El Monte : School Chief to Switch Jobs

Duane Dishno, superintendent of the El Monte City School District, will leave that job to head the Bonita Unified School District beginning July 1.

Dishno, 46, was the unanimous choice of the school board on Tuesday, defeating 43 candidates for the $78,000-per-year job of running the 9,400-student district.

Bonita school board President Biff Green said the board was impressed with Dishno’s ideas on curriculum development and labor relations. The Bonita district has been negotiating with the Bonita Unified Teachers Assn. Talks had reached an impasse and negotiations entered the fact-finding stage on Wednesday.

Dishno, who earned $65,000 a year in the 10,500-student El Monte district, will leave after four years during which he said relations between the administration and teachers had improved.

But he will also leave a divided El Monte school board after the November election, in which a new majority often critical of district staff took office.

Dishno declined to comment on his relations with the board, but said the situation in Bonita is similar to the conflict he encountered in El Monte.

“I think one of the things that needs to happen in Bonita is to pull the staff, board and teachers together,” he said. “I’m hoping that means I’ll be able to spend more time in schools.”