School Superintendent Adam Deleidi To Resign as of June 13th
By Ellen Putnam
Superintendent Adam Deleidi presenting the school budget to the City Council last week
Screenshot from MMTV
The Melrose School Committee announced today that Superintendent Adam Deleidi has resigned from his position, effective Friday, June 13th, which is the last day of this school year.
Deleidi came into the superintendent role at the beginning of this school year from the Chelsea Public Schools, where he had most recently served as Deputy Superintendent. His departure comes only one year into a three-year contract.
Deleidi is the third person to have served as Superintendent of the Melrose Public Schools (MPS) since Cyndy Taymore retired from the position in 2020. Julie Kukenberger served in the position for three years, largely during the pandemic (2020 to 2023). In 2023, the School Committee chose her successor, but he promptly withdrew his candidacy, leaving Melrose to appoint John Macero, the retired superintendent of the Stoneham Public Schools, as the interim superintendent for the 2023-24 school year.
Deleidi’s departure comes after a difficult and fraught school budget process, in which Deleidi and MPS Finance Director Ken Kelley described spending hours each week poring over spreadsheets in order to make enough cuts to fill a $4 million deficit in the MPS budget for the 2025-26 school year. Their final proposed budget eliminated 31 teacher positions and four administrator positions across the district.
The school budget process culminated in a tense final vote, when School Committee Chair Dorie Withey and Vice Chair Jen McAndrew proposed moving $270,000 out of the Administration/Systemwide and Teaching and Learning categories into the Elementary and middle school categories, in the hopes of restoring a few additional teacher positions at those levels.
Deleidi, visibly upset, responded, “I can't run the district this way. I simply cannot.” While the School Committee ultimately voted to move only $150,000, Deleidi expressed concern that even moving that reduced amount would make leading the district next year impossible.
When Deleidi presented the school budget to the City Council last week, he shared his belief that class size is not as essential to the student experience as teacher development is. “In my opinion,” he said, “in order to create a world-class educational system, you need to have teachers who are highly trained, highly developed. To me, class size isn’t the priority here. The priority is developing teachers. And we’re not going to be able to get there with the budget that we have. In order to get teachers to be better, we need instructional coaches, and we are so far away from being able to afford those.”
According to the statement issued by the City of Melrose, “The District is in discussions with Assistant Superintendent Cari Berman and the plan is for her to assume the role of Acting Superintendent, effective Friday, June 6, 2025, allowing a transition with Mr. Deleidi during the last week of school. In addition, former Superintendent John Macero has joined the Melrose Public Schools as a senior advisor for the coming months to work with Acting Superintendent Berman, district leaders, and the Committee to support the district and develop a full transition plan.”
Deleidi said in the statement, “Working in Melrose has been meaningful and rewarding, and I am proud of all that we have accomplished together. I want to thank the leadership team, staff, families, community, and Committee for the opportunity to serve this district. Professionally, I am looking forward to new opportunities, but personally, I am going to miss working with the students of the Melrose Public Schools.”
“The Committee is grateful to Mr. Deleidi for his service, and we wish him well,” Withey said in the statement. “We appreciate both Assistant Superintendent Berman and Mr. Macero for their dedication to Melrose and for serving our students, staff, and families during this transition time. Everyone is committed to ensuring the continued smooth operation of the district, and we will continue to communicate with the community with regards to next steps.”
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