Ahead of the November general election, the Southern California News Group compiled a list of questions to pose to the candidates who wish to represent you. You can find the full questionnaire below. Questionnaires may have been edited for spelling, grammar, length and, in some instances, to remove hate speech and offensive language.
MORE: Read all the candidate responses in our Voter Guide
Name: Joseph Komrosky
Current job title: Tenured philosphy professor
Incumbent: No
Other political positions held: Previous school board president of TVUSD
City where you reside: Temecula
Campaign website or social media: drk4tvusd.com, drk4tvusd (Instagram)
How can the school district best meet the needs of all students, including those learning English, those who need mental health service, those in special education programs and those from low-income backgrounds?
As a former school board member running for reelection, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made in addressing the diverse needs of our students. A key factor in this success has been the leadership of the superintendent I helped hire. Together, we’ve ensured that all students — whether English learners, needing mental health support, in special education or from low-income backgrounds—have the resources to thrive.
For English learners, we’ve implemented strong language development programs to support both academic growth and language proficiency. We’ve expanded mental health services by increasing counselor access and partnering with local agencies for in-school mental health resources. Our special education programs have improved with targeted interventions and low-income students now receive essential support, including free meals, tutoring, and technology.
Looking ahead, I remain committed to working with the superintendent, parents and teachers to expand these programs and create an even more inclusive, supportive learning environment for all students.
Some school districts have adopted transgender notification policies to notify parents if a student says they are transgender. If your district has such a policy, do you support or oppose it? Why? If yours does not, would you support or oppose such rules? Why?
This question is misleading because some of the schools in Southern California passed a “”Parental Notification Policy.”” This applies to all parents (including non-parents ex. guardians) in a school district, not just transgender families. To that end, I’ve helped to create and pass a BP 5020.1 Parental Notification Policy at TVUSD. It also included notification factors related to bullying and suicide.
What is the biggest issue the school district faces, and how would you address it?
Raising our California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) scores at TVUSD, especially seeing the lower scores from 2023. To this end an outstanding superintendent was hired in November 2023 to bring new leadership and new ideas to TVUSD. I’ve seen firsthand during site visits: The new superintendent holds the principal (and site administration) accountable for how they plan on raising these scores for the next year. This was exciting to see because the superintendent emphasized principals with higher CAASPP scores for leadership positions to help other principals with lower scores, with potential models they use at their site. This emphasizes a “”community”” aspect of leadership and is valuable because it prevents a siloed effect of this process and instead brings the principals of all 29 school sites in TVUSD to also work together in these types of leadership meetings.
Why would you make a good leader, and how would you represent the diverse communities within the school district?
I was elected governing school board president on the first night of being sworn in at TVUSD and have led the school board meetings with good governance in the midst of controversial disagreement on all sides. I’ve also visited all of the school sites in my trustee area about three times over. I’ve also visited many of the other sites in TVUSD and have attended many students’ events (ex. football games, drama events, SPED sports events, etc.). During these activities above, I’ve seen many amazing student and teachers and have observed many of their amazing diverse teaching styles, and the rapport they have with their students. This is important to me because I’m also an educator (tenured professor) and have taught many students throughout my career and can personally attest to the diverse nature of this job. Last, I was the only school board member during my tenure at TVUSD that attended the “”in-person”” Masters in Governance (M.I.G.) via CSBA (+40 hours) and was trained specifically in the area of representing the diverse communities within my school district and much more. I’ve also met many other diverse school board members. This training points the motivation I had to take my job seriously as a governing school board member and justifies my leadership potential.
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