Temecula’s school board will try to appoint someone to fill the seat vacated by Danny Gonzalez’s resignation in hopes of avoiding a potentially costly special election.
The remaining four board members voted unanimously at a special meeting Monday morning, Dec. 18 to seek an appointee for the Trustee Area 2 seat, held by Gonzalez until he resigned Friday to move to Texas.
The board also voted to appoint board members Allison Barclay and Joseph Komrosky to a committee to review applications and come up with questions to ask potential appointees.
The Temecula Valley Unified School District board has the option of appointing someone or calling a special election, which board member Steven Schwartz has said could cost as much as $200,000.
In a year in which the board showed deep divisions, there was consensus the board should try to work together, save the district money and find a colleague they can all work with.
“Nobody’s blind here. We know it’s (a) 2-2 (board),” Barclay said. “But in the spirit of compromise, I think we should give it a shot.”
The board has until Feb. 15 to appoint a trustee, who would have to stand for election in November. If someone wins a special election to replace Gonzalez, he or she would serve the remainder of Gonzalez’s term, which expires at the end of 2026.
Gonzalez’s departure breaks up a conservative majority that, among other things, banned the teaching of so-called critical race theory, required parents to be told if their child identifies as transgender and barred “pervasive pornography,” vulgarity and profanity from district learning materials.
Typically, Gonzalez voted with Komrosky and Jen Wiersma to enact these policies, with Barclay and Schwartz voting no. Gonzalez’s resignation now creates a 2-2 deadlock.
With the backing of a Christian conservative political action committee, Gonzalez, Komrosky and Wiersma won board seats in November 2022. Supporters said the trio kept their campaign promises by protecting parents’ rights and ridding the classroom of sexually explicit material and political indoctrination.
The majority’s action sparked a fierce backlash from critics who said they wanted to dismantle public education and impose a right-wing Christian nationalist agenda. Signatures to force a recall election of Komrosky have been submitted to Riverside County’s election office.
The five people who spoke during public comments at Monday’s meeting urged the board to work together and find a mutually agreeable, qualified appointee.
The board needs “to stop the negativity and the insults that we’ve seen coming up here,” Kristi McClure said.
While the board can’t control what happens outside the district, “you can control what comes from up” on the dais, McClure added. “We all want to see more professionalism and more collaboration.”
