Board mulls superintendent hopefuls

Pair of finalists for Fayetteville job are top administrators at Missouri schools

FAYETTEVILLE — The School Board went into executive session Thursday night to continue discussing who’ll be the 14th superintendent in the School District’s 152-year history.

The finalists are Anthony Rossetti, superintendent of the Webb City School District in Webb City, Mo., and Brad Swofford, superintendent of the Branson School District in Branson, Mo. Rossetti interviewed with the board Monday, and Swofford interviewed Wednesday.

The new superintendent will begin July 1. John L Colbert, the district’s current superintendent, is retiring this summer.

The board continued its deliberations at the end of Thursday’s regular monthly meeting and remained in executive session as of press time Thursday.

Rossetti began his educational career in 1995 as a sixthgrade teacher. He was superintendent of the Miller (Mo.) School District for five years before becoming superintendent of the Webb City district in July 2010, his resume states.

Webb City has 4,700 students and a $60 million annual budget, according to Rossetti’s application for the Fayetteville job.

Swofford has spent his entire career in the Branson district, starting as a high school teacher and coach in 1995. He worked his way up to junior high school principal in 2001, to assistant superintendent in 2009 and to superintendent in 2015, according to his resume.

Branson has an enrollment of 4,700 students and an annual budget of $62 million, according to Swofford’s application.

Fayetteville’s enrollment as of last fall was 10,426. The district’s preliminary budget for this school year showed expenditures projected at about $128 million.

The superintendent search started with a planning meeting in September. GR Recruiting of St. Louis led the hiring process.

The board narrowed its candidate list from 31 to six during a special meeting Jan. 28. The board interviewed those six before choosing Rossetti and Swofford as the finalists Feb. 9.

In other business at Thursday’s meeting:

• The board voted 7-0 to authorize Colbert and Athletic Director Steve Janski to explore potential naming-rights sponsors for the Academic/ Athletic Building currently under construction.

“I think the less the board is involved in this process, the better,” Board President Nika Waitsman said. “Whatever is required of us. I don’t think we need to be determining necessarily what room gets named. But whatever is required of us.”

• Mayor Lioneld Jordan honored board members with a speech and proclamation. “What I have learned from working with the School

Board, I know this: Anything that we set our mind and hearts to do, we can do,” Jordan said. “Anything is possible through purpose and persistence and passion. We can change anything that needs to be changed. And we can make things that seem wrong, turn it around and make it right. Can we not, as we work together? So I want to thank you. I want to show our appreciation for the work that you do.”