 |
 |
|
Ms. Talarico comes to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District from the Canton City Schools in Canton, Ohio, where she served as Superintendent for five years. Prior to assuming that role, she held various positions in the San Francisco Unified School District for almost twenty years and was an Associate Superintendent there for three years. Ms. Talarico began her career as a special education teacher in Ohio, a Director of the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program, was a principal and special education program consultant in San Francisco, and was principal of the American Overseas School in Rome, Italy, for one year. While in San Francisco, she also was an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University.Ms. Talarico received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary and Special Education from Bowling Green State University and a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from San Francisco State University.
As Superintendent of the Canton City Schools, Ms. Talarico provided the leadership that resulted in raising academic achievement at every level and the high school graduation rate by 25%. She was also instrumental in establishing partnerships with local colleges, the business community and education foundations to initiate an Early College High School and a P-16 (Pre-school through College) Compact.
Ms. Talarico’s administration secured $42 million dollars in competitive grants, oversaw a $178 million reconstruction project and secured voter approval of a $7 million annual tax levy, while curbing expenditures and streamlining district operations. The Canton City School District has also seen significant advances in the utilization of technology for instruction and improved home-school communications.
2025 envisions this year’s pre-K children approximately 18 years from now, equipped with a Master’s degree and prepared to enter the workforce. It is also a time in the future when the economic competition we face as communities and a nation will be exponentially more intense than it is today.
2025 aims to honor the development of our 2002 district Strategic Plan, Designing the Classroom of the Future, and to move the Differentiated Instruction, Equity and Equality of Education and Early Childhood Education components of the plan forward. 2025 expands and enhances the elements described in the strategic plan by emphasizing a more individualized approach to helping individual students reach their full potential, including pre-K students. For many decades our country has focused on closing the achievement gap. And while we must continue to lift our lowest performing students, research tells us we need to stretch the students in the vast middle while also challenging the student in the top 10% to perform beyond the advanced learning experiences we currently offer. It is my contention that we can focus on all of our students by stretching and challenging each individual child through the customization and personalization of instruction for a portion of the school day.