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# Talarico keeps it real on schools
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/talarico-keeps-it-real-on-schools/
- Published: 2006-08-31T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T21:21:18.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*New superintendent to focus on Samohi and John Adams*

SMMUSD HDQTRS. — While driving home from a school meeting after four days on the job, new superintendent Dianne Talarico found herself stuck in a very dangerous situation.

Her Hertz rental car had stalled at the corner of Las Flores Mesa Drive and Pacific Coast Highway, leaving her stranded in the middle of a deadly stretch of road.

“I’m sitting on the highway at night, it’s pitch black, and cars are zooming to my left and zooming to my right,” Talarico said Wednesday during a late-morning meeting with reporters. “I knew that I could be killed if I stayed in the car, and I could be killed if I got out of the car, so I just kind of looked up for help and thought, ‘You’re a smart woman. You have a college education.’ So, I got out of the car and ran to the side of the road to call Hertz.”

A customer service operator advised her to call the police, which Talarico did. While waiting for a tow truck to arrive, three Malibu High School students approached her and advised to move her car before someone smashed into it. The teenagers offered to help, having just avoided hitting the stalled-out vehicle themselves.

“There was a lull in the traffic, so we decided to go for it, me running out there in my heels,” Talarico said.

Once out of harms way, the school district’s top official revealed who she was. She thanked the teenagers for their help, but they didn’t leave. They stayed with her until the tow-truck arrived, and then drove her home to her apartment in Malibu, located just up the street from Mayor Ken Kearsley.

“I intend to visit them at school and call their parents and tell them what a fine job they did raising these three gentlemen,” Talarico said of the three seniors, who Talarico’s mother calls her “angels.”

“The reason I tell this story … and I will be telling it every chance I get, is because kids get a bad rap,” Talarico said. “These kids helped me, and they didn’t need to. One was going to see a girlfriend, and the other two were going to a party … The last thing they needed was to take an old lady home, but they did it.”

Talarico, 49, who has built a reputation for putting her students first above all else, seemed enthusiastic and inspired as she talked about one of her first encounters with those she is now in charge of educating. Her passion for the profession shined bright like a beam of light that has guided her through more than 25 years on the job, from her early days teaching in the San Francisco Unified School District to the year spent as a principal in Italy, and her latest stint as superintendent of the Canton City School District, which she attended as a child.

Over bagels, fruit, coffee and orange juice, Talarico spoke with conviction about her love of the public school system and the importance of having high expectations for all students and not just those who would risk their own lives to help a stranger in need.

“All kids need to be stretched to their fullest potential and capacity,” she said. “I’ve been to schools everywhere, and sometimes we fall short in challenging our kids at the highest level … We have to set our expectations higher and higher. If we don’t, we are doing them a disservice when it comes to competing in the global economy, because as far as I’m concerned, the United States is vulnerable right now in terms of our economic sense of power and our economic health. If we don’t prepare our kids, I think our status as a super power is in jeopardy. That’s just an opinion, but the data is beginning to support it.”

Over the next few weeks, Talarico said she will devote most of her time making unannounced visits at schools so that she can familiarize herself with operations as well as administrators, faculty and students. She will be looking at a school’s customer service standards, whether or not children are engaged in the classroom and have enough books and supplies, and if teachers feel they are receiving the support needed to be successful — “the whole enchilada,” as she described it.

“People will bog you down with meetings up the wazoo, but the most important thing to do the first year … is to be at the school site,” she said. “Data is one thing, and then there’s reality. Test scores are a snap shot in time. I want to see learning over time.”

Talarico said she is dedicating extra time to Santa Monica High School and John Adams Middle School, the district’s most populated campuses. She was scheduled on Wednesday to meet with high school students from Samohi to discuss issues such as racial tension on campus.

“I called the meetings,” Talarico said. “I’m just really hands on.I’m personally taking Santa Monica and JAMS under my watch. I will be personally supervising those two schools.”

Establishing stronger relationships with clergy and Santa Monica College also will be high on Talarico’s agenda as she flirts with the idea of creating an early college program, such as the one she developed in Canton. There, students whose parents have not graduated from college are allowed to enroll in college courses so that when they graduate they not only earn a high school diploma, but an associate arts degree. Teachers also become certified as adjunct professors, hosting college classes at high school campuses.

“I’m not necessarily saying that is something we would do here, but I would like to explore the possibilities,” Talarico said. “When students leave high school with 12 units under their belt, they don’t think that (college) is some impossible dream … Leaving with 12 units means there’s a great chance they’ll go on to college.”

Talarico also said she would like to see all students take the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, in addition to the California High School Exit Exam.

“If that’s the passport to college, then all students should be participating,” she said.

Talarico feels she has the experience to lead the district as it moves forward with a $168 million facilities bond and contract negotiations with faculty, which could prove to be contentious given demands for pay increases at a time when the school board says it is struggling to make ends meet.

“I just finished a $178 million construction project … so I have now entered another phase in my life when I get to put on my hard hat again and run a backhoe,”she said.“I just finished teacher negotiations, so it’s kind of like deja vu, but I’m looking forward to it.”

When it comes to special education, an issue of concern for many parents who feel the district isn’t providing enough resources to students, Talarico has a strong professional and personal connection. Not only did she begin her career as a special education teacher, her brother, Michael, died when he was just five days old while undergoing surgery to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid from his brain, a condition known as hydrocephalus.

“If my brother would have lived, he would have suffered from hydrocephaly, so I’m ultra-sensitive to the needs of special ed,” Talarico said. “I am very passionate about providing resources. That said, parents need to have all the facts and channel their frustration where it belongs.”

Talarico said the federal government provides the money for special education and has historically underfunded programs.

“If parents want to advocate, advocate on the level of most benefit,” she said. “Do that by voting, becoming an activist. Tim Walker, (the former assistant superintendent of special education,) has taken a lot of hits and by that, people are upset and are pointing fingers of blame. I think people should get their facts together before they publicly devalue those who are trying to help educate their children.”

As for the recent changes in district leadership following the departure of former superintendent John Deasy, Talarico said she is somewhat concerned about the loss of institutional memory. However, she believes change is often good.

“I think we’re in a climate where you need to take risks and try to bring whatever positive changes we can … and sometimes people are resistant to that, especially those who have been here for a long time,”Talarico said. “I’m a risk taker. You have to have courage to take risks, and you have to have courage to do this work. That said, we have to keep touching base with people who know more about (the district) than we do and continue to ask the difficult questions and be as honest as we can before we take these risks. We don’t want to be taking risks just so we can demonstrate we’re courageous leaders. We have to ask ourselves what needs to happen to make our schools better.

“We definitely have of lot of learning to do,” she added. “Our learning curve is very high right now. But I’m not afraid to ask questions.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 31, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/083106.pdf?ref=smdp.com)