Temecula Valley School Board President Joseph Komrosky is a religious conservative who has pushed for policies that limit discussions of racism, ban the display of Pride flags and require disclosure of students’ gender identities to parents. He narrowly lost the recall election, according to preliminary results.
Komroski was elected in November 2022 as a member of the three-member conservative majority.
Two policies — restricting the teaching of critical race theory and notifying parents of a student’s gender identity — have led to ongoing litigation.
Another effort to reject parts of the state curriculum related to the contributions of LGBTQ+ residents resulted in the state threatening to fine the school system and prompting significant concessions from local officials.
If Komlowski is recalled, it would end a 2-2 deadlock that has existed since Komlowski ally Danny Gonzalez resigned in December after announcing he was leaving state. The five-member school board won’t be finalized until after the November election.
“People are tired of the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric,” said Preston Miller, 21, a recall supporter and graduate of a local high school. “They’re tired of the racism we see from the school board. We’ve stood up to them and we’re winning. I’m proud of our community, the place where I grew up.
Komlowski could not immediately be reached for comment. But parent Ryan Waroff said recall supporters had framed the debate wrongly. Wolof said Komlowski was elected because residents “wanted him to take a stand against state interference in local school board decisions.”
Ultimately, Worov said, overcoming establishment forces, including state governments and teachers unions, is an uphill battle.
Komlowski’s supporters support his efforts to impose Christian-based moral values and combat what they see as harmful sexualization of young children — a cause they believe most parents will support.
Recall supporters argue Komlowski wasted valuable education funds to pursue legally questionable, divisive, unnecessary and despicable policies.
Tuesday’s vote affects only Komlowski’s District 4 seat, which represents the eastern and central parts of the district.
Komlowski’s board majority follows a policy playbook that has become characteristic of religious conservatives who have elected local officials, including once-sleepy school boards that have outsized influence over what and how children in public schools are educated. Influence.
Komlowski puts his religious beliefs first—his bio on social media platform Servant of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
But his policies were also designed to, and were seen as, having broad appeal.
“Parents’ rights have been revoked and ignored,” he wrote on his website, opposing the recall. “I will be a strong advocate for families’ rights and our children’s rights to safety and education. I will fight against unnecessary school mandates that harm families.
For him, that includes a parent notification policy designed to alert parents if their children show any signs of being different from the gender listed on their birth certificate.
Komlowski and his allies say they believe parents have a fundamental right to be involved in all aspects of their children’s lives, especially on important issues like gender identity.
Opponents argue that sweeping parent notification policies violate students’ privacy and civil rights under state and education laws and that transgender students’ near-universal disclosure to parents would put some children at serious risk.
The legality of the parental notification policy remains. Chino Valley and Temecula school boards approved essentially identical policies, and each district was sued. California Attorney. Gen. Rob Bonta sued the Chino Valley Unified School District, and a coalition of parents, students, individual teachers and teachers unions sued Temecula Valley.
The judge in the Chino Valley case found in a preliminary ruling that the policy was substantively illegal. Chino Valley subsequently approved a revised policy that it hopes will accomplish the same purpose while passing legal review.
Another judge upheld Temecula Valley’s policy, which is now being appealed.
The lawsuit also accuses the majority of the board of directors of being hostile to LGBTQ+ topics and students, citing the board’s refusal to adopt a state-approved elementary school curriculum that included a brief, discreditable reference to the late San Francisco County Superintendent Harvey Milk in fourth-grade materials. Select paragraph.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s threat of fines prompted the board to approve the curriculum, which teachers and administrators recommended meet state learning standards.
The problem is not over yet. The board voted to delay a fourth-grade course on the California civil rights movement until the end of the year to allow time to find “age-appropriate lessons” that could replace “sexualized teaching topics.”
Some passages in the course note that LGBTQ+ individuals and groups fought for civil rights, including the right to marry, but there is no discussion of gender.
The Temecula lawsuit also seeks to overturn school district policies that limit the teaching of critical race theory, an academic legal framework taught at some colleges and universities that examines how racial inequality and racism are systemically embedded in American institutions.
Critical race theory is another tinderbox in the nation’s culture wars. Temecula’s list of banned concepts reflects common conservative claims, including that teachers use critical race theory to make white students feel guilty about being white. Many education experts believe this description of how teachers approach the topic of race is inaccurate and incomplete.
Temecula is apparently the only district in California to face a lawsuit over its critical race theory policies.
But culture war issues are playing out in other Southern California school districts, including Orange and Placentia-Yorba Linda in Orange County and Murrieta Valley School District in Riverside County. Similar ideological battles are taking place in the Rocklin Union and Qianxi Union Elementary School Districts in north Sacramento, and the Anderson Union High School District in Shasta County.
Times staff writer Ian James contributed to this report.
