Monterey County Office of Education board may have three new trustees next year, and a husband/wife team run for each other’s school board seats.

More than 60 positions on boards of various K-12 school districts and community colleges are up for grabs in the Nov. 3 election. At the Monterey County Office of Education, four of seven seats are on the ballot: Areas 1, 3, 6 and 7, with three of those races contested. The board will supervise incoming Superintendent of Schools Dan Burns, who was elected in June.

Two MCOE incumbents, Heather Owen in North County’s Area 3 and Mary Claypool in Seaside’s Area 6, are running for reelection; Claypool is uncontested.

Two incumbents – Annette Yee Steck in Carmel’s Area 1 and Sandra Ocampo of Salinas in Area 7 – are not seeking reelection after one term, leaving two open seats. Ocampo is now running for a seat on a different Salinas school district, Alisal Union, where she faces Ulises Gonzalez Reyes to represent Area 2.

It’s a position currently held by her husband, Robert Ocampo, and he is now running for the MCOE Area 7 seat currently held by his wife.

“We recently decided that it would be interesting to shift, make the decisions and kind of grow, going into each other’s districts and learn new things and meet new people,” Robert says.

He has represented AUSD’s Area 2 for eight years and is a former Salinas City Council member. Before her term at MCOE, Sandra Ocampo served 20-plus years on the Salinas Union High School District board over a 30-year period.

Robert says they have not received criticism about their intended switch and notes their son, Roberto Ocampo, is also a school board trustee at Soledad Unified School District. “We’re all very involved in politics and we’re interested in serving,” Robert says.

If he gets elected, Robert says he would take a closer look at interdistrict transfers and seek creative solutions, like providing child care on school grounds, to entice families to stay within their geographic district. “A lot of the moves that happen are due to a babysitter,” he says.

If elected, Sandra says she would advocate for a magnet school focused on STEM and English. Both Ocampos say that if elected, this would be their last term.

In Area 7, Robert Ocampo will face Shanice Virrueta, a long-time coach and mentor who works at United Way Monterey County.

In Area 3, Owen is facing Rick Diaz Jr., a North Monterey County Unified School District trustee.

Voters in Area 1 will choose between Rita Patel, a Carmel Unified School District trustee now halfway through her third term, and Megan Whilden, a retired nonprofit director and volunteer organizer.

Patel says this is a next step in her career and if elected, she will bring what she has learned at CUSD to the county level. “MCOE should be a stronger convener and partner for our local school districts,” Patel says, noting MCOE does a good job bringing school districts together and collaborating with each other.