You heard it right: a local group has started the recall process for all three of the new trustees.
Recalling an elected official is a long, expensive process and not something you do lightly. In Temecula, it began with a local moms’ group who wanted to recall School Board Trustee Jen Wiersma. One Temecula Valley PAC (1TVPAC), a local political action committee formed to promote good governance, joined with this moms’ group to pursue recall for Komrosky and Gonzalez in addition to Wiersma. Many residents have volunteered to help and so has the Temecula Valley Educators’ Association (TVEA).
Recall Q&A
Is recall necessary? Why not just wait till the next election?
Doesn’t the school district have to pay for the recall election, and isn’t that wasting money?
Isn’t it the teachers’ union and leftist extremists outside Temecula who are behind this recall?
I don’t have kids in the district. Why should I care?
I signed the petition last spring. Isn’t that all I have to do?
Can I sign to recall all three of them?
What happens if we recall them?
If we recall them, is that all we need to do?
Q: Is recall necessary? Why not just wait till the next election?
A: TVUSD trustees Komrosky, Wiersma, and Gonzalez were elected in November 2022 for a term of four years, so the next chance to vote them out isn’t until 2026. Frankly, they’ve done so much damage in their first 11 months that we’re afraid to leave them in until then. We need trustees who will stop wasting money on unnecessary attorneys and consultants, stop passing policies that violate California laws and invite lawsuits, and get back to educating our children.
Q: But doesn’t the school district have to pay for the recall election, and isn’t that wasting money?
A: Yes, and yes. It will cost the school district $75,000 for the recall election. What an absolute shame that we were not all paying more attention when they were elected, so now we must spend this extra money to reverse our mistake last November. But how much more will these three trustees cost us if they remain in office? Already they have:
Fired an excellent superintendent without cause, spending over $400,000 to buy out her contract and hire an expensive search firm to replace her
Hired new attorneys at a rate of $620 per hour, when they already had six attorney firms available to consult at $350 per hour
Signed a contract with a religious-based law firm to defend against a lawsuit, even though defense is already covered under the district’s insurance
Spent more than $100,000 (so far) on unnecessary consultants and extra security at Board meetings
Q: But isn’t it the teachers’ union and leftist extremists outside Temecula who are behind this recall?
A: No. It’s your neighbors and the parents and teachers who live here who are behind the recall. The local teachers’ union (Temecula Valley Educators’ Association) has joined in supporting the recall but was not behind it. People who support 1TVPAC, which is pursuing the recall, cover the whole political spectrum from liberal to conservative, and the PAC’s leaders include Conservative Republicans like former City Council member and mayor Jeff Comerchero. We in TVUSD Boardwatch lean mostly center-right.
Btw, a recall petition can be circulated for signatures by volunteers or by someone who is paid to do so. In this recall, it’s all volunteers—people who live here, pay taxes here, whose children and grandchildren attend our schools. It’s your neighbors asking you to sign.
Q: I don’t have kids in the district. Why should I care?
A: Two reasons: because you pay taxes to support public schools and because the quality of our school district affects the quality of our community.
If you own property anywhere in the school district (a much larger area than the city of Temecula), a chunk of your property taxes goes to pay for public schools. If you rent, you can be sure the taxes are figured into your rent. If you pay state income tax, a lot of that goes to public schools, too.
The Temecula school district has had an excellent reputation for decades, and many families move here because of the schools. If the district loses that reputation—because teachers and administrators are stressed and leave, because curriculum is watered down, because the atmosphere is divisive—we will no longer have the family-friendly community we enjoy.
Q: I signed the petition last spring. Isn’t that all I have to do?
A: That was just the Notice of Intention. You need to sign again now; this time it’s the Recall Petition. Next, watch for the recall election in the spring and VOTE YES to recall the trustee for your area.
Q: Can I sign to recall all three of them?
A: No, recall petitions are specific to an individual trustee. You can sign a petition only for the trustee whose geographical area you live in, and you must be registered to vote there. So if you are registered to vote in Joseph Komrosky’s trustee area, you can sign the petition to recall him, but not any of the others. If you live in the trustee area for Steve Schwartz or Allison Barclay, you cannot sign any recall petition.
Q: What happens if we recall them?
A: If we recall one of the three, the board is left with four trustees, two against two, a number that makes it difficult to accomplish anything. If we recall more than one, the majority shifts to the reasonable trustees (Barclay and Schwartz), who can then appoint responsible trustees to fill the empty positions.
Q: If we recall them, is that all we need to do?
A: We wish. Unfortunately this isn’t a one-and-done situation. We need to make sure new trustees are elected whose priorities are good governance and good public schools.
The Inland Empire Family PAC (IE Family PAC), founded by the 412 Church in Murrieta, funded Komrosky’s, Wiersma’s, and Gonzalez’s election in November 2022 (as well as candidates for Murrieta and Lake Elsinore school districts). Their goal is stated on their website: “placing candidates on school boards who will fight for Christian and Conservative values.”
The IE Family PAC is not going away. In November 2024—only a year from now—Allison Barclay’s and Steve Schwartz’s terms will be up. Based on what we’ve heard from Tim Thompson, the lead pastor of the 412 Church, the church’s IE Family PAC will try to replace Barclay and Schwartz with candidates they want.
We will all need to pay attention to the school board for some years to make sure the trustees we elect will be focused on education, not on specific religious or political values.
The Bottom Line
The position of school board trustee is a non-partisan position. It doesn’t matter whether a trustee is a Republican or a Democrat; it doesn’t matter what their religion is or isn’t. What matters is whether they genuinely want to help our children and our community, and whether they spend our taxes in a sensible way.
Temecula is a diverse community and our public schools serve everyone. Our trustees should understand that and work to provide a school environment that helps all students and all families.
Komrosky, Wiersma, and Gonzalez have proved over the last several months that they are more concerned with promoting their own narrow political and religious views—and quite possibly their own political ambitions—than in being responsible trustees. They are using Temecula and our tax dollars to get what they want, not what our students need. They have passed policies that violated state law and resulted in lawsuits. They have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars irresponsibly.
We wish we didn’t have to do this. But they need to go.