Melrose Hires From Within For Its Next School District Leader

MELROSE, MA — The School Committee voted unanimously to appoint interim Superintendent of Schools Cari Berman to the permanent position during its most recent meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

Berman served as Assistant Superintendent under former Superintendent Adam Deledi before taking over the role in an acting capacity in June, following Deleidi’s sudden resignation. Later that month, the Committee elevated Berman to Interim Superintendent. Six months later, she now finds herself as Melrose’s next school district leader. The Committee provided mid-year feedback on Berman last month that was overwhelmingly positive, which described the long-time public educator as skillful, steady, and having good leadership qualities.

“Excellent Superintendents are really hard to come by,” School Committee member Jennifer Razi-Thomas said about Berman during a meeting earlier this month in which district leaders and Committee members advocated for Berman’s permanent appointment. “We are extremely fortunate that Ms. Berman has stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park.”

Berman first joined the district in 2001 as a special education teacher at Melrose High School. After a decade in that role, she was promoted to be the special education administrator for both the high school and middle school. She became the High School’s assistant principal in 2016, which she served in for five years until becoming the Assistant Superintendent of Melrose’s Pupil Personnel Services, which works with children and parents to design special education plans for students who need it through resources such as the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Child Find Program and the Melrose Special Education Parents Advisory Council.

Berman earned a Master’s degree in Special Education and a certificate of advanced graduate studies in School Administration from American International College in Springfield and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Fairfield University in Connecticut.

With the decision to appoint Berman, the district forgoes a formal months-long search process that would be estimated to cost thousands of dollars.

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