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District introduces new IT director and brings updated acceptable‑use agreements for first reading
Summary
Jared Rex, the district’s new director of IT, outlined priorities—service reliability and user training—and staff presented updated student and employee acceptable-use documents as a first reading; trustees asked about device shutoff times and remote access.
The Douglas County School District introduced Jared Rex as its new director of information technology and presented revised acceptable-use documents for staff and students during the board’s first reading of the policy.
Rex, who said he arrived from Ohio three weeks earlier, told trustees his priorities are reliability ("the stuff works 100% of the time") and customer service for teachers and students. He described acceptable-use agreements as foundational documents to teach digital citizenship, protect student privacy under FERPA, comply with filtering requirements and set professional expectations for staff.
District IT staff and trustees discussed existing device/time limits and remote access. IT staff said the district enforces tiered device cutoff times today (elementary devices filtered at about 9 p.m., middle school at 10 p.m., and high school at midnight) and that those settings can be adjusted but are currently set by school tier to reduce after-hours misuse. Jesse Bates (IT) said on-record that per-tier enforcement is technically easiest and that case-by-case exceptions are possible but not practical en masse.
Trustees asked whether the proposed acceptable-use language would replace earlier parental device permissions. Superintendent Frankie Alvarado and staff said the draft will replace prior separate permissions and that the district will decide whether to distribute the new forms digitally (ParentSquare) or on paper; staff also noted the policy is an operational item and can be implemented without a second reading if the board chooses.
Several trustees requested that Rex survey staff and parents about practical issues—such as device cutoff times—and that IT follow up on frequent scenarios (traveling teams, hotel internet and students who play late-night sports). Rex said he would gather input and work with the superintendent to propose changes when needed.
The acceptable-use documents were presented for information and will return to the board for any formal action required by the board’s policy schedule.
