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District technology director updates committee on PowerSchool breach response, cybersecurity and AI tools
Summary
Holliston’s technology director briefed the school committee on the PowerSchool data‑security incident, district mitigation steps, a planned Google Workspace upgrade to support phishing response and grade sync, and exploratory use of AI tools for students aged 13 and older within a controlled environment.
The district’s technology director updated the Holliston School Committee on March 13 about the recent PowerSchool data‑security incident, steps the district has taken and planned investments in cybersecurity and classroom technology.
The district has been monitoring PowerSchool’s post‑incident CrowdStrike report and is offering identity‑protection enrollment (through Experian) to affected families; the director said district families can enroll even if they did not receive a direct Experian email. The director recommended the district consider a future decision about joining possible class‑action litigation but said that would follow legal counsel and further information.
To reduce phishing risk and accelerate incident response, the technology office seeks Google Workspace Plus for Education. The director said the product would allow the district to rapidly withdraw a malicious email from inboxes when staff report it and also offers Google Classroom integrations that can sync grades back to PowerSchool and reduce duplicated teacher work.
The district is auditing Wi‑Fi and device access. The goal is to make user devices visible and manageable on the network and move away from unmanaged BYOD reliance. The technology director said the capital request includes $75,000 for Wi‑Fi upgrades supported by federal E‑rate Category 2 funds; the committee expects about a 40% rebate on that amount.
The director also previewed AI tools: the district is exploring a walled‑garden deployment of Google’s Gemini for users 13 and older; under the proposed configuration, student inputs would remain within the district environment rather than training external models. The director warned about AI‑strengthened phishing and said the new Google product will help the district withdraw suspicious messages quickly.
Other capital items mentioned during the budget presentation — also relevant to technology planning — include Chromebook replenishment for grades 5 and 8 and a forecasted $60,000 for replacing school iPads as Apple phases models out.
The committee asked for implementation details and for parent consent plans tied to classroom services that include video and captioning; the director said the district will propose parental‑consent workflows for tools such as YouTube and plan additional communications about implementation timelines.
