

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