Utica School Board Won’t Renew Spence’s Contract After Bitter Fight

Board votes 4-1 to let the superintendent’s deal expire in 2027, while a discrimination complaint still hangs over the district

Christopher Spence Utica watchers have been waiting for this answer for months, and on Tuesday, July 21, they got it. The Utica City School District Board of Education voted 4-1 not to renew Superintendent Christopher Spence’s contract, according to the Rome Sentinel, which first reported the resolution. The deal will run out on Aug. 4, 2027, closing the book on a superintendency that started with hope and ended in accusations of retaliation and discrimination.

Board President Joseph Hobika Jr., Vice President Jason Cooper, and members James Paul and Braedon Nanna voted yes. New board member Howard Potter cast the lone no vote. Members Danielle Padula and Tennille Knoop were absent and did not vote. The board also extended Acting Superintendent Kathleen Davis’s employment agreement through June 30, 2027, though that deal can still be shortened or lengthened later, per the resolution.

For a district that has already burned through years of interim leaders and public frustration, this is another gut punch. But it is also, for some families, a chance to finally get an answer after a summer of confusion, closed-door meetings, and legal filings that spilled Utica’s school politics into the open.

How We Got Here: A Timeline of the Spence Saga

To understand why the board’s vote landed the way it did, it helps to walk through what happened this year.

Spence was hired in July 2024 and started that August, moving from the superintendent’s chair in New Hampshire’s Fall Mountain Regional School District. Board President Hobika called him the right person to lead Utica into the future, and Spence promised to lean into the district’s diversity as a strength rather than a challenge.

That optimism did not last. By May 2026, community members packed a board meeting to defend Spence after word spread that his contract extension had stalled. Proctor High School student Cynthia Baldwin-Miller told the board that Spence had changed her life, according to the Rome Sentinel’s coverage of that meeting. Supporters passed out flyers listing his accomplishments and pressed the board for transparency.

Then, on June 3, 2026, the board granted Spence a personal leave of absence through July 31 and brought Davis back as acting superintendent, a role she had filled once before. Weeks later, on July 9, the Rome Sentinel received notice that Spence was filing a formal complaint accusing board members of discrimination and retaliation.

That complaint, filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights, is the most serious part of this story.

The Discrimination Complaint, In Spence’s Own Words

According to Spence’s attorney, Nathaniel Kuzma of Lippes Mathias LLP, the superintendent says he has faced a pattern of hostile treatment since his first days on the job. Kuzma’s statement, released in July, said Spence had been subjected to a pattern of discriminatory and retaliatory conduct by members of the board since he arrived.

The most serious allegation involves board member James Paul. Kuzma says one board member acknowledged that Spence was treated a certain way because he is “an educated Black man,” and that a recording of that conversation was turned over to reporters as evidence.

Spence, for his part, has not backed down. “I will not be intimidated by efforts to damage my reputation or force me from my position,” he said in a statement released alongside the complaint. “I remain committed to the students, families, and employees of the Utica City School District.”

It is important to be clear about what we know and what we do not. These are allegations laid out in a complaint and a recording released by Spence’s own legal team. They have not been proven in any court or state proceeding, and the district has pushed back hard.

The District Fires Back

The Utica City School District did not let the allegations go unanswered. In a statement responding to the complaint, the district said Spence’s account “does not accurately reflect either the history of his employment relationship with the board or the events leading to his current leave of absence.” The district added that the matter is now tied up in formal disciplinary proceedings and said it did not plan to make further public comments while that process plays out.

That standoff, between a superintendent alleging racial bias and a board insisting the story is more complicated than it looks, is exactly the kind of dispute that tends to end with a non-renewal instead of a resolution. And that is what happened Tuesday night.

What the Non-Renewal Actually Means

A non-renewal is different from a firing. Spence’s contract, originally a three-year deal signed in 2024, simply will not be extended past its Aug. 4, 2027 expiration. He remains on leave through the end of July under the terms already in place, and Davis stays in the acting superintendent’s chair through at least June 2027 while the district figures out its next permanent hire.

Here is what parents and taxpayers should watch for next:

• Whether Spence’s discrimination complaint moves forward through the state Division of Human Rights or into court.
• Whether Davis’s acting role gets extended again, shortened, or converted into something more permanent.
• How the board handles the search for Utica’s next full-time superintendent, and whether it learns from a search process that has now produced two contentious exits in a row.
• Whether board meetings become calmer or continue drawing overflow crowds, as they did in May when Spence’s supporters showed up in force.

Why This Matters Beyond Utica

School board fights like this one are not unique to Utica. Districts across New York and the country have wrestled with superintendent turnover, community distrust, and allegations of bias in personnel decisions. But when the fight touches a specific claim of racial discrimination against the district’s own board, as it has here, the stakes rise for every family watching how their tax dollars and their children’s education are being managed.

Utica’s students deserve stability. They also deserve a board willing to answer hard questions honestly, in public, rather than behind closed doors. Whatever the outcome of Spence’s complaint, the district owes its families a transparent explanation of why two superintendents in a row have left under a cloud, and what the board plans to do differently the next time.

Residents who want a say in that process should show up to board meetings, ask direct questions during public commentary, and press elected board members for answers on the record. A district this important to Utica’s future should not be shaped only by lawyers and closed sessions. It should be shaped by the people who live here.

This story will be updated as new information becomes available. The Utica Phoenix has not independently verified the contents of the discrimination complaint or the recording referenced by Spence’s attorney, and presents these as allegations pending any formal findings.