Riverside superintendent Sutton leaves for Kansas district

Jim Sutton stepped down in June as superintendent of the Riverside Community School District after serving 12 years in the position.

Sutton left the position to take a job leading the Belle Plaine Unified School District 357, located about 30 miles south of Wichita, Kansas. He said he also wanted to be closer to his family.

“I’ve got two kids back in Kansas, and they’re having grandchildren,” he added. “They’re being very nice in making me a papa, and I’m thrilled about it, so my wife and I said, ‘Hey, we need to get back down there.’ This was the right time. I’m really sorry about leaving Riverside, but I am excited about getting down to Belle Plaine.”

Sutton was paid about $133,000. The Riverside district serves about 680 students with a junior-senior high school and elementary school in Oakland and an intermediate school and central office in Carson.

Prior to coming to Riverside, Sutton spent 23 years in education in Kansas, where he first landed after wrapping up his college experience at Missouri Southern State University.

Sutton said he has a son and daughter-in-law in Winfield, Kansas, with a son from a previous marriage and a baby on the way in May as well as a daughter and son-in-law in Pittsburg, Kansas, who had their first child last July. He said he and his wife agreed to start looking to move, and the Belle Plaine opportunity actually is near where he used to work.

After Riverside hired a search firm to gather potential candidates, the school board officially extended a contract to Timothy Mitchell to be superintendent of the Riverside school district. Mitchell now serves as the superintendent of the district serving Oakland, Carson and Macedonia.