The Lower Merion School Board will take its first public step toward finding a new superintendent when it meets Monday, Oct. 19.
The meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Lower Merion High School auditorium according to Patch, follows Superintendent Dr. Frank Ranelli's Oct. 7 announcement that he will resign effective April 30, 2027. Ranelli has led the 8,500-student district for less than two years.
Board President Kerry Sautner said in an Oct. 7 statement that the board will use the October meeting to begin discussing the search process and timeline. She said the process would include opportunities for students, families, staff and community members to share their priorities for the next superintendent. Sautner pledged the board would keep the community informed throughout the search and find a leader who fits the district.
Ranelli, who was hired in January 2025 at a salary of $290,000 according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, started work in April 2025. In his resignation letter to the community, he said the position was not a good match for him.
His departure will extend a stretch of leadership turnover in the district. Lower Merion has had three superintendents in three years, the Inquirer reported. Steven Yanni left in May 2024 to lead Central Bucks School District and was later fired. Khalid Mumin left in January 2023 to become Pennsylvania's education secretary and later resigned from that post.
When the board hired Ranelli, Sautner said she was hoping for more than five years of tenure from the new leader, the Inquirer reported. He will have served roughly two.
Ranelli's time in the district coincided with a bitter fight over student technology policy. The board voted 7-2 in August 2026 to approve a revised policy scaling back screen time and eliminating individual device assignments for younger students. That vote was held virtually via Zoom after alleged online threats against school leadership, including Ranelli, and disruptions that forced recesses at prior meetings.
"Over the past several months, Lower Merion School Board members and our district superintendent have been subject to threats," Sautner said at the Aug. 18, 2026, board meeting, according to Patch. "Our meetings have been disrupted over and over, and we have witnessed harassment during our public meetings."
Seven families also filed a 116-page federal lawsuit in Philadelphia in August 2026 over the district's technology policies, alleging the district violated their parental rights by not allowing an opt-out from school-issued devices.
The board has not announced whether it will hire a search firm or laid out a timeline for naming Ranelli's successor. The Oct. 19 meeting at Lower Merion High School is the next scheduled opportunity for residents to hear those details.
