District 211 reviews technology strategic plan; staff details iPad protections and limits off campus

Chief Technology Officer Gary Gorgerson told the Township High School District 211 Board of Education that the district is advancing multiple targets in its 2024–25 strategic plan, including migrating staff and student machines to Windows 11 and Office 21, improving workflow automation, and strengthening cybersecurity to meet CIS standards.

Gorgerson said the district supports nearly 15,000 daily users and more than 13,000 student iPads (including spares and special‑use devices). He told the board IT manages nearly 200 terabytes of storage and that about 1,000,000 emails hit the district system each month, half of which are filtered as spam, phishing or harmful content. He described ongoing work to replace the remaining one‑third of devices on a three‑year cycle so the district meets Microsoft's end‑of‑support timelines for Windows 10.

The presentation emphasized two security goals: completing a districtwide migration to supported operating systems and aligning endpoint imaging and group policy configurations to the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks. “District 211 is aligned with the CIS security standard,” Gorgerson said, adding that imaging checklists and Active Directory policies have been updated to implement CIS recommendations.

Several board members and a parent asked how the district protects students when iPads are used off campus. Board member Michelle Cavill asked whether communications staff could help make parental guidance on device protections easier to find and keep current. Gorgerson said documentation is provided at iPad distribution and on the district website and that technology department chairs speak directly to parents at distribution events; he agreed IT can work with communications to improve clarity.

Parents asked whether students can download social media apps such as TikTok. Gorgerson explained that district iPads do not provide students direct access to Apple’s App Store; the district publishes a school app store that only contains preapproved apps. “They’re completely blocked from that on the device itself,” he said. He added that category‑based filtering (provided by the state‑supplied Cisco Umbrella service and district Palo Alto firewalls) restricts access to whole classes of sites while students are on district networks.

Gorgerson was explicit about the limits of those protections: the district’s network‑level filters apply only while a device is on campus Wi‑Fi. “If they go off‑site, they’re able to access other sites,” he said, and parents who want additional controls should use the parental‑controls apps Apple provides and other local safeguards when devices are away from school.

Board members pressed for clearer outreach to families. Several suggested short how‑to materials, recorded demonstrations, or hands‑on workshops for caregivers who are less familiar with device settings. Gorgerson said the technology department provides handouts and links to Apple’s K‑12 resources and that the district uses Jamf mobile device management to lock device configuration and features before distribution.

On cybersecurity, Gorgerson said education institutions are a growing target and cited sector trends: 129 reported attacks in 2022 and 954 in 2023, with 2024 trending at least as high as 2023. He described a layered “Swiss‑cheese” approach to security—multiple defensive layers so that if one control fails others block threats—and noted the district uses state partnerships and e‑rate funding to secure filtering and network services.

The board thanked Gorgerson and asked IT to bring forward communication samples and parent‑facing materials the district could adopt or distribute year‑to‑year.