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Technology director urges cybersecurity investment; committee hears case for business‑impact analysis and software increases
Summary
Technology staff urged committee members to fund a business‑impact analysis and additional software and services, saying cyber‑risk and vendor licensing are the primary drivers of an increased tech budget line.
District IT staff described technology and cybersecurity spending increases the administration says are necessary to protect networks, support instructional software and replace aging hardware.
Mike (staff member) told the School Committee that two main drivers explain much of the technology request: recurring software contracts and a proposed business‑impact analysis (BIA) that would quantify the district’s exposure and recommend controls. He said the BIA would produce a monetary estimate of how much outages or breaches could cost the district and help set an appropriate level of investment.
Staff explained the BIA is budgeted as a one‑time professional services purchase (approximately $50,000 in the presentation) and that some software contracts — cited examples included web filtering, classroom management and virtualization (VMware) — have grown in cost because of licensing and support needs. The technology presenter said some contracts were renegotiated and vendors pushed for higher prices, and he described opportunities to seek state or FEMA cyber grant funding to offset purchases while warning that grant dollars can take 6–12 months to arrive.
Committee members asked about instructional platforms. The presenter said the district rolled out PowerSchool and that many backend features — grading, messaging and report‑card formats — exist but that full staff rollout and building‑level adoption remain a work in progress. He said the district aims to reduce reliance on multiple messaging platforms by consolidating features inside PowerSchool, but staff have not yet turned on or trained for every available feature across all schools.
No vote was taken. Technology staff said they would continue to work with the business office to evaluate which purchases are one‑time capital uses, which are recurring operating costs, and whether to recommend using fund balance for any large one‑time items.
