Lower Merion superintendent announces he’s resigning: ‘Just not a good match’
Frank Ranelli, who took over in Lower Merion in April 2025, is the latest superintendent to leave the top-ranked district in recent years.
Lower Merion School District Superintendent Frank Ranelli will resign at the end of April — leaving the top-ranked district two years after he started.
“After much thought and consideration, I will be resigning my position as LMSD Superintendent as of April 30, 2027. I am sure people will question why; and simply, this position is just not a good match for me,” Ranelli said in a message to the school district community Wednesday.
The announcement came as a shock to some in the affluent community, which has cycled through superintendents in recent years. Before Ranelli took over in April 2025, the district had been led by three superintendents in three years, including Steven Yanni, who left in May 2024 to become superintendent in Central Bucks and was later fired amid a special education scandal, and Khalid Mumin, who left in January 2023 to become Pennsylvania’s education secretary, then resigned.
Ranelli, who was the superintendent of the Piscataway Township school district in New Jersey before coming to Lower Merion, had said at the time of his hiring in January 2025 that he intended to work in Lower Merion for “a long time.”
Lower Merion School Board President Kerry Sautner — who had said at the time of Ranelli’s hiring that the board was “hoping for over five on this one” — said in a message to the community Wednesday that “while we are deeply saddened by Dr. Ranelli’s choice to move on from the district, we are extremely grateful for his time, dedication and willingness to support LMSD through the upcoming leadership transition.”
“We want every student, family and staff member to know that our schools remain steady, our commitment to students remains strong, and the board is dedicated to conducting a careful and thorough search for our next leader,” Sautner said.
Ranelli was hired at a salary of $290,000 to lead Lower Merion, which has 11 schools and enrolls about 8,500 students.
His tenure has been marked by debate around the district’s technology policy, which the district revamped amid pushback from parents who said their children were spending too much time on screens. A group of parents that had been pressing the district to opt their kids out of personal computers — demands Ranelli rejected — sued the district in August, alleging it had violated their parental rights.
Sautner said the school board would begin discussing the search for a new superintendent at its October meeting. She promised “meaningful opportunities for students, families, staff and community members to share their priorities for our next superintendent.”
“As a board, we pledge to find LMSD’s next leader who is a good match and whom we promise to support,” she said.
