Joe Komrosky as TVUSD Board President again? We already know the financial damage that he has done to this district

Urge board member Anderson to vote No to Joe and Yes to Schwartz

On Thursday, December 4th, the TVUSD School Board will hold a regular School Board Meeting at 4pm. 

This meeting is important because the board will vote on their president and board clerk for the next year. We need your help (emails and speeches) to make sure an effective good-governance president is selected. See details below.

Agenda and Rules:

Board Meeting Agenda and rules for attendance can be found here.

The meeting agenda contains the usual Consent Items section, typically voted on as one motion due to the regular and predictable nature of these items. This meeting only has 15 consent items vs. some meetings having over 50. 

The Information and Reports section of the agenda contains the items from the last meeting in October that they were unable to address due to mismanagement of time. Among them is a redundant and unnecessary policy on noncustodial parents. Existing policies manage this issue and it has never been a problem; this is another performative, culture war issue agenda item meant to fire up the public while actually doing nothing meaningful to benefit students. 

The Action Items section contains some regular business items like interim financial report but also an item on how and when to get and give information to school board attorneys. This item highlights how much this board has used attorneys and spent taxpayer dollars on attorneys fees this year, continuing the poor fiscal management of the board prior to December 2024. 

The Organizational meeting section of the agenda has 9 items pertaining to the shift in leadership; each agenda item will have a place for public comments prior to the board discussion and vote. 

These are typically allowed the full 3 minutes, but be prepared for them to be 2 minutes if many people want to speak on the same item.They must be directly related to the agenda item; speakers have been cut off or cut short if they stray too far from the topic.

General Public Comments not related to a specific agenda item may be on any topic pertaining to district or board business, and are at the end of the meeting, when business items are completed and before board closing comments. They are usually set at 3 minutes but often are reduced to 2 minutes if there are a lot of speakers.

Please remember to remain civil and calm during your speech, and at all times during the meeting. Representing the good governance side of the audience also means showing professional and respectful behavior while in attendance.

Board election:

The election of board president and clerk for the next year is key to getting the district back on track. The president works closely with the Superintendent to set the agenda, keep meetings in order, and focus on what’s important. We encourage speakers to request leaders who will be responsible and effective, returning the board back to the business of student educational success and fiscal responsibility.

One thing is painfully clear:

Joe Komrosky, in his shortened stint as board president, guided the board to policies and behavior that has already cost TVUSD Hundreds of Thousands of dollars and with the Mae v Komrosky case, likely close to another $3 MILLION.

We strongly recommend emailing Anderson expressing your support for Schwartz as president and urging her to vote for him.

Proven ineffective:

Komrosky and Anderson have shown themselves to be poor leaders, wasting taxpayer money on attorneys’ fees, supporting culture war issues and performative agenda items that do nothing to help TVUSD, ignoring educational concerns. And they have often been unprofessional and rude to other trustees and the audience.

Wiersma didn’t do much better when she was interim president for 5-6 months after Komrosky was recalled. And after years of presenting agenda items focused on culture wars and furthering an extreme agenda, she put a physical fitness/student health item on the last meeting. Clearly she is focused on her campaign for re-election in 2026 and using her time to build her “mission accomplished” campaign mailer.

Schwartz and Barham are the only two trustees who actually focus on students and care about public school education. While Barham has been distracted by Anderson’s mistreatment of him and engaged in bickering and defending himself, he usually does focus on students, safety, and financial responsibility. 

Since Anderson has demonstrated her clear dislike for Barham and Wiersma, presenting a case for electing Schwartz as president, not Komrosky, is the best chance TVUSD has for a year of competent governance. Schwartz has the most board experience of any current trustee and served with a competent, effective board prior to 2022. He knows and respects TVUSD district office staff, visits school sites and talks with all site staff as well as students and parents, and understands how a public school district works, both as a longtime teacher and as a parent and grandparent of public school students. 

Komrosky’s failures:

1. Financial waste: With a $19.5 million deficit in the budget presented earlier in the meeting,it’s crucial to elect a board president who will put fiscal responsibility first, above all other personal, political, and cultural agendas.

2. Failed policies: Every single policy Komrosky put forth has been overturned due to some legal or rule violation. Komrosky cannot pass a policy legally so he breaks the rules to further his own personal agenda, hurting students in the process and costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, likely millions when the dust settles. And remember, any lawsuits filed to stop the illegal policies would have been thrown out in court if they weren’t legitimate; it happens to frivolous lawsuits all the time. Every single Komrosky-led initiative has been overturned.

3. Multiple Brown Act violations: Despite receiving a cease and desist letter, Komrosky continued to engage in behaviors that violate the Brown Act, which then cost the district  about $60,000. If he had just chosen to follow the letter, he would have cost us nothing.  He has cleared the room on multiple occasions, removing people who were not saying or doing anything disruptive, even removing people without a warning (a board president is required to warn an individual before removing them from a meeting). He even cleared the entire audience and then held a public forum on the budget with no members of the public allowed to speak. The public forum is a required part of the budget process, done every year at the June meetings. He violated the Brown Act multiple times with that one action.

4. Dishonest and untrustworthy: Even now Komrosky continues to bend the truth to serve his needs. When he corrects Anderson on her failings as board president or other board members on procedure, he is simply highlighting things he did himself—like refusing to place requested items on the agenda, removing people without warning, and so on.

Bottom line: Steve Schwartz is the responsible choice for president!