ROME — The Rome City School District Board of Education is not currently planning to renew District Superintendent of Schools Peter Blake’s contract before it expires in April 2024.

“I have been told that they are not going to renew my contract,” Blake verified.

Blake, who has been superintendent of the district for seven years, explained the board is required to give him fair advance notice if it doesn’t plan to renew. Board of Education President Joseph Mellace said there are no plans to remove Blake from the post before his contract runs out.

Right now, Blake said, looking for a new job is not going to be his focus. Rather, he said, the district is in the midst of its budget process for the next school year so his attention will be there as well as on regular school matters within the district rather than what he will be doing come spring 2024.

“I will continue to do my job to the best of my ability until then,” Blake promised. “I have enjoyed my time in Rome, and I wish the community all the best.”

Blake served as principal at Rome Free Academy prior to being appointed as the district’s superintendent. Prior to joining the Rome City School District in November 2015, Blake was a principal at West Genesee High School in Camillus. At the time of his appointment at RFA, Blake was “overwhelmingly the top choice of a (district) search committee” that reviewed candidates, according to then Superintendent Jeffrey P. Simons, who Blake later replaced when the district’s board of education did not renew Simons’ contract in the spring of 2016.