San Jose Unified Area 4: Your Neighborhood's Seat on the School Board

If you live in parts of Willow Glen, Guadalupe Canoas, Canoas Garden, Farm Drive, Pinehurst, Thousand Oaks, Erikson, Branham/Jarvis, Willowmont, Reed, Valley View, Kooser Woods, Tatra, Carson, Vista Park or Gunderson neighborhoods, you live in Trustee Area 4 of the San José Unified School District.

What is a trustee area?

San José Unified is governed by a five-member Board of Trustees. Each Trustee is elected by the voters of one geographic area of the district rather than by the district as a whole. Area 4 is one of those five areas, covering much of southwest San Jose. Only voters who live inside Area 4 vote for the Area 4 Trustee.

One common mix-up: the Santa Clara County Office of Education also numbers its own trustee areas, and its "Area 4" is a different, much larger region. If you searched for Area 4 and found a county map covering multiple school districts, that is the county board, not San José Unified.

Trustee area boundaries follow county voting precincts, not school attendance boundaries, so the school your child attends does not determine your trustee area; your home address does.

The November 2026 election

The Area 4 Trustee seat is on the ballot in the general election on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, one of two San José Unified board seats up for election this year. Every registered voter in California receives a ballot by mail, and ballots arrive in early October.

Key dates:

• Early October 2026: vote-by-mail ballots arrive

• October 19, 2026: last day to register and receive a ballot by
  mail (you can register and vote conditionally after this date;
  check with the Registrar)

• Tuesday, November 3, 2026: Election Day