Who is running for MoCo school board in the primary election?
With early voting underway, here are the candidates, issues in the race
By
Ashlyn CampbellJune 11, 2026 11:35 a.m.
Share
Facebook X ReddIt Email Print Copy URL
Eight days of early voting for the June 23 primary election began Thursday morning , including for the four open seats on the Montgomery County school board. Here is a look at the candidates and some of the biggest issues in the race for the board that oversees Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).
Eleven candidates are on the ballot in the nonpartisan election for four-year terms on the school board. On the ballot are the District 1 seat held by President Grace Rivera-Oven, who is seeking re-election; the District 3 seat being vacated by Julie Yang, who is running for the County Council; the District 5 seat being vacated by Brenda Wolff, who is retiring after two terms; and an at-large seat being vacated by Karla Silvestre, who also is running for the council.
More information on the candidates can be found in Bethesda Today’s 2026 Primary Election Voters Guide. Information on candidate endorsements can be found here and here is more information about where early voting is occurring in the county.
Biggest issues impacting MCPS and the school board
Perhaps the most recent issue that is likely to be on voters’ minds as they head to the polls is the board’s June 4 decision to cut hundreds of MCPS positions to balance its $3.72 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2027.
- Advertisement -
Other issues generating interest include the board’s decision to approve a boundary study that included moving Thomas S. Wootton High School from its dilapidated building in Rockville to the new Crown High in Gaithersburg. That vote included a decision to shift existing high school programming to a regional model – which will have a districtwide impact on students and families.
Concerns about academic achievement, safety and transparency in the operation of MCPS have been the main topics discussed by candidates during election forums and in their questionnaire responses included in Bethesda Today’s voters guide.
Here are the candidates and their views on issues:
District 1
Rivera-Oven, the only incumbent seeking re-election, is running unopposed as she seeks a second term, according to the state elections board. Rivera-Oven has served as board president during the board’s recent emotionally fraught budget deliberations. Rivera-Oven voted to adopt the MCPS budget, including the position cuts, saying the decision was “incredibly personal, excruciating and painful.”
Sponsored
Your Neighborhood, Our Expertise: DC’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team
Montgomery County Needs a Problem Solver: Meet Dr. Prabu Selvam
Featured Now
“That being said, true leadership means confronting reality,” Rivera-Oven said before the June 4 vote.
Rivera-Oven also has advocated for emergent multilingual learners (EML) while on the board, often noting that she is a former EML student who graduated from MCPS.
District 3
The five candidates to replace Yang are Sharon Creed, Brett DiResta, Andrew Frykman, Sally McCarthy and Cassandra “Cassi” Sung.
Creed works for Rose’s Antiques in Potomac and says her biggest focus is “restoring excellence and trust in our public schools,” according to the Bethesda Today voters guide. Creed has also filed to run as a Montgomery County Republican Central Committee candidate in District 16, according to the state elections board website.
- Advertisement -
Creed said during a May election forum that she would propose adding one hour before school for tutoring and advocate for more funding for classrooms.
DiResta is a political consultant and adjunct professor at George Washington University and the University of San Francisco who serves on the nominating committee for the Montgomery College Board of Trustees. DiResta is focused on smaller class sizes and reducing the backlog of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) maintenance issues in MCPS schools, according to the Bethesda Today voters guide.
DiResta said during an April forum that MCPS data shows disparities in the number of students suspended across schools and demographic groups, making it “clear that we’re not implementing policy uniformly throughout” the district.
A graduate of MCPS, Frykman is an 18-year-old Montgomery College student who says the biggest issue facing MCPS is lack of progress in academic achievement, according to the Bethesda Today voters guide. Frykman has noted that years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the district isn’t making large gains in reaching academic achievement targets.
When discussing safety technology such as a recent AI weapons detection pilot conducted in three MCPS high schools, Frykman noted in a March election forum that using such safety technology could make students perceive schools as militarized and would not “breed learning.”
An education research consultant, McCarthy has served with the Montgomery County Council of PTAS for the past 15 years, according to her voters guide responses. McCarthy says the school board must amplify its oversight to ensure MCPS provides clean and safe buildings and that students and staff have the resources they need to succeed.
When discussing recent changes to the student code of conduct during an April candidate forum, McCarthy said MCPS made those changes during last summer, leaving families feeling left out of the process. The district needs to “employ well communicated and intentional outreach during the next revision cycle,” she said.
Sung is a “firm intelligence manager” for the law firm Holland and Knight, which has offices across the country, and also is involved with the nonprofit Chamber of Mothers. In her voters guide responses, Sung said the most important issue facing MCPS was the physical, emotional and psychological safety of students. She said she would push for “consistent implementation of existing safety and anti-discrimination policies,” and “advocate for restorative practices.”
During the race, Sung has pushed back on increasing police presence in schools, saying that data shows doing so doesn’t help to keep students, particularly Black and brown students, safe.
District 5
Elma-Lorraine Diggs, a parent of two MCPS students and a former USAID worker, said in announcing her campaign in January that she was running to ensure MCPS students have access to “schools that are safe, supportive” and prepare them for life.
On her campaign website, Diggs said she wants to ensure students have access to high-quality education regardless of where they live in the county, build connections between communities and strengthen the board’s oversight and accountability of MCPS.
Diggs is running unopposed.
At-large candidates
The four at-large candidates on the ballot are Wylea Chase, Brenda Diaz, Omar Lazo and Tiffany Wicks.
Wylea Chase was the executive director of the advocacy group Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence from 2022 to 2025 and is currently the senior director at Leadership Montgomery, a nonprofit that trains local community leaders. According to her voters guide responses, Chase said the biggest issue in the race is ensuring public schools serve all children.
Chase said during an April 30 candidate forum that the district needed to move from talking points to action on several issues while allowing students and families who are most impacted by MCPS changes to have a seat at the table.
A former MCPS teacher, Diaz currently works as a teacher at the online school Fusion Global Academy. She said in the voters guide that she believes the main issue facing MCPS is academic achievement, calling it an “academic crisis.” Diaz left MCPS after violating a mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a May forum, Diaz advocated for a stronger police presence in MCPS schools.
“If you think about the size of our high schools, they are the size of towns in this country, anywhere between 2,000 to 3,000 students are in those school buildings every single day,” Diaz said.
Omar Lazo is a small business owner who serves on the Montgomery College Board of Trustees. He wants to see transparent leadership and accountability in MCPS and to bring “disciplined oversight to the budget,” according to his voters guide responses.
During recent candidate forums, Lazo said fixing deteriorating conditions in school buildings is major priority, noting that issues such as the backlog of HVAC repairs that has led to extreme temperatures in buildings negatively impacts student learning.
Tiffany Wicks, the fourth candidate, is a professor and therapist. Though listed on the primary ballot, Wicks told Bethesda Today in May that she would not be pursuing her election to the board.
Digital Partners
Originally published at Bethesdamagazine