The president of St. Paul's Neighborhood House, Armando Camacho, is leaving the West Side service center for immigrants and the poor to take over Minnetonka-based Opportunity Partners, a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities live independently.

Camacho, 39, will begin as president and CEO of Opportunity Partners on Jan. 13.

In a statement, he said that working with people with disabilities had been "a passion of mine going back to my days as a special education teacher."

A Puerto Rican immigrant, Camacho grew up mostly on the West Side. He was a Minneapolis elementary school principal and assistant director of alternative learning programs for the St. Paul School District before being named president of Neighborhood House in 2008.

The Neighborhood House board will develop a process in the coming weeks to find a new leader. The St. Paul nonprofit provides services to more than 15,000 people each year at the Wellstone Center and five other sites in the city.

KEVIN DUCHSCHERE

@KDuchschere