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District tech director outlines security upgrades, AI pilot and hardware plans
Summary
Director of educational technology Stephanie Hoban reported firewall/geo-IP blocking, broader filtering, multi-factor authentication rollouts, student data privacy work, an approved SchoolAI pilot for classroom use, and upcoming hardware upgrades.
Stephanie Hoban, director of educational technology, told the school committee on June 3 the district has prioritized hardware and cybersecurity this year, and she described changes already made and pieces planned for next year.
Hoban said the district turned on additional firewall security features and enabled geo-IP blocking to block traffic from countries outside the United States; she said the change has required teachers to request whitelist exceptions for some sites. The district also enabled network-wide filtering and stricter filtering rules after a prior ransomware incident led to network segmentation.
Hoban said the district expanded multifactor authentication (MFA) this year: Duo tokens were deployed for laptops after the ransomware incident, and next year the district plans MFA for all staff and student Google accounts and for all end-user desktops that access student information. She explained that student information is a high-value target on the dark web and that protecting signin credentials is a priority.
On student data privacy, Hoban said the district is participating in the Student Data Privacy Consortium to obtain contracts or "exhibits" that limit vendors' use of student data; where district-wide agreements exist elsewhere, the district can piggyback on them, she said. She noted some small vendors decline to sign such agreements, which can limit teachers' access to certain sites until agreements are in place.
Hoban described classroom software adopted this year: Learning Ally (human-narrated audiobooks) and Edpuzzle (interactive video tool) as alternatives to direct YouTube use. She said the district selected SchoolAI as the sole approved AI platform for classroom use; teachers must create prompts or "spaces" for students to use SchoolAI, and the platform records interactions and can flag alarming responses for teacher review. Hoban said other AI services will be restricted for student access.
Hoban said the district will replace the phone system and install 53 new interactive panels next year, upgrade the high school network, refresh staff laptops and the Mac lab, and continue network and filter improvements. She thanked long-time staff member Joanne Johnson and said the district will split that role into two positions: a network manager and a database/information systems manager.
Committee members asked about occasional network outages; Hoban said some interruptions were caused by configuration errors while enabling features and that a managed service provider will perform a network upgrade this summer to mitigate issues. She also previewed a near-complete district website shown later in the meeting.
