Orono technology team reports ClassLink automation, security exercises, AI planning and device refresh
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Summary
Orono’s technology department told the school board it completed major infrastructure upgrades, automated student and staff provisioning through ClassLink/OneSync, resolved 93.6% of 2,145 help-desk tickets last year, implemented geofenced MFA, ran cybersecurity tabletop exercises and is developing responsible-use AI guidance and an enterprise LLM plan.
The Orono Public School District technology team reported widespread summer work and plans to expand classroom and data protections as students and staff return for the 2025–26 school year.
Director of Technology Sean Beverson said the district completed major infrastructure projects over the past three summers — phones, wireless and classroom upgrades — and characterized 2025 as a ‘‘summer of stability’’ after COVID-related catch-up work. He thanked the community for support of the district’s 2022 tech levy, which he said undergirds ongoing upgrades.
Joel Mallor, cloud systems specialist, detailed ClassLink and OneSync roster automation that links hires and student enrollments to district accounts and provides single sign-on to classroom platforms. Mallor told the board the roster server and ClassLink allow automated account life-cycle management and said the district shifted secondary students to password ownership as a step toward broader multi-factor authentication.
Mallor also gave help-desk metrics: "We had 2,145 tickets with a 93.6% resolution rate," he said, noting Freshservice ticket data helps identify recurring issues and target fixes.
Security and monitoring updates came from Jason Woyak, who said the district ran a simulated cyberattack tabletop exercise with FR Secure and is collaborating with the Dark Knight Security Consortium to share best practices. Woyak described upgraded monitoring that gives greater visibility into devices on the network.
Leah Staples summarized operational work done with five paid interns and a volunteer: imaging and deploying 105 new PCs for middle and high schools, repairing Chromebooks, improving inventory controls and standardizing daily loaner and annual checkout devices to improve reliability for students.
On artificial intelligence, Beverson said the district is taking a cautious approach grounded in four nonnegotiables: a human in the loop, protecting student and district data, operationalizing a responsible-use scale, and aligning AI use to learning progressions that differ by grade level. He also noted that Google Workspace added Gemini and NotebookLM to core services in June, giving the district access to an enterprise LLM that administrators are beginning to explore in internal pilots.
Board members questioned how the team finds vendor intelligence and how the district will measure impacts on engagement and supports for students with IEPs. The team cited vendor webinars, collaborative meetups and local technical partners as sources for market intelligence and said some early projects are already repurposing staff time to focus on instruction.
District leaders said this academic year will serve as a beta year to test the sustainability and scalability of in-house tools and integrations, and the team will return with resource requests if pilots require further investment.
