The Sioux Falls School District 49-5 Board of Education heard a technology report describing security and infrastructure upgrades completed over the past year, including the districtwide rollout of multifactor authentication, a conversion from analog phones to VoIP, a network redesign tied to e-rate funding and efforts to reduce help-desk ticket response times.

An ITS staff presenter described the 2025 summer work as “everything everywhere all at once,” noting multifactor authentication has been deployed districtwide to add a second verification step for staff logins. The presenter said the VoIP conversion replaced an unsupported analog telephone system and allows staff to make calls using their district numbers from computers or mobile phones.

The report said a ground-up network redesign — funded in part through the district’s e-rate reimbursement cycle — modernized infrastructure and aimed to separate network functions so devices and services that should not communicate cannot. The presenter noted the district is not yet at the higher e-rate reimbursement tier that requires greater free/reduced lunch participation but said the redesign was part of the final year of the district’s e-rate funding cycle.

ITS staff said the department receives about 24,000 tickets annually but has reduced average response and resolution times through process improvements and automation; new leadership, including John Forrester (network infrastructure manager) and Mike Ullie, was credited with improving operations. The board asked about cyberattack frequency; the presenter said the district has not experienced ransomware incidents and that nationwide ransomware reports have declined slightly over the past year but that prevention remains the priority.

Board members asked about parent access to student information platforms. The presenter directed parents to the Infinite Campus parent portal for official attendance and grade records and noted Canvas provides preliminary classroom information.