Atascadero school board rejects controversial superintendent applicant

March 19, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

Locals appear to either love or hate E.J. Rossi, a controversial applicant for Atascadero Unified School District’s superintendent position. After reviewing feedback from his supporters and critics, the board on Tuesday decided not to hire Rossi for the district’s top spot.

Following closed session, Trustee Denise McGrew-Kane announced the board would be pulling plans to appoint Rossi to lead the district from the agenda.

“The board has taken into consideration a significant amount of public input from the community, and has determined to continue the search for the next district superintendent,” McGrew-Kane said. “At the end of the day, we want to ensure that the board and the community support the next leader of our school district, and we are committed to a process that will work toward building trust.”

Parents at both Atascadero High School and San Ardo School have accused Rossi of misappropriating fundraising monies slated to support student activities.

While serving as Atascadero High School principal, in 2009, Rossi agreed to return $32,000 to the San Ardo School District leading to questions of why officials in Atascadero hired Rossi knowing he was accused of misappropriating school funds.

Rossi signed a settlement and release agreement to avoid legal action. Even though he did not admit to any wrong doing, he agreed to pay the San Ardo School District $32,000 of the alleged $54,000 in missing monies, according to the settlement.

Also in 2009, parents of Atascadero High School cheerleaders said Rossi refused to refund payments made for items the students never received, transferred the students’ previously individual recorded cheerleader accounts into a general unrestricted student body account and refused to account for missing fundraising monies.

Parents asked Rossi to refund some monies, such as the $25 paid to cover the required makeup kit they never received. While he paid a few parents back, he refused to reimburse the majority of families. In this case, the funds were provided to other athletes and were not missing.

Shortly afterwards, Rossi transferred to the district offices where he is currently filling the assistant superintendent of educational services position.

During Tuesday’s board meeting, McGrew-Kane said the district would provide additional information on its plan to hire a new superintendent in the near future.

Late last year, Superintendent Tom Butler announced that he planned to retire at the end of this year. The district then hired Leadership Associates to perform a search. which led the board to consider 24 applicants, including Rossi.

The district can either do a second search or take another look at the remaining 23 candidates.

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