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District details cybersecurity upgrades, ViewSonic panel purchases and a renewed push on STEAM
Summary
Jason Clark, director of technology, told the board the district completed a first year with cybersecurity consultant Thales and is consolidating security tools under a Cisco stack while advancing classroom hardware and STEAM programs.
Jason Clark, director of technology for the North Syracuse Central School District, briefed the board on instructional-technology work and cybersecurity improvements, saying the district completed a productive first year with cybersecurity consultant Thales. "We had a very successful first year with Thales," Clark said, adding the engagement included tabletop exercises and posture review and that the district is moving from "build to operate" in year two.
Clark told the board the district implemented Duo multi-factor authentication and replaced several security vendors by consolidating to Cisco products: "We brought in Cisco XDR, which is kind of a watchdog that's always monitoring and looking at our what's happening on our network." He said the district moved email security from Mimecast to Cisco Secure Mail and moved endpoint protection from CrowdStrike to Cisco Secure Endpoint so the district's security telemetry is centralized.
Clark described additional cybersecurity capabilities the district is evaluating for the coming year: a SIEM (security information and event management) to record and review events, privileged access management (PAM) to control elevated accounts, and network access control (NAC) to prevent unauthorized devices from connecting to district network ports. He said Thales' engagement runs roughly 12 months and that the district will continue partnering with them into a second year to operationalize the new stack.
On classroom technology, Clark said the state cleared purchase of the remaining interactive panels and that the district is replacing aging smart boards with 75-inch ViewSonic interactive panels. "We're currently replacing all the smart boards with, 75 inch ViewSonic interactive panels," he said, and that the district will phase in installations working with facilities staff.
Clark also outlined STEAM and workforce-aligned education initiatives. He said the district is cultivating K'12 STEAM offerings, continuing a multi-district, three-year advanced-technology pilot (with AFT, UFT, NISA and Micron participation), and expanding electromechanical (ELM) pathways with Onondaga Community College that let students earn college credit. He said a Full STEAM Ahead grant purchased classroom robots that are now in libraries and that "all 4 of our coaches have been identified" for First Lego League competition next year.
Board members asked for follow-ups. One board member said he would like an update on STEAM progress in roughly six months; another asked about the choice of Cisco over CrowdStrike, and Clark said Cisco provides an integrated "umbrella" package consolidating several tools so the district can leverage combined telemetry.
Clark concluded that the technology team will continue to refine the Cisco stack, evaluate SIEM/PAM/NAC solutions and work with Thales on operationalizing security controls while finishing the ViewSonic refresh and expanding STEAM programming.
