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# Bad move, board
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/bad-move-board-editor/
- Published: 2008-06-28T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:00:06.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import

*By Christine Jones Temple City, Calif.*

To the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board: Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you. I am a very upset grandparent of a pupil at John Muir Elementary School. I am appalled by your decision and unprofessional comportment in view of your current “mess” (for lack of a better term) in your school district.

First of all I want you to realize what a gem you currently have as principal at John Muir School. Mrs. \[Martha\] Duran-Contreras has displayed such enormous dedication to the school community. She is approachable, caring, professional, knows her students by name just to highlight some of her attributes. One such example of the “little things” she does is that she writes a personal comment on each and every one of the children’s report cards. How many principals do you have that do these things? I am sure not many. It was so cruel and unprofessional for you to advise her that someone else was going to be sitting in her chair. Is it the standard operating procedure to do so via the \[newspaper\]?

Having said all this, I am confused as to why you would want to place a person such as Tristan Kolmos, an inexperienced, inept principal with no elementary school experience, whose staff was literally caught with their “pants down” to John Muir. My suggestion would be to reassign her to a special assignment or simply ask her to do the right thing and resign. My guess is that you are trying to avoid civil lawsuits, but I can assure you, those are coming. Another mind-boggling concept is why you would assign her as principal where the accused child molester’s wife is a teacher. Truly this must be a conflict of interest. I only hope that Ms. Kolmos is able to provide a safe environment to the students at John Muir and she is able to work with a diverse multi-cultural community that requires and expects, and rightly so, a caring, dedicated principal, which Ms. Kolmos has proven not to be.

The only thing I am going to say about Tom Beltran is that someone knew and just swept it under the rug, another fine example of your administration. This morning I attempted to contact the superintendent’s office only to be transferred from one office to another, no one seems to know who is in charge. I am aware that \[Superintendent\] Dianne Talarico moved on, good for her, that way she doesn’t have to face the music. So, who is accountable? Not Mike Matthews, not Sally Chou I’m sure would be your response.

Dianne is still on the payroll with tax payers’ money, so today, she is still accountable. Where can she be reached to respond to her lack of professionalism? … And you the board, have perpetuated and agreed to this most unjust and unwarranted staff move. To put Mrs. Duran-Contreras who has only had glowing reviews, through such stress to clean up and take the heat for everyone else’s incompetence is beyond doubt a sad commentary on your board and administration. Again I say, shame on you.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 28, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062808.pdf?ref=smdp.com)