SIKESTON -- Stephen Borgsmiller, superintendent of the Sikeston R-6 Schools, has been named director of Southeast Missouri State University-Sikeston.
Borgsmiller will begin his new duties in early July, the university announced Friday. He replaces Judy Buck who is retiring effective June 28 after 14 years of service as director.
Borgsmiller, who has 31 years of experience in education, has served as superintendent of the Sikeston R-6 Schools for nearly a dozen years. He was Sikeston City Manager from 1992 to 2000. He previously served as principal, assistant principal and a classroom instructor at Scott County R-6 High School for 19 years.
"I have been in and around the Sikeston School District since the early 1970s," Borgsmiller said in a news release from Southeast. "I have a long history, background, keen interest, knowledge and appreciation of what a regional campus of a major university can bring to a community."
He says the Sikeston regional campus affords tremendous opportunities to residents in the area who cannot travel to the main Southeast campus in Cape Girardeau.
"It is unbelievable what this campus can bring to this area of southeast Missouri," he said. "The best years of this (Sikeston) campus are yet to come."
Borgsmiller is vice president of the Southeast Missouri State University-Sikeston Advisory Council and has served as secretary/treasurer of the Southeast Missouri Superintendents' Association, on the board of directors of the Committee for Educational Equality, chairman of the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission and on the board of directors of Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed, Inc.
He is a member of the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce, the Sikeston Community Teachers Association, the Missouri State Teachers Association, Missouri Association of Schools Administrators, American Association of Schools Administrators, Missouri Association of Rural Educators and the Superintendent's Forum sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Borgsmiller holds a Master of Arts in education and a Bachelor of Science in education, both from Southeast Missouri State University. He has completed coursework toward a doctoral degree in educational leadership at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition.