Born to be an educator

Andrew Wainer

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of articles profiling the

superintendents who run our local school districts.

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Huntington Beach City School District Supt. Duane

Dishno must have been born to teach.

His calm, mild manner exudes patience and a paternal gentleness. And his

background backs up his image as the consummate educator.

“As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher,” Dishno said. “I

can’t remember a time when it wasn’t a goal of mine.”

After getting his college degree in eastern Washington, near where he

grew up, Dishno headed to California to begin his teaching career.

Since starting as a teacher in Westminster in 1963, Dishno hasn’t looked

back, advancing to principal in 1975 and going into district-level

administration two years later.

He joined the Huntington Beach City School District as an administrator,

starting as a principal in 1975 at Smith School near Downtown Huntington

Beach.

Although Dishno has been involved in educational administration for 25

years, he entered it grudgingly.

“I really didn’t want to get into administration at first,” Dishno said.

“Eventually I decided to get involved because I saw I could have a

greater impact on kids.”

Still, Dishno said he misses his classroom roots.

“Any administrator will tell you they miss the classroom,” he said.

But after climbing into the administrative ranks in Huntington Beach,

Dishno left the district in 1984 to take a superintendent position at the

El Monte City School District, near Los Angeles.

It was a far cry from Huntington Beach.

“It was as different from Huntington Beach as it could have been,” Dishno

said.

And not in a good way.

“The problems in El Monte were almost overwhelming,” Dishno said. “Some

teachers did not have textbooks, and if they did, they were 30 years

old.”

The tall, proper Dishno said that many teachers were not sufficiently

trained for the job.

“It was a very stressful experience,” Dishno said, adding it was

exacerbated by the fact that he “didn’t see eye to eye with the board of

trustees.”

Dishno left after four years and went to the Bonita Unified School

District in La Verne in 1988.

There he was on more familiar turf.

“It’s a community a lot like Huntington Beach,” Dishno said.

For the first time, Dishno was dealing with high schools.

“Any time you deal with high schools, you have a tougher job,” Dishno

said. “The issues are more complicated.”

Dishno said athletics and the problems that surround them are one of the

most controversial issues in high schools.

Although the district had two high schools, Dishno said they took up more

than half of his time as superintendent in the district.

In 1991, Dishno came home, landing the job as Huntington Beach City

School District superintendent.

“I got to come back to a system I respected and that I wanted to be a

part of,” Dishno said.

The Montana native gets a certain look in his eye when he talks about the

district.

“It’s a unique place,” Dishno said. “Academics are our highest priority.”

He cites the district’s emphasis on basic skills -- reading, writing and

math -- as one of its strongest characteristics.

“The district has never taken up fads,” Dishno said. “We’ve never changed

just for the sake of change.”

Dishno prides himself on the close-knit ties among the district’s

employees.

“Until about three years ago, I knew every teacher by name,” Dishno said.

“Now I know about 90%

“Most of our employees live in the community. Therefore, they have a

stake in it.”

He also notes the district’s venerability.

“The district was created in 1903,” Dishno said. “It’s older than the

city.”

When he arrived at the district 60 years later, Huntington Beach was

still an agricultural community.

“Huntington Beach had about 30,000 people in 1963,” he said. “It was full

of tomato and bean fields.”

Today Dishno is serving a much larger population, a task that sometimes

wears on him.

“Some people think making decisions is fun,” Dishno said. “But it’s very

stressful.”

He says communication is his motto as an administrator.

“Good administrators communicate frequently,” he said. “I would rather

overwhelm people with information than withhold it.”

That’s a value he is trying to inject into the district’s current debate

over facilities. He said that’s “the hardest issue of I’ve dealt with as

superintendent”.

The board has been bitterly divided over the use of the district’s three

closed school sites.

Three of the five board members have urged selling one of the sites, but

two of the members are adamantly opposed to the sale. The board needs at

least a two-thirds vote to sell a site, leaving the issue deadlocked.

“There seems to be no compromise,” he said.

Being the communicator, Dishno said his role in the debate has been

“trying to identify alternatives for the board”.

Dishno said the cost to repair the district’s campuses could cost as much

as $40 million. The district must come up with around $4 million to get

state matching funds to cover the expense.

The district has organized a committee to examine facility use options.

Despite the occasional snags, Dishno is pleased with the district and his

achievements while at the helm.

“Our district is the only one in Orange County with all fully

credentialed teachers,” Dishno said.

He also cites the district’s success with classroom reduction.

“In spite of the increase in classrooms, we gave kids real rooms and

fully credentialed teachers,” Dishno said. “And we didn’t do it with

state help.”

And the district’s first new school in 25 years -- Huntington Seacliff

Elementary -- was built under his leadership.

Whatever further accomplishments or challenges he meets, Dishno said he

and the district will stay focused on the job of helping kids learn.

“We believe in the goodness of people,” he said. “We don’t believe in

throwing them away.”

FYI

WHO: Duane Dishno, Huntington Beach City School District superintendent

AGE: 58

FAMILY STATUS: Married with two sons

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree from Eastern Washington State University;

master’s degree from Cal State Long Beach; doctorate from University of

La Verne

HOBBIES: “My hobby is my job. I work here 14, 15 hours a day.” He also

enjoys reading, travel (Hawaii, Europe) and working in his yard.

HOMETOWN: Missoula, Mont.