District reports $60,000 cybersecurity grant award; outlines monitoring and staff training
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Summary
The district’s information systems director said Stewartville received a $60,000 cybersecurity grant (Group 3 cap) to support managed monitoring and security-awareness training for staff. The presentation summarized vendor monitoring, phishing simulations and weekly micro-training intended to reduce breach risk.
Joe Conger, the district’s information systems coordinator/director, told the board the district applied for and received the Group 3 cap of $60,000 from a statewide cybersecurity grant program. The application required submission of invoices for cybersecurity-related services and equipment; the district’s award covered services including 24/7 managed monitoring, threat detection, incident response support and a security-awareness training program for staff.
Conger described the managed security-awareness training just added last year: weekly short quizzes or videos for staff, simulated phishing tests and remediation for staff who click training phish tests. He said the program produces a scoreboard used for quarterly reporting to staff to encourage improvement. On one recent simulated phishing test tied to ChatGPT training, he reported that about 3 percent of staff clicked the test link out of roughly 250 recipients.
Conger and other administrators emphasized that K–12 schools are an increasing target for cyberattacks and that protecting staff payroll and financial-account data is a priority. The presenters said the district will continue the managed services and apply for similar grant opportunities if funding is made available in future cycles.
No formal board action was required or taken on this agenda item; the award was presented as an informational update.