A broad coalition of students, parents, community members and educators have successfully organized and coordinated a city-wide effort to gather the required number of signatures for a recall of extremist Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) school board President Joseph Komrosky. 

The submission of more than 5,200 recall petition signatures comes a year after the election of an extremist TVUSD school board majority. 

In District Area Four, currently represented by Komrosky, volunteers supporting the effort needed to submit a minimum of 4,280 valid signatures to place the recall on the ballot next year. 

For Jeff Pack, Co-founder of One Temecula Political Action Committee, the ongoing effort is an unapologetic culmination of successful coalition-building and thousands of hours of spirited volunteer work throughout the Temecula Community; 

“This has always been a grassroots effort of people just like me — parents and former parents of students of TVUSD that have had enough of the antics of this school board majority,” said Pack. 

Temecula Valley Educators Association (TVEA) members joined forces with prominent groups within the broader community to actively resist the attacks on schools and students while defending safe and nurturing environments for everyone.  

“Our members see the danger of extremism and the impact on our classrooms and students. From the board president voting to withhold textbooks from our students to divisive policies that erode the trust of our award-winning educators, this board has spent more time focused on extreme ideology than providing for our schools.” 

–TVEA President Edgar Diaz

Students and Parents Take the Lead 

In December 2023, when most Temeculans were just beginning to experience the political division at their doorstep, it was students and parents among the city’s increasingly diverse community who first recognized and opposed the newly elected board’s extremist agenda and pursued legal action against it.  

In the months following, the new board majority’s banning of Critical Race Theory, state-approved inclusive curriculum, schoolbook bans, firing a superintendent without cause, and Forced Outing policies polarized the community. Hundreds participated in school protests and walkouts organized by Black Student Union groups on all three comprehensive high schools, bringing attention and focus to the resulting damage and division in the community and on school campuses.   

A Coalition is Formed for Change 

To produce the necessary signatures, members of One Temecula PAC began organizing meetings in the summer to identify allies and begin the collaborative process of relationship-building that would develop students, parents, educators, and longstanding members of the community into the agents of change needed for the work ahead. Those allies included the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and TVEA members and leaders. One Temecula Valley PAC scheduled several trainings where neighborhood volunteers learned the use of cell phone applications to ensure door-knocking results were captured in real-time. Once organized and trained, volunteers canvassed the entire District Area Four to get the requisite signatures and qualify for the recall of Komrosky for the 2024 ballot. 

Next Steps in the Process 

With 20-percent more signatures gathered than the minimum threshold, a recall election is all but assured. Riverside County Registrar of Voters will determine whether the election will take place in the spring or further into the calendar year. The remaining school board members will select an interim member who will serve until the next regularly held election if Komrosky is successfully removed from office by voters.