Wayland hires director of technology innovation; outlines PowerSchool switch, security and AI work

The Wayland School Committee on Feb. 26 received an introductory report from Jen Judkins, the district’s new director of technology innovation, who outlined priorities in four areas: teaching and learning, systems and devices, support and operations, and security and data governance.

Judkins, who joined the district in August, said the technology office will focus this year on implementing a new student information system (PowerSchool), strengthening cybersecurity practices, refining device and software refresh plans and expanding staff professional development.

Teaching and learning: Judkins praised the district’s instructional technology specialists and said the department has started focused work on AI literacy; more than 50 Wayland educators already completed an online AI course, she said. She highlighted OpenArchitects, a data‑integration tool the district is using to consolidate disparate student data into a single view to aid earlier interventions.

Systems and devices: Judkins told the committee the district will roll out a new student information system in summer 2025 so it is ready for families and students in the fall, and that device refresh decisions are forthcoming. She said the district’s one‑to‑one device program should be periodically reassessed as lease cycles and instructional needs change, and that the high school technology committee has begun preliminary conversations about device platforms for future cycles.

Support and operations: Judkins said the district is centralizing operations work to improve technician collaboration and response equity, and is prioritizing an operations center and clearer workflows (for example, digitized enrollment) as part of the PowerSchool implementation.

Security and data governance: Judkins said Wayland was an early adopter of student‑data privacy contracting practices and is prioritizing multi‑factor authentication (MFA) for staff; the committee heard that MFA rollout for staff is planned in the near term. She said the district has applied for and received a state cybersecurity awareness grant to fund phishing training and awareness tools (KnowBe4) and intends to phase training and simulated phishing campaigns for staff; the district will schedule the formal training rollout in the fall to minimize disruption during the current implementation cycle. Judkins also described plans for a targeted review of the district’s Google Workspace admin console and for clarifying data classification and access as part of the PowerSchool configuration.

Committee questions covered whether Judkins intended to revisit one‑to‑one device policy (she said all options remain on the table and early conversations are underway for the high school technology committee), whether the district will perform a systematic top‑to‑bottom assessment of systems (Judkins described ongoing information gathering and prioritized actions with security top of mind), and what the district’s capacity is for advanced threat detection (she said such detection can be costly, and the near‑term focus is on closing common gaps, access management and MFA).

Judkins thanked staff and said the district will prioritize security, data governance and user support while phasing larger projects. She noted the district recently obtained approval for additional technology positions to support major implementations.