Respect, Teamwork, and Seating Arrangements
Why were Assistant Superintendents placed in a corner at the TVUSD board meeting?
At the September 12, 2023, Temecula school board meeting, seating arrangements were abruptly changed. Instead of sitting at the dais next to the Superintendent, the Assistant Superintendents were placed at a table in the far front corner of the meeting room.
The trustees, instead of sitting next to the Board President, were arranged on either side of the Superintendent and the President, who were in the middle. The three women (Mrs. Barclay, Mrs. Wiersma, and Interim Superintendent Dr. Velez) were on one side, and the three men (President Komrosky, Mr. Schwartz, and Mr. Gonzalez) were on the other.
This seating arrangement, designed by President Komrosky, appeared to be impractical. The Board often needs to ask for clarification or information from the Assistant Superintendents. But from the corner where they were seated, they could not see or hear the trustees very well. And the trustees could not see them very well unless they got up from where they were seated and went to the podium in front of the audience.
This change in seating seems like a trivial thing, hardly worth mentioning in comparison to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fire a capable superintendent or approving an unnecessary, lengthy contract with a law firm.
Had this happened earlier in the year, we wouldn’t have paid any attention. At that time we trusted that the three new trustees would grow into their jobs, treat teachers and staff with respect, listen to all parents, and work as a team toward the goal of educating our children.
Unfortunately their actions over the last several months have made it very apparent that our trust was misplaced.
We’ve watched Komrosky, Wiersma, and Gonzalez singlemindedly pursue their political agenda despite the reasonable concerns that staff, parents, students, and the other two trustees have raised about their policies.
We’ve watched them hire lawyers and consultants they like without requesting proposals from others and without considering costs.
We’ve watched them ignore the expertise of our teachers and refuse to adopt curriculum our teachers carefully chose and piloted with our own students.
We’ve watched them cut off discussion among Board members when the discussion wasn’t going their way.
So at this point, even a seemingly small thing like seating arrangements at Board meetings appears indicative of their inability to listen, respect others, and work as a team. In our view, this seating arrangement is not only impractical, but also shows disrespect for the Assistant Superintendents and their value to the meeting and the district. If President Komrosky wanted to emphasize his unwillingness to work with district staff, he certainly succeeded.
Or perhaps President Komrosky didn’t approve of our little joke about the right and left sides of the dais.
Or perhaps he was afraid the Assistant Superintendents were passing notes to the Superintendent.
Why did we feel like we were in a classroom of a hundred years ago, with the naughty children in a corner and the boys and girls on separate sides of the room?
Disrespect, a rejection of teamwork, and petty, controlling actions like this serve only to anger people and distract us all from the real job: education.