Gary Plano to Stay with Mercer Island School District

School superintendent Gary Plano, who had been one of three finalists to head the Ashland School District in Oregon, will stay with Mercer Island, the Mercer Island Reporter reported.

Plano told district employees last month in a letter that was considering the post in Ashland. Plano explained that he has a home in Ashland, OR, expecting to retire there. But he applied for the Ashland School District job when that district's superintendent Juli Di Chiro announced her own retirement and her job was advertised.

Plano came to the Mercer Island School District in 2005 as associate superintendent for instruction and replace Cyndy Symms, who took a school administration position in California. He became Mercer Island's superintendent in 2008.

Plano previously worked for five years as the Kent School District's executive director for school improvement and executive director for instructional services, according to the Seattle Times.

A Connecticut native, Plano started his career as a special-education teacher in Mukilteo in 1980 and went on to teach high-school English until 1997. He served as Mukilteo's curriculum director from 1997-2000.