A special Monday night meeting of the Temecula Valley Unified School District Board of Education devolved into personal attacks and multiple calls for resignation following discussion about how to respond to findings from an investigation into complaints made by trustees Jen Wiersma and Steven Schwartz against one another.
“There’s only one saying that comes to mind, ‘You can perfect your image, but you cannot fake your fruit,’” Board Clerk Emil Barham said, addressing trustees Joseph Komrosky and Wiersma who he called “weak and ineffective leaders,” during board comments.
“It is time for the two of you to do the honorable thing by immediately resigning your positions and allowing this board and district to continue the good work we have started,” he continued. “You two are deterrence and liabilities to that good work.”
In response, Komrosky called on Barham to resign, while also addressing the way in which Board President Dr. Melinda Anderson runs the meetings.
“If you don’t know how to act as a president, you can not only step aside as president, you can resign,” Komrosky said. “This was the most reckless meeting I could possibly imagine, and everyone got to witness it.”
The comments came roughly three hours into a special meeting originally called to discuss how the board could move forward in light of the release of a report by Nicole Miller & Associates, Inc. regarding complaints lodged by Wiersma and Schwartz.
The firm specifically looked into Wiersma’s allegation that Schwartz sexually harassed her by making a crude comment during a board photo taken last December, Schwartz’s allegation that Wiersma’s complaint was dishonest and made in bad faith and Wiersma’s allegation that the district was negligent in its response to her initial complaint.
The district, throughout the process, maintained that because board members are not employees of the district, and there is no district bylaw or policy related to resolve disputes between board members, it has no power to enforce any remedy and, as such, this was a private civil dispute between Wiersma and Schwartz.
As a result of the investigation, the firm said it did not sustain Wiersma’s allegation of sexual harassment by Schwartz nor was it able to find evidence to suggest that the district had acted negligently in its response to Wiersma’s initial complaint.
As for Schwartz’s allegation, the firm found that Wiersma’s initial complaint “may not have been made in good faith.” Short of that, the investigator found that Wiersma “exercised poor judgment in publicly voicing and pursuing such an egregious allegation without sufficient basis or clarity regarding the alleged conduct.”
On the agenda were a number of items, including the potential to refer the findings of the investigation to the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), the Riverside County Civil Grand Jury, the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Riverside County Office of Education as well as a potential censure of Wiersma.
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“I initially brought forward the motion to censure, because I believed it was important to address conduct that, in my view, undermines the values and responsibilities of this board,” Schwartz said in asking that the board remove the item from the agenda, noting that he had not yet ruled out civil litigation. “However, upon further reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw the item, not because the behavior has become acceptable, but because it’s become clear that proceeding with a formal censure could unintentionally shift focus away from the real issues and potentially serve the interests of the very person whose conduct is in question.”
The board also voted against referring the item to the FPPC in a 4-1 vote with Schwartz voting in favor and postponed making a decision on whether or not the board should refer the matter to the Riverside County Civil Grand Jury.
However, the board did vote 4-1 in favor of formally withdrawing the district from any further involvement in the dispute with the stipulation that the district would retain all records, reports and documentation related to the issue; provide that documentation upon request for oversight or enforcement agencies; and assist in legal or administrative efforts to seek reimbursement of public funds expended on the investigation.
Those funds included nearly $40,000 spent, including $20,000 for the independent third-party investigation, as a result of Weirsma’s initial complaint.
Wiersma, who said she believed her actions were in accordance with the California Department of Education’s (CDE) Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP) and was in the purview of the district, voted against the motion.
“The UCP explicitly covers harassment complaints, and I followed the process triggering the district’s duty to investigate,” she said. “Courts have ruled the districts cannot evade Title IX or state law obligations by labeling harassment complaints as civil when they occur in an educational context.”
The board also voted 3-2, with Wiersma and Komrosky in dissent, to refer the third-party investigation findings to the Riverside County Office of Education and California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond for review and oversight, due to “serious concerns about board member conduct, the misuse of public resources, and the board’s inability to act impartially given the nature of the investigation.”
“The purpose behind this is just maybe we can do better in the future,” Anderson said. “I think that this is a dysfunctional board, and that we might need the county to come in and have a look at us and audit us and give us recommendations.”
Wiersma said the motion felt “targeted,” and both she and Komrosky took issue with escalating the issue to Thurmond, who oversees CDE.
“Mr. Thurmond literally traveled to Temecula to publicly oppose board actions, conservative board actions, which makes this request for him to have any oversight not just politically charged, but ideologically reckless,” Komrosky said.
According to reporting from the Press-Enterprise, the department was investigating TVUSD, though neither the reason nor the scope of the probe were immediately known.
In a Tuesday call with The Riverside Record, Schwartz, who at the meeting said this has been both personally and emotionally painful, said ultimately he wanted a public apology from Wiersma and for her to resign from the board.
“She is not an asset to the board,” he said. “Her behavior, in my view, is despicable.”
Wiersma, who maintained throughout the meeting that she had done nothing wrong and that since filing her complaint had been subject to retaliation.
“I have been targeted and smeared as the perpetrator,” she said at the meeting. “This flawed process sets a terrible precedent for every female student and woman at TVUSD who needs help.”
Wiersma did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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