In a seven-hour school board meeting Tuesday night, Jan. 28, the Temecula school board discussed two policies to essentially replace the parent notification and flag policies it rescinded in December.
One proposal would direct school employees to send students who want to discuss their gender or sexuality to the principal or school counselor. The other calls for classrooms to be “neutral” places where instruction is steered away from “sensitive topics.”
The Temecula Valley Unified School District’s parent notification policy required schools to tell parents within three days if their child identified as transgender or looked to gender-affirming bathrooms or sports.
The flag policy, which was also passed in Chino Valley schools, bans all flags from classrooms that are not the American flag or the California state flag. The policy has been criticized by some who say it targets the LGBTQ+ community and the pride flag.
The first policy was pushed to a board subcommittee, the details of which will be determined later. On the neutral classroom policy, the board asked administrators to begin negotiating with the Temecula teachers’ union to hammer out details.
“Students should have the opportunity to learn in an environment that remains free from undue social or political influence,” the proposal states. “While topics that require critical thinking — some of which may be contentious or controversial — are integral to the educational experience, it is essential that students engage with these topics in a respectful and neutral learning environment.”
The neutral classroom policy was brought forward by new board members Emil Barham and board President Melinda Anderson. It was listed as a “motion to discuss the need for a Neutral Classroom Policy” and no policy was attached.
Barham said that he and Anderson believe it’s imperative to “promote an atmosphere of student learning clear of bias.”
He said that part of promoting this type of policy was bargaining with the teachers and staff associations to make a policy that would be viable for the future.
Anderson said the board was looking to avoid the division seen on college campuses over the war between Israel and Gaza while not stifling the ability of teachers to express themselves in classrooms.
She said the board would look to staff and the teachers union for direction.
Board member Jen Wiersma said having a neutral classroom was important but said a flag policy should be part of the conversation.
“There should be consistency,” Wiersma said. “Looking at an overview of all things, but that also brings room to bring the flag policy back.”
Board member Joseph Komrosky, who returned to the board in the November election after being recalled in summer, said he would be open to the neutral classroom policy if the board added language to include the previous flag policy.
Trustee Steve Schwartz said he would agree with the neutral classroom policy if the board negotiated it with the teacher’s union.
In December, the board rescinded both policies in closed session after a report from the Public Employment Relations Board said the rules violated the state Educational Employment Relations Act. The report stated that the Temecula Valley Unified School District violated employees’ contracts by putting the policies into place without negotiating things such as employee discipline.
The two policies were approved in 2023. The parent notification policy requires Temecula schools to tell parents within three days if their child identifies as transgender. The policy took off in California with districts, including the Chino Valley, Murrieta Valley, and Orange school boards passing almost identical policies within weeks of each other. Murrieta’s school board rescinded its policy in October.
In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB1955, which made such policies illegal. The Chino Valley Unified School District challenged the law, filing a lawsuit the day after the bill was signed.
Those who spoke at Temecula’s meeting said they understood the need for neutral classrooms but worried that the policy would limit students’ ability to relate real-life experiences to lessons.
“I agree with you on the idea that politically charged propaganda should not be in the classroom but a classroom should strive to be anything but neutral,” said Diann Moyer, a teacher at Gardner Middle School in Temecula.
She said that classrooms should encourage students to be curious and students should ask questions. One of the best ways she has found to connect with students is through her classroom walls, Moyer said.
Michael Davis, a grandparent in the district, said that he agrees that children have a lot of stressors on them but he feared that taking away the ability to discuss politics or social issues would ultimately take away from the student experience and could lead to history repeating itself.
“For math and science, I get it, but when it comes to history you will accidentally steal from an individual’s ability to connect their own living experience to what they are learning,” Davis said.
District parent Josh Sterling said: “I just don’t want to make it so sanitized that we lose the ability for teachers and kids to feel like they have a unique place to go and learn.”
