District launches new Finalsite website, emphasizes accessibility and security after bot attack

Kaneland officials presented a high-level update on the district's website migration on July 28, saying the new Finalsite platform is intended to improve usability, mobile access and ADA/WCAG accessibility while strengthening security. "What we're looking to do is just improve the usability," David Chavez, the communications lead, told the board, saying the district sought to declutter navigation and meet a "three-click" usability rule for commonly used parent and student information. Chavez said Finalsite provides mobile-first automatic adjustment and "fluid content" so pages reflow on phones and tablets; district analytics show about 63% of visitors use mobile devices. The migration also added a staff intranet that requires district credentials to access payroll, HR and other staff resources previously exposed on the public site. Security features were a focus. Chavez described a form-related hack in which an automated bot produced roughly 30,000 spurious responses to the district's facilities-committee sign-up form; IT staff reclassified and filtered the responses. "I went in to find 30,000 responses," Chavez said, calling the incident an example of why tighter safeguards, firewalls, scanning and penetration testing matter. Officials said Finalsite's hosting and security partnerships, built-in accessibility tools and a content-management system with tutorial resources will let communications and IT staff update emergency information quickly and reduce dependence on social media for official notices. Staff also proposed quarterly audits and additional user testing with parents, staff and students to refine the parent/student section ahead of the school year. No action was required at the meeting.