Wilson’s Choice: She’s Had On-Job Training

To her friends and colleagues, it seems like not so long ago that Garden Grove school board President Maureen DiMarco was working as a teacher’s aide and volunteer part-time secretary at a local elementary school.

But after her election to the school board nine years ago, they say, DiMarco was not satisfied with just being a member of the board.

Thrusting herself into issues with what is described by her friends as an assertive, diplomatic and well-spoken style, DiMarco at the end of this month will complete her turn as the board’s president. Just two weeks ago, her term as president of the California School Boards Assn. came to an end.

The former housewife who became an outspoken critic of Gov. George Deukmejian’s education funding cuts is expected to become Gov. Pete Wilson’s top education adviser.

“She’s a very, very bright young lady and evidently has always done a good job at what she’s tried to do,” fellow school board member Joyce Johnson said Thursday. “She’s gotten up there pretty fast.”

DiMarco, 42, played a major role in shaping the school reform bill that Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig pushed through in 1983, during his first term in office.

She juggled her meteoric rise in state education politics with local school board issues. In 1988, she survived a recall drive directed against the entire school board over a realignment of school boundaries. A year later she was the top vote-getter in school board elections.

Married to aeronautical engineer Richard DiMarco and the mother of two daughters, she took a leave of absence from her law school studies this year to fight a losing battle for more state education funds.

As the state legislative session ended in September, DiMarco complained that a long history of mistrust between educators and the governor’s office had hampered negotiations. “There were times when saying ‘good morning’ seemed to hurt somebody’s feelings,” she said.

While serving as a member of Wilson’s bipartisan advisory council appointed to assist in the transition, DiMarco helped put together a meeting between the governor-elect, teachers, administrators and school board organizations--something that never happened with Deukmejian.

“She’s non-confrontational, yet she feels very strongly about issues in a way that tries to bring people together,” said Ed Foglia, president of the California Teachers Assn.

Local school officials say DiMarco will bring an interesting perspective to the governor’s office because of the Garden Grove School District’s increasing ethnic diversity. Two-thirds of the students are minorities.

The district is also one of the lowest in Orange County in terms of the state dollars allocated per pupil.

“If Pete Wilson would go with this gal, then he probably is trying to cover the whole spectrum of education,” Garden Grove Supt. Ed Dundon said of her possible appointment to the post.

Board Vice President Kenneth Slimmer added, “I do not know where anybody could receive more training (for the post) than here in Garden Grove.”

Times staff writer Dan Weintraub contributed to this report.