When school begins at the Wellsville-Middletown R-I School District on Aug. 20, Tiffany Gosseen will be in a brand new role.
Gosseen will begin her 12th year with the district as the new superintendent for the 2024-2025 school year. The Cairo native served as principal at the elementary school for the last 11 years.
Gosseen was hired as the district’s leader on July 1. She replaced Richele Falloon, who served as superintendent for just one year before turning in her resignation in June. Gosseen will be the district’s third superintendent in the last three years.
“It was just a last minute resignation and the job came open,” Gosseen said. “I’m like, ‘OK, I think I could maybe do this job. I’m going to give it a try.’ I got my certification in place, pending approval. I took all of the necessary tests. I already have my degree. I just haven’t taken the assessment for it. I’ll be able to finish out my career as superintendent.”
Kevin Oligschlaeger will take over W-M Elementary principal duties. He is also the principal at the junior high and high schools and serves as the activities director.
Gosseen has 26 years of education experience. She taught for 14 years in small schools such as North Nodaway, Polo, Salisbury and Cairo before being hired as W-M elementary principal in 2013.
“I loved teaching so much,” Gosseen said. “I think I was a good teacher. I was really on the fence about becoming a principal because I didn’t want to give up my kids. When you have a classroom, those are your kids. The cool thing that I learned when I became a principal was they were all of my kids. I went from having 25 in my class to 220 in the school. They’re all mine. That was wonderful. Now that I’m a superintendent, I get the little ones and the big ones and all of the teachers. I think that’s going to be great.”
This fall, Gosseen will be leading a W-M district that has three schools – elementary, junior high school and high school. She said she wants the district to become successful for all students who are living in Wellsville and Middletown.
“I really think it’s a matter of everybody being on board and understanding that we’re truly looking out for the best interest of the students and the best interest of the community, just being really transparent about what we’re planning on doing and what attempts we’re making,” Gosseen said. “We made a lot of improvements out of our own general budget that we haven’t been able to communicate as well to the community. I think if they understood everything that we have been doing for the school and community, it will go a long way towards unifying everyone essentially.”
Gosseen has been living in Wellsville for eight years. She resided in Middletown for three years before moving to Wellsville.
“The community has been really good to us,” Gosseen said. “So I wanted to do whatever I can to make this school a really strong backbone of the community because we have such wonderful community support. We have great teachers, great kids and great parents.”
Gosseen said she is looking forward to working with secretary Michelle Stroup and bookkeeper Carrie Nelson in the central office this fall.
“They’re fantastic,” Gosseen said. “Between the two of them, they have oodles and oodles of experience. I’m not doing this alone. I’ve got lots of people with support.”
Even though she will be busy with superintendent duties this fall, Gosseen will still find time to work as the school’s play director. She will be directing a play called, “Granny Smith Goes To Washington,” on Oct. 12.
“I’ve got Malayna Carlisle helping me with that,” said Gosseen, who directed a play called “Twice Upon A Time” last year. “She’s fantastic. I’m going to swap it up to where she has more of the lead roles since I know I’ll be a little busier with stuff. I want to see it through for one more year.”
Gosseen graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Northwest Missouri State University and Master’s and specialist degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Gosseen has a daughter, Della, who will be a senior at W-M this year. Her oldest daughter, Sadie, graduated from W-M in 2021 and plans to get married later this year.