Temecula Valley school board President Joseph Komrosky, an outspoken religious conservative whose controversial tenure has been marked by heated debates, was narrowly losing a recall election, according to preliminary results Tuesday night.
Komrosky was elected as part of a three-member conservative majority in November 2022. Taking office later that year, the bloc immediately thrust the 28,000-student Riverside County school system to the forefront of the culture wars. from the country.
Over the next year, under Komrosky's leadership, the Temecula Valley Unified School District restricted the teaching of critical race theory, limited which flags could be flown, and passed a policy that involved notifying parents of students' gender identification. students.
The activism led to ongoing litigation as well as state intervention that led the school system to substantially backtrack on efforts to restrict subject matter in state-mandated educational topics.
If Komrosky were removed, it would end the 2-2 stalemate that has existed since Komrosky ally Danny Gonzalez resigned in December after announcing he was moving out of state. The five-member school board won't be complete until after the November election.
This week's vote affected only Komrosky's District 4 seat, which represents the eastern and central part of the district.
Most of Temecula followed a policy playbook that has come to characterize that of religious conservatives elected to local offices who have enormous influence over what and how children are taught in public schools.
Komrosky put his religious conviction front and center: his biography on the social media platform X states: “God-fearing patriot who loves our country. “Full-time University Professor teaching logic and critical thinking, and servant of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.”
But his policies were also intended and presumed to have broad appeal.
“Parental rights have been revoked and ignored,” he wrote on his website opposing the recall. “I will strongly advocate for family rights and the rights of our children regarding their safety and education. “I will oppose unnecessary school mandates that harm families.”
For him, this included a parental notification policy intended to alert parents when their children showed any signs of identification with a gender other than that listed on their birth certificate.
Komrosky and her allies say they believe parents have a fundamental right to participate in all aspects of their children's lives, especially in matters as momentous as gender identification.
Opponents contend that blanket parental notification policies violate student privacy and civil rights set forth in state law and the education code, and that the near-universal exposure of transgender students to their parents would put some children at risk. serious risk.
The legality of parental notification policies remains in play. The Chino Valley and Temecula school boards passed essentially identical policies, and each district was sued. California Lawyer. Gen. Rob Bonta sued the Chino Valley Unified School District, and a coalition of parents, students, individual teachers and the teachers union sued Temecula Valley.
The judge in the Chino Valley case determined in a preliminary ruling that the policy was substantially illegal. And Chino Valley subsequently approved a revised policy, which is expected to achieve the same purpose while also being legally approved.
A different judge upheld Temecula's policy, a ruling that is being appealed.
That lawsuit also alleges that the board majority is hostile toward LGBTQ+ issues and students, citing the board's refusal to adopt a state-approved curriculum for elementary schools that includes a short, optional passage in fourth-grade material. degree about the late San Francisco County Supervisor Harvey Milk. the state's first gay elected official, who was assassinated in 1978.
A threat of a fine from Gov. Gavin Newsom led the board to approve the curriculum, which had been recommended by teachers and administrators and was in line with state learning standards.
The issue is not over. The board voted to move this fourth-grade lesson on California's civil rights movements to the end of the year, to allow time to find “age-appropriate curriculum” that could replace “sexualized instructional topics.” .
The lesson in question includes paragraphs noting that LGBTQ+ individuals and groups fought for civil rights, including the right to marry, but does not address sex.
That lawsuit led by Temecula teachers also seeks to overturn the district's policy to restrict the teaching of critical race theory, an academic legal framework taught at some colleges and universities that examines how racial inequality and racism have been systemically embedded in American institutions.
Critical race theory has been another powder keg of the culture war across the country. Temecula's list of banned concepts incorporates common conservative claims, including that teachers use critical race theory to make white students feel guilty for being white. Many education experts consider this characterization of how teachers have been addressing the issue of race to be inaccurate and incomplete.
Temecula is apparently the only district in California facing litigation over its critical race theory policy.
But culture war issues are playing out in other Southern California school districts, including Orange Unified and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified in Orange County and Murrieta Valley Unified in Riverside County. Similar ideological struggles have played out in the Rocklin Unified School District and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District, both north of Sacramento, and in the Anderson Union High School District in Shasta County.
Times staff writer Ian James contributed to this report.
