Caddo Parish School Board approves endpoint detection and response contract with Presidio Network Solutions

The Caddo Parish School Board on Tuesday approved a proposal to award RFP 03-26 (endpoint detection and response) to Presidio Network Solutions LLC, a contract described by district staff as part of an E‑rate pilot that could substantially lower the district’s annual cybersecurity costs.

Board members moved and seconded the measure and then voted; the transcript records the motion and the board’s call for a vote but does not record a roll-call tally in the meeting minutes.

The action matters because it pairs district devices with centralized endpoint protection paid in part through an E‑rate pilot program. Ricky Jones, identified in the meeting as the district’s new director of information technology, told the board that a federal E‑rate “bucket” had allocated money for this kind of service and that Caddo Parish was selected to participate. Jones said the pilot could save the district about 76% on what it now pays annually for endpoint protection and explained that endpoint detection and response functions like antivirus on individual devices: “If you’ve got a computer at home, you’ve got an antivirus program on there. And so we have to have that on every device in the district to make sure we’re protected from threats,” he said.

The motion to approve came from Mr. Shale; Miss Yates seconded. Superintendent Burton and other board members asked procedural and clarifying questions during discussion. One board member, Mr. Little, made a separate, unrelated remark proposing voluntary salary reductions for board members; that was discussion only and did not affect the RFP action. The board referenced an attached scoring tabulation when approving the recommendation; the tabulation itself was shown on members’ screens during the meeting.

The board announcement of the award did not include a recorded dollar value for the contract in the public portion of the transcript. Jones described the E‑rate program allocation in general terms, saying there was “a bucket of about, I wanna say $200,000,000,” and that the district’s share of cost reductions would be about 76 percent, statements he prefaced with approximating language. The transcript does not specify the contract start date, contract term, or the exact annual cost to the district after E‑rate discounts.

Board staff indicated the award followed the scoring shown in the tabulation provided with the RFP materials; staff did not read a line‑by‑line price breakdown into the public record during this session. Additional procurement documents and the final contract award details were not included in the transcript.

The board moved on to other business after the vote. Any administrative steps required to finalize the award — such as executing a contract, verifying E‑rate funding approval, or posting the executed contract — were not recorded in the public transcript.