Melrose Schools Superintendent Set To Leave District After Current School Year

MELROSE, MA — Melrose Public Schools Superintendent Julie Kukenberger is set to leave her position at the end of the current school year, prompting a superintendent search in Melrose, according to an announcement from School Committee Chair Jen McAndrew.

McAndrew shared the update on Tuesday morning, saying Kukenberger recently told the School Committee that she will not seek a new contract beyond the end of the 2022-2023 school year in June.

McAndrew said the School Committee will announce next steps in a superintendent search “as soon as possible.”

Kukenberger came to Melrose in July of 2020.

She got her start in education well over a decade earlier, in 2005, as an elementary school teacher in New Jersey. She eventually climbed through administration roles, serving as a principal and as director of curriculum and instruction for her district in New Jersey before taking an assistant superintendent position in Haverhill in 2014.

Kukenberger was a school superintendent in Maine from 2016 to 2019 and an interim superintendent in the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District in the 2019-2020 school year.

She emerged from a field of 33 Melrose superintendent candidates in the spring of 2020 as one of three finalists for the job alongside Brookline Public Schools Interim Superintendent Benjamin Lummis and Revere Assistant Superintendent of Schools Joshua Vadala.

Kukenberger was ultimately selected to replace the then retiring Cyndy Taymore.

Selected as Melrose's new superintendent, Kukenberger took the helm of the city's public schools just over a year after local voters passed a Proposition 2 1/2 override largely to support school budget needs in 2019.

She also entered Melrose in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 disruptions in the spring of 2020.

Kukenberger's tenure in Melrose to date has included a series of tense community debates, including discussion over a move to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in the Melrose Public Schools calendar in January of last year.

Debate over plans to change Melrose High School's mascot continued into 2022.

Kukenberger seperately faced criticism last October over a decision to "deemphasize Halloween." She clarified goals of the decision after local backlash and a viral nationwide response, saying the district was not canceling Halloween. Instead, she said, the intent was to "make sure we're not centering everything that we do during the fall season around Halloween alone."

School Committee members still echoed some community concerns in a meeting in late October, 2021, noting frustrations over the incident.

Kukenberger more recently faced questions from the City Council and frustration from some members of the public after she revealed in late September that the Melrose Public Schools had discovered a roughly $2.2 million budget shortfall in July.

The district eventually fulfilled its obligations, using a combination of federal ESSER and ARPA money alongside other funding sources, to close out its 2022 fiscal year budget on Oct. 4.

Kukenberger said last month that she took “full ownership of the current fiscal reality."

City Councilors voiced frustration, though, asking Kukenberger and other district leaders how the shortfall remained undetected so late in the fiscal year.

They also questioned the timing of Kukenberger's announcement regarding the shortfall, which came more than two months after she said the district first learned of budget issues.

Kukenberger has since promised a series of changes to the Melrose Public Schools budgeting and budget reporting processes that she has said aim to avoid future shortfall issues.

“It’s going to take us a while to figure out the solution," School Committee Vice Chair Jennifer Razi-Thomas said after Kukenberger's initial presentation in September. "And it’s going to take a while to rebuild trust with our community, with ourselves and with the process.”

Outside of the shortfall, the Melrose Public Schools have remained in the spotlight as the district continues negotiations with the Melrose Education Association more than 100 days after the union's last educator contract expired.

Union members and their supporters gathered before the School Committee last week to call for progress in negotiations.

They are now planning a new walk out and rally this week.

McAndrew said on Tuesday that the School Committee will provide updates on its superintendent search "as details become available."

There will be opportunities to provide input on the process, she said.

“I know that this is a period of challenge for our District and our community,” McAndrew continued. “As we move forward in the process of seeking a new leader for our schools, I hope our focus will remain on our students, our educators and the many important priorities before us.”