Recalled Temecula school board president tries for reelection after controversial policies led to his ouster
Voters in Riverside County are weighing whether to reelect former Temecula Valley school board president Joseph Komrosky, a conservative who was recalled in a special election earlier this year after implementing a series of controversial policies that were challenged in court.
First elected to the board in November 2022, Komrosky drew nationwide attention for his decisions to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory and to require that parents be notified of changes in their child's gender identity. The policies brought a lawsuit from parents, who argued that the rules put trans, non-binary and gender noncomforming students at risk. In early-2024, a Riverside County judge sided with the district, upholding their decision to ban critical race theory.
Watch: Temecula father aims to beat school board president who was recalled after string of controversies
Komrosky and two other conservative board members also barred the display of any flag not associated with the state or federal government and banned books including state-provided educational material. Under Komrosky, the board also pushed the district to prohibit 5G towers on school grounds.
"When I ran and said, 'Hey, if you elect me I'm going to do XYZ,' if they said we don't want that, they wouldn't have elected me to do that," Komrosky told CBS News Los Angeles. "We banned pervasive profanity, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity from all core curriculum, supplemental material and library books."
Komrosky was criticized by California Gov. Gavin Newsom after the district attempted to ban state curriculum that included information on the late LGBTQ+ rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. The then-school board president was widely condemned when he called Milk a "pedophile" before a vote on the matter.
Komrosky and his allies on the board drew further criticism from community members when they fired TVUSD Superintendent Jodi McClay in a closed-door meeting amid protests over the attempt to ban the curriculum.
Read more: Gov. Newsom fines Temecula Valley school board $1.5 for rejecting new curriculum
When asked why he's running again, just months after getting recalled by the same community he's relying on come Nov. 5, Komrosky said it was the public that wanted it.
"The majority of the community wanted me to do this," he said. "You're unhappy about it? Give me four years, give me a chance."
Read more: Temecula school board president calls Harvey Milk "pedophile" before book banning vote
Komrosky is running for Seat Four, one of the four up for grabs on the board. His opponent is David Sola, who says on his campaign website that he works for an education technology organization for special education where he "develops and reports insights on how the organization serves children with diverse needs."
"I wanna focus on the kids and I don't want partisan politics to be a part of this," said Sola, a former U.S. Marine and father of four, three of whom currently attend TVUSD schools.
Sola said he saw Komrosky's June recall as an opportunity to shift the focus of the school board.
"We're honestly just exhausted from the negativity and we wanna focus on things where we can take real control over what's happening," he said.
Issues that should be prioritized include improving test scores, attendance numbers and school safety, Sola said.
"We haven't even hired a new director of security in the district, because we're spending so much time doing things we shouldn't and focusing on things we shouldn't," he said.
Sola says that all students should feel welcome in class and that Komrosky's policies made some feel demonized, particularly LGBTQ+ students.