Medford School Committee names Suzanne Galusi as permanent superintendent

School officials this week named Dr. Suzanne Galusi as the new permanent superintendent for Medford Public Schools.

The Medford School Committee voted unanimously on Feb. 2 to appoint Galusi to her new role, pending the finalization of contract negotiations.

Galusi has been serving as interim superintendent since she was appointed in January 2025 following the departure of Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent, who had been in the role since July 2018. Edouard-Vincent’s departure followed a mutual parting of ways with the School Committee.

“I am very humbled,” Galusi said Monday night. “I didn’t think I would be sitting here a year ago. When I was put in the position to be interim, I was fully committed. I have always said how dedicated I am to Medford. It holds a very special place in my heart. It’s where I grew up. It’s also where I grew into this profession. I feel very humbled to be leading formally in this position.”

Galusi began her career in Medford as an elementary classroom teacher at the Davenport School in 1997 and has been with the district ever since. She rose through the ranks, serving in a dual administrative role at the Roberts and Brooks before becoming principal at the Brooks for four years. She joined central administration as an assistant superintendent in 2020.

Moving the process along

The move to formally name the new superintendent was put forth in a resolution by School Committee Vice Chair Jenny Graham, who questioned how much longer Medford could afford to not have a permanent leader for the district.

“For a year, we’ve been sitting with an interim superintendent and it’s time we make a decision,” Graham said.

She added that when Edouard-Vincent left, the district had to stabilize and work on strategic planning for all the projects and initiatives ahead, including a new Medford High School, among others.

“In my mind, we say we have a lot of important things to do, but we can’t do these things effectively if our leadership is unclear about the role they’re going to play,” Graham said.

She said the committee has been working to obtain community feedback on the qualities they would like to see in a new superintendent and while some were pushing for an in-depth search process, it didn’t seem to make sense to her.

“This process and what we do next has been on my mind since the day we appointed Dr. Galusi,” she said. “I really felt that given all that was going on, it was important for us to fairly evaluate her because she had been here an entire year so she was moving past sitting in the chair and holding down the fort. She has taken the reigns as our superintendent.”

Graham pointed out the seven members of the School Committee went through an intensive process of evaluating Galusi and agreed that she was “remarkable.”

“I don’t remember seeing that level of consistency before,” she said. “The scores we came to are that of a superintendent no district would be looking to move forward from.”

Graham said in the end it came down to two choices for Medford: keep treating Galusi like the interim superintendent, despite her “stellar evaluation” or move forward and start contract negotiations with her as the city’s permanent school leader, her choice.

School Committee weighs in

Other members of the School Committee said they had also received emails from residents who were overwhelmingly in support of Galusi while a few were for going through the formal process.

In the end, members said they had plenty of evidence of Galusi’s performance in the role over the last year.

Committee member Aaron Olapade said the data from Galusi’s evaluation, which was presented by the board on Jan. 26, showed consistency in all 25 categories and that in none of those categories did she fall below the satisfactory mark.

He added no member of the School Committee expressed any major concerns about Galusi’s commitment to the district.

“In some ways, she’s been on a year-long job interview,” Olapade said. “She’s risen to the challenge.”

As for opening a search process, Olapade said there were no guarantees of finding anyone better suited for Medford, especially given the “phenomenal” superintendent Galusi has been.

“The thought of losing her…we don’t need a missed opportunity in moving our projects forward,” he said. “I believe she deserves to continue to work in the district.”

Member Jessica Parks said being new to the superintendent hiring process, she also did some research via the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) and discovered the following:

• 83% of the residents who reached out to the School Committee believed Galusi should be appointed immediately and that those who wanted a search stated they just wanted to see a process, even though they also believed in her

• According to MASC, 1/3 of school districts hire their superintendent from within.

Many, added Parks, have to search for a superintendent because they don’t have a qualified candidate in-house.

• School districts normally post in August in order to search for a candidate.

Medford, she added, was already behind, in terms of searching.

“It doesn’t feel fair to put Dr. Galusi through another year of uncertainty,” Parks said.

• 5-10% of superintendent searches fail and must be restarted, according to MASC.

Parks said MASC believes public pressure on those districts against candidates they don’t like, candidates withdrawing in favor of other offers or even districts rescinding offers because of issues they discover are often the reasons searches don’t work out.

• MASC states the average cost of a superintendent search is $10,000 to $25,000 or even more.

Without a guarantee of even finding a qualified candidate, Parks added.

Additionally, she said many school districts are unable to find interested candidates when an interim superintendent has been sitting in the seat for too long. They feel it’s a formality before the interim is hired.

“Dr. Galusi brings institutional knowledge, proven leadership and a demonstrated commitment to Medford,” Parks said, after her presentation. “I’ve read that time and time again in the emails. It’s very, very clear that people have a high regard for Dr. Galusi and she cares about our community. She’s earned the confidence of our community and our staff.”

School Committee members Erika Reinfeld, Paul Ruseau and Mike Mastrobuoni echoed the sentiments of their colleagues, as well as Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, who added that stacking a search on top of all the work currently being done at Medford schools might not serve the district.

In the end, all seven members of the committee supported Graham’s resolution. No one in the audience nor on the Zoom meeting spoke for or against Galusi’s appointment.

“I’m very excited for the work ahead,” Galusi said, of her appointment. “I promise the School Committee and the community that I will continue to work hard with an open heart, open ears and an open mind.”

The School Committee is scheduled to meet again in City Hall on Feb. 9, beginning at 6 p.m.