Long Beach Council and School Board Races: Who Controls the Budget, the Classrooms and the Streets

Three Long Beach City Council districts and two Long Beach Unified School District board seats are on the November 2026 ballot, and the candidates running for those positions will decide how roughly $3.7 billion in combined annual city and district spending gets allocated over the next four years. For residents in the 1st, 7th and 8th council districts, stretching from North Long Beach through the harbor corridor, that means the names on the ballot this fall will have direct authority over road repaving contracts, park maintenance schedules, and whether proposed homeless navigation centers get funded or shelved.

The timing matters. Long Beach adopted its two-year Fiscal Year 2025-2027 budget in September 2024, locking in baseline expenditures, but mid-cycle budget adjustments are scheduled for early 2027. Whoever holds council seats when that process opens will vote on whether to pull forward capital projects, cut departmental allocations or redirect one-time reserve funds. The city's general fund reserve currently sits at approximately 17 percent of operating expenditures, above the 15 percent floor the council set by policy, which gives incoming members some room to maneuver without triggering a fiscal emergency.

What Each Race Controls on the Ground

The 7th District race is drawing the most attention from neighborhood groups. The district covers parts of Wrigley and West Long Beach, where the city's 2023 Pedestrian Safety Action Plan identified several corridors as high-injury networks. Whoever wins that seat will sit on the Public Works Committee, giving them influence over which streets advance in the city's annual paving and crosswalk improvement queue. Local safety advocates note that the 7th District has seen a disproportionate share of pedestrian fatalities relative to its population, according to data compiled in the action plan. The winning candidate will also vote on contracts tied to the Long Beach Department of Public Works capital program, which was allocated approximately $147 million in the current two-year cycle.

The two LBUSD school board contests cover districts that include Washington Middle School and Cabrillo High School, among others. The board sets the district's Local Control and Accountability Plan, the document that governs how the district spends its Local Control Funding Formula dollars from the state. LBUSD's current LCAP, adopted in June 2025, prioritizes expanded mental health services and multilingual learner support programs. Newly elected trustees will vote on whether to continue, expand or redirect those commitments when the board adopts its next LCAP before the June 2027 state deadline.

Voter Participation and What the Data Show

Turnout in Long Beach's odd-cycle local elections has historically been low. In the November 2022 general election, citywide voter participation in council races reached approximately 25 percent of registered voters, according to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder data. Political scientists who study local municipal elections argue that low turnout amplifies the influence of organized constituency groups, meaning that homeowner associations, labor unions and business improvement districts can have outsized weight in determining outcomes.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder is administering the November 3, 2026 election. Vote-by-mail ballots for registered voters are expected to begin arriving in mid-October under California's existing universal vote-by-mail framework, established under Assembly Bill 37 in 2021. Residents who have moved since the last election should verify their registration at registrar.lavote.gov before the October 19 deadline.

Candidate filing for the November election closed in mid-August 2026. The full certified candidate list for Long Beach council and LBUSD races is available through the City Clerk's office at Long Beach City Hall, 411 W. Ocean Blvd. Policy analysts who track local government note that the 2026 cycle arrives as Long Beach faces overlapping pressures: a projected state budget shortfall that could reduce Proposition 98 education funding guarantees, rising pension costs inside the city's general fund, and continued demand for homelessness services that the city funds partly through state grants subject to annual renewal.