After just about a year in his new role as technology director at Batavia City Schools, Brian Sutton has left for a similar job at another district, and the city’s board has appointed a new director to fill the gap.
The board approved Wendy Villone to a four-year probationary position as director of educational technology during Monday’s meeting.
She is to begin Sept. 12, bringing with her more than two decades of experience in education and technology at the Caledonia-Mumford Central School District and at EduTech RIC - Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES, a district press release states.
Villone was hired at a prorated salary of $88,000, with her full salary to be $110,000, per negotiated collective bargaining agreement. She will fill the vacancy left by Sutton, who was formerly a principal at John Kennedy Intermediate since 2020 before taking on the technology role and charging ahead to deal with a state Comptroller’s audit in July of 2023.
Right off the bat, Sutton was faced with key findings from the audit that he needed to address while aligning with the district’s Strategic Plan. He gave his first report of findings and suggested solutions to the board in October 2023.
The Batavian asked Superintendent Jason Smith about the circumstances of Sutton’s departure, and if Villone would continue with the work already completed to address the Comptroller’s audit.
Sutton left his position for a technology director position at Rush Henrietta School District, Smith said.
“During his tenure with us, he successfully achieved several initiatives, including addressing both the Comptroller’s audit and the technology functional review,” Smith said Tuesday.
Sutton's first task was to review the existing structure and services offered through BOCES, including database management, the physical inventory process, technology leadership and how assets are identified and tagged.
Then he had to reestablish a formal leadership in the technology department and implement a formal Technology Committee, with a data protection privacy officer and reviews of data privacy law to ensure that all requirements are being met, he had said during the presentation.
He had been working with Edutech to ensure that tags were provided on all “products” that come from them, which is a restructuring of Batavia’s inventory system and prices to ensure accountability for all hardware, he said, including district-owned devices, per board policy.
He was implementing a software program to track software inventory product purchases and related expiration dates. He had also been rearranging and organizing the physical workspace of the technology department and at the storage room at Robert Morris.
All of these tasks have been items to enforce the existing board policies on inventory control based on the Comptroller’s audit. Not only were hundreds of devices discovered missing from inventory, but the district had been paying their annual fees.
Stepping into his own role to provide technology leadership, Sutton is using the functional review audit as a roadmap to prioritize and address issues that were uncovered, he said.
As a result, he was having weekly technology department meetings with tech aides at the middle and high schools, providing guidance and support to the creation of the digital fluency class at the middle school, and re-establishing the district technology committee with a focus on staff development and learning, he said.
Smith and the board feel confident that Villone will be up to the task at hand. At Caledonia-Mumford Central School District, she managed technology infrastructure, implemented instructional software, and oversaw data security compliance, and prior to that as coordinator of Data Governance she provided training and guidance on cybersecurity and data protection to 47 school districts, the release states.
The Batavian also asked Smith if he was concerned about a recent rash of departures of administrators, including several assistant principals, the athletic director and Sutton, at the district.
“It's common and expected for assistant principals to transition to principal positions after a few years. For example, I served as an assistant principal for three years before becoming principal at Elba in 2004. Mr. Hussain, Mrs. Torrey, and Dr. McCarthy were all assistant principals at Batavia for approximately three years each, and they have successfully moved on to principal roles, and we are proud of their accomplishments,” Smith said. “As the largest district in the region with a substantial staff, Batavia typically experiences personnel changes during the summer months leading up to a new school year.
"I'm pleased to report that we've attracted a diverse and experienced pool of applicants, including current administrators from other districts, to fill our open positions," he said. "We're excited to welcome our newest hires to BCSD. I'm confident they'll be a great fit within our community, and I'm encouraged by their enthusiasm, wealth of educational experience, and desire to make a positive impact here in Batavia.”
