If it wasn’t for the advice of legal counsel, Jonathan Pearl, at the April 17 meeting of the Murrieta Valley Unified School Board, trustee Eleanor Briggs might have moved full steam ahead with a Brown Act Violation. 

Every month, we will publish the 1TVPAC Good Governance report card to evaluate TVUSD School Board trustees. The grades are based on their behavior in the boardroom and outside (public events, training, social media, communication with constituents, etc.). The criteria include fiscal responsibility, given the upcoming budget shortfall, and the California School Board Association (CSBA) standards for effective trustees.

Once again, the TVUSD Board of Education spent much of the April 15th meeting focused on topics that don't directly improve schools, student outcomes, or the district’s financial health. Instead, the majority of the meeting was consumed with culture war debates, internal board dynamics, and discussions about policies mandated by state law — matters largely outside the district's control.

Local school boards should be about student achievement, not partisan politics. The Chino Valley agenda is a case study in what happens when political ideology overrides public responsibility. Let it serve as a red flag to voters, parents, and educators alike: this is not what educational leadership looks like — and we must ensure it never takes hold in Temecula Valley, Murrieta Valley, or anywhere else that values students over spectacle.

The meeting clearly showed how valuable city-school district coordination can be and how competent both city and district staff are. Unfortunately it also highlighted some elected officials’ lack of basic understanding and inability to stay on topic, as well as several missed opportunities for coordination.

It appears Wiersma has a general lack of respect for her fellow TVUSD board members and a clear objective to attempt to boost her political cache by misusing her elected position and misrepresenting the board and its policies for personal gain. 

This article explores the ideal role of trustees in committee and subcommittee work, the pitfalls of excessive involvement, and how the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s (TVUSD’s) current subcommittee structure works.

MURRIETA— After a debate that spanned two school board meetings, MVUSD president Nick Pardue succeeded in removing more than half of the district's social workers at the end of this school year.