District technology director outlines infrastructure, cybersecurity and iPad program; superintendent previews levy renewal
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Summary
Lakeville technology leaders described upgrades made since 2020 — fiber, Wi‑Fi, 1:1 iPads, centralized IT support and cybersecurity systems — and tied much of that work to prior levy funding. Superintendent Michael Baumann outlined a proposal to renew a 2015 operating and capital levy to sustain current services.
Lakeville Area Schools technology leaders on March 25 gave the board a wide-ranging overview of the district’s information-technology infrastructure, 1:1 iPad program, cybersecurity protections and staffing needs — and explained how levy funding has supported much of that work.
Tracy Breovold, director of technology and data services, told the board the district centralized its IT organization beginning in 2020, completed a districtwide iPad 1:1 deployment and upgraded core networking and phone systems funded in part by past levies and a 2019 bond. Patrick Ratliff, the district’s infrastructure and operations manager, described a fiber optic backbone, roughly 900 wireless access points and a virtualized server environment the district now uses to reduce on-site hardware.
Breovold said the district operates a three-part data stack: Infinite Campus as the student-information system, EduCLIMBER as a student-focused data repository for classroom teams, and Tableau for district-level visualizations. She cautioned that those systems require ongoing data-cleanup and staff time to produce validated dashboards that officials and the public can use reliably.
On cybersecurity, Breovold and Ratliff described a layered program: endpoint detection and response (EDR) clients on devices, a managed detection and response (MDR) service that analyzes millions of telemetry points, regular patching, and phishing simulations and awareness training for staff. Breovold said the district runs regular tabletop incident-response exercises and has been reducing endpoint vulnerabilities through patching and monitoring.
Breovold also described operational changes since 2020: removal of more than 800 printers in favor of centralized secure printing, a districtwide help-desk ticketing system (Incident IQ) that now tracks more than 13,000 tickets in a school year, and the replacement of inconsistent classroom projectors and cabling with standardized classroom AV. She said the district has automated access management so staff accounts and permissions synchronize from the student/HR systems to Google and other services, a process that required a nine-month cleanup of legacy accounts and inactive credentials.
The technology presentation also addressed staffing: digital media specialists (DMS) who support instruction and libraries were reduced to half time during 2023–24 budget cuts, and the technology team has grown but still has limited capacity for building districtwide visualizations and providing one-on-one instructional coaching. Breovold said the district is exploring ClassLink to replace current single sign-on tooling and called for clearer staffing to scale visualizations.
Superintendent Michael Baumann presented a separate report describing the district’s plan to seek renewal of a 2015 operating and capital levy. He said the renewals would sustain current programs — including staffing that supports reduced class size, elementary art and fifth-grade band — and that the capital levy has supported instructional technology, safety systems and STEM programs. Baumann emphasized the district is proposing a renewal rather than an increase: “If we are able to renew for 10 more years, there's no increased tax impact for renewing either of these two levies,” he said, adding growth in net tax capacity and pupil units can help hold per-taxpayer impact stable.
Baumann outlined a timeline: a scientific survey of community opinion planned after spring break, a May review of survey results, a July 15 deadline for the board to decide about an operating-levy placement or use board-authorized renewal, and August 12 as the latest date to adopt referendum language for a November ballot. He noted that while an operating levy may be renewed by a board vote under Minnesota law, a capital projects levy requires voter approval.
Both Breovold and Baumann urged that the board consider the relationship between funding decisions and the technical and staffing capacity needed to support district analytics and instruction. Board members asked for a more specific inventory of current dashboards, the marginal staff cost to build district-level KPIs, and clearer examples of what the board could expect to get back for a given investment.
No levy ballot question was placed at the meeting; Baumann said a vote would come after the district completes community engagement and provides cost estimates to the board.