TVUSD's Dr. Joseph Komrosky To Face Recall Election

TEMECULA, CA — Temecula Valley Unified School District President Dr. Joseph Komrosky will face a recall election this year.

On Monday, the Riverside County Registrar of Voters certified that a petition garnered enough valid signatures from residents in Komrosky's Trustee Area 4 to put the recall question to voters there.

The total number of signatures submitted for the petition was 5,273, of which 4,884 were declared valid by the Registrar — well over the minimum required to force a recall election.

The TVUSD governing board has 14 days to determine an election date. Patch reached out to the district and Komrosky for comment.

One Temecula Valley PAC led efforts to recall Komrosky. Trustee Jennifer Wiersma and former Trustee Danny Gonzalez were also targeted by the group. Gonzalez resigned his post last month. His Trustee Area 2 seat remains vacant and the TVUSD governing board is working to fill it with a special appointment.

Efforts to recall the trio started not long after they took office. The three were each elected in November 2022 to a four-year term on the TVUSD board following support from Inland Empire Family PAC, which works to "stop the indoctrination of our children by placing candidates on school boards who will fight for Christian and conservative values."

Critics, including national organizations, blasted the three trustees over their critical race theory ban; their controversial critical race theory "panel" that many TVUSD teachers dubbed "indoctrination camp"; their censoring of instruction about California's gay rights movement; their attempted defiance of state education code; their firing of the district superintendent; the hiring of their own team of attorneys at taxpayers' expense to defend against ongoing lawsuits over their actions; their ban on pride and other flags; and their mandate that educators report to parents about transgender students.

Their actions have cost the district in legal fees and caught the ire of state leaders.

Monday's certification "is a big day for One Temecula Valley PAC and our crew, but a bigger day for the community that came together to collect signatures, and the residents who signed the petitions," said One Temecula Valley PAC co-founder Jeff Pack. "It sends a message that the community rejects the divisive, destructive, and wasteful policymaking embarked upon under Komrosky's leadership. It shows that our community wants good governance and will seek to remove partisan political maneuvering from these nonpartisan elected positions."

The certification "should serve as notice that Temecula is engaged and eager to ensure the best possible governance for the city and region. Failure to do so in the best interest of the city, can and will result in recall efforts like this," Pack continued.

"This is an amazing day for our school district, city and community and we're hoping this is yet another step to correcting the mismanagement that has occurred over the past year under Komrosky and his cohorts," he added.

With Gonzelez's departure, the TVUSD governing board is now divided down the middle. Wiersma has voted in line with Komrosky. The two remaining trustees — Allison Barclay and Steven Schwartz — have not aligned with the rhetoric of Komrosky and Wiersma.