New Trustees Win SBCC Seats for East Side, Mesa

Dominique Luján and Andrea Varon will represent Trustee Areas 5 and 7 on the Santa Barbara Community College board starting in January.

Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Administration

New Trustees Win SBCC Seats for East Side, Mesa

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Dominique Luján won a seat on the Santa Barbara Community College Board of Trustees, earning 75.2 percent of the vote in a five-candidate, non-partisan race. Luján will represent Trustee Area 5 starting in January, replacing four-term trustee Marsha Croninger.

Why it matters

The seat changes who sets priorities for a district that serves thousands of students and nearly 950 employees across the South Coast, from Carpinteria to Goleta. For Santa Barbara households, board decisions shape tuition-adjacent costs, campus services, and the local workforce pipeline.

Dominique Luján, 40, a full-time student who moved to Santa Barbara in 2020, took Trustee Area 5 with 75.2 percent of the vote. Andrea Varon, 70, a retired elementary school teacher and administrator who moved to the city in 2021, leads for Trustee Area 7 with 48.7 percent, succeeding her sister Ellen Stoddard.

The players

Santa Barbara Community College

A public two-year college on the South Coast serving roughly 13,580 credit students and 4,923 non-credit students in Fall 2025, with its main campus on Cliff Drive.

Santa Barbara County Democratic Party

The county's Democratic Party organization, one of the three groups whose endorsements both newly elected candidates received.

The details

Both newly elected candidates were endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, the SBCC chapter of the California School Employees Association, and The Channels, while the Faculty Association endorsed in neither race. The race was low-profile, with five candidates and no one spending more than $5,000, which suggests the endorsements carried notable weight with voters. Luján replaces Marsha Croninger, who served four terms, and Varon succeeds Stoddard, who is retiring after one term.

Tuesday, November 3, 2026: election night vote count showed Luján and Varon leading.
January 2027: Luján begins representing Trustee Area 5.

The Home Front

Trustee areas under California's community college governance structure tie each board member to a defined neighborhood, such as the upper East Side or Mesa and Hope Ranch. That local structure keeps college governance closely connected to the housing and neighborhood geography that families in those areas know well.

If you live in Trustee Area 5 or Trustee Area 7, check which board area your address falls in so you know who represents you. Board meetings are public, so you can review agendas on the college's website before the new trustees take their seats in January.

The takeaway

Local college boards shape programs and campus services that touch families across the region, so a trustee's neighborhood can matter more than the race's low profile suggests. Keep your trustee area number on file and watch for board agendas as the new members settle in.