Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Technology Cybersecurity topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District technology office reports cybersecurity gains, recommends multi-year plan for classroom hardware and support
Summary
The district’s technology director reported completed steps from a 2023–24 security assessment — including multi-factor authentication for staff, 24/7 event-log monitoring, patch management and network segmentation — and presented a multi-year plan to improve classroom hardware, support and systems integration.
John Perry, Director of Technology, updated the school board on May 6 about progress implementing recommendations from the district’s 2023–24 technology audits and assessments. He said security-focused items were the primary focus this year and reported measurable improvement on an external security assessment.
Perry told the board the district implemented multi-factor authentication for staff, a 24/7 event-log monitoring (SIEM) solution, an accelerated patch-management process and network segmentation for higher-risk systems such as HVAC. He said those steps were the main contributors to an improved external assessment score that rose from 6.89 to 7.34 on the firm’s scale.
“We implemented an event log monitoring solution, sometimes referred to as a SIEM solution, that monitors all of our core systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for abnormal activity so that we know if somebody's trying to get in,” Perry said. He emphasized that improving the district’s security posture is a continuing, multi-year effort and recommended repeating external assessments annually to measure progress and maintain accountability.
Beyond cybersecurity, Perry described a “sprint and marathon” approach: rapid fixes this year (replacing broken classroom displays and improving help-desk pathways) and longer-term planning for sustainable device-refresh cycles, classroom hardware standards, software standards, training, and systems integration. He said the technology plan’s core principles are regular and reliable access, full support for teachers and students, and “seamless and secure access to resources.”
Perry also reported work to formalize security documentation and vendor data-protection agreements, called for ongoing staff cybersecurity training, and recommended business-continuity planning as a multi-year priority. The board asked whether the external assessment would be used as an ongoing KPI; Perry said the district intends to repeat the assessment and use it as part of an accountability framework while noting the score can shift as standards evolve.
No formal board action was taken. Perry said the department will continue annual reassessments and will bring multi-year budget estimates to district leaders to support planned refresh cycles and continued security work.
