Three Orange County Board of Education seats are up for grabs on the 2024 ballot, with incumbents running in all three races.
The Board of Education, as laid out in California’s Education code, gives approval to the Orange County Department of Education’s budget and purchasing property. It also serves as an appeals committee for expulsions, charter school applications and inter-district transfers. It does not have a say over any district in the county, including curriculum.
Candidates needed to submit their completed paperwork by Friday, Dec. 8, and an official list of who will be on the March primary ballot will be posted by the secretary of state on Dec. 28.
In District 1, incumbent Jorge Valdes filed to continue representing his seat, which serves the cities of Fountain Valley, Santa Ana and portions of Garden Grove and Tustin. Financial service educator Beatriz Mendoza has also filed to run for that seat.
Valdes has served on the OCBE since August 2022 when a spot opened after Beckie Gomez stepped down.
Mendoza previously ran for the Santa Ana Unified School District in 2016 and the Santa Ana City Council in 2019.
In District 3, incumbent Ken Williams is running against educator Nancy Watkins. District 3 serves the cities of Brea, Foothill Ranch, Irvine, Orange, Villa Park, Portola Hills, Yorba Linda and portions of Anaheim, Lake Forest and Tustin.
Williams, who began his career as an OCBE trustee in 1996, is vying for his eighth term on the board.
Watkins has been an educator in Orange County for more than 30 years and serves as the director of the Education Doctoral Program at Cal State Fullerton.
In District 4, incumbent Tim Shaw is being challenged by David Johnson, president of the Westminster Unified School District.
Shaw was first elected to the OCBE in 2020, resigned in November 2021 amid a legal challenge to his holding two elected positions simultaneously and was re-appointed just a few weeks later. Shaw previously served on the La…
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