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Lewiston IT department seeks systems analyst as it details cybersecurity work, COPS camera grant and printing data
Summary
IT leaders told the school committee about cybersecurity incidents, a $500,000 COPS grant for cameras and door access, the operational burden of 33 teaching apps and nearly 15,000 managed devices, and proposed a systems analyst role budgeted at approximately $85,000–$95,000.
Mark Roque, director of information technology for Lewiston Public Schools, presented the department’s budget highlights on March 19 and outlined cybersecurity activity, a federal COPS grant, device management, and software‑integration challenges.
Roque said the district manages nearly 15,000 devices and about 1,500 server‑side devices such as wireless access points, switches and cameras. He reported the district applied for and received a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant of $500,000 to expand cameras and door access control at Geiger, Lewiston High School, Lewiston Middle School and Montello.
On cybersecurity, Roque named John Hopkins as the district’s cybersecurity manager and said the district had exercised its incident response plan 12 times this school year. He described Hopkins as linked with CISA and other cybersecurity partners.
Roque described a complex “mind map” of software used by the district, noting 33 paid teaching‑and‑learning applications plus numerous enterprise products. To address user‑account and data‑integration needs across that software ecosystem, Roque proposed adding a systems analyst position, estimated at roughly $85,000–$95,000 annually, to centralize user provisioning and systems integration.
Roque also described the district’s print management transition to PaperCut and Konica copiers, which now provides detailed usage statistics. He said the district recorded more than 700,000 pages printed in a recent three‑week span and that help‑desk teams closed about 6,600 tickets since Aug. 1. Committee members raised an operational issue with TalkingPoints parent communications being reported as unstable; Roque said he had not previously seen a pattern in tickets and would investigate with data services.
No formal vote was taken on the IT proposals at the March 19 meeting; the systems analyst position was presented as a future budget priority.
