Annette Yee Steck leads in Monterey County Board of Education special election—for the seat she was ousted from.

A taco Tuesday was the way Annette Yee Steck, who is running for Monterey County Board of Education, started her election night. Her husband and a couple of friends gathered to enjoy some tacos at Carmel Valley Athletic Club. She was wearing comfortable clothes—khaki pants, a dark T-shirt and a blazer. Yee Steck plans for the evening were to watch the results from home with homemade brownies and biscotti and fresh strawberries from the farmers market. 

Yee Steck found herself as one of two candidates running for the Area 1 position that she previously occupied, but just briefly. She was appointed to the vacant seat last November, for just one year of the remaining term. But parental rights groups gathered 574 signatures on a petition to have her removed, and her term was terminated on Jan. 10, until this special election in June—for a term of just six months, again ending in November, as scheduled. She served through just two board meetings. 

Her bid to regain the seat showed her leading against Jake Odello, with 58 percent of the vote as of 10pm on Tuesday, June 7. 

Area 1 includes New Monterey, Pacific Grove, Del Monte Forest, Carmel, Carmel Valley and Big Sur. Yee Steck notes that for five months, that area has not been represented on the MCOE board, and she expresses her frustration over the cost of the special election, over $320,000. 

“It's one year's worth of three teachers' salaries plus benefits, all of that wasted,” she says.