Brunswick schools outline facility and cybersecurity upgrades tied to new Ohio laws

Ken Morgan and Assistant Superintendent Missus Verjas presented a multi-part safety and security update to the Brunswick Board of Education on Nov. 19, outlining facilities upgrades, alarm modernization, and steps the district is taking to comply with recent Ohio laws on cybersecurity and student data privacy.

The presentation opened by connecting the work to the district strategic plan’s facilities and finance goal to "continuously evaluate and improve districtwide safety measures," Morgan said. He listed completed and planned projects including ADA-compliant playground access, interlocking vestibule doors (Huntington most recently), a middle-school stadium turnstile, window security film at select sites, scheduled resealing and paving of parking lots, and a planned fleet replacement program.

Verjas described technology and alarm upgrades, saying the district is modernizing fire alarms ("three buildings remaining; goal to complete within three years") and adding kitchen-cooler monitoring to protect food safety during outages. She also described server-room protections and 24/7 monitoring through the district’s ISP partner to detect suspicious traffic.

On cybersecurity, Verjas tied specific requirements to recently enacted state laws. She said House Bill 96, effective Sept. 30, 2025, requires districts to maintain a cybersecurity program aligned with the NIST framework and to notify the Division of Homeland Security within seven days and the auditor within 30 days after an incident. Verjas also noted the district’s insurance, phishing-awareness training program, multifactor authentication rollout for all employees, and server recovery drills and documentation.

Verjas summarized student-data protections under Senate Bill 29, stressing that "our district owns our student data" and that contracts with third-party vendors must preserve that ownership and include return timelines if ties are severed. She noted that the district notifies parents about vendor contracts and maintains a public list on the website.

The presenters described a district safety committee that meets three to four times a year and includes administrators, principals, counselors, nurses, the fire and police chiefs, school resource officers and union representatives. The committee has focused on incident command roles, tabletop exercises and CSTAG-based threat-assessment training for staff.

As a prospective operational tool Verjas described ‘‘crisis badge’’ devices under review: battery-powered badges with multiple-press commands that send alerts to an incident-management platform (and integrate with cameras) and function off district Wi‑Fi so they remain operational if local networks fail.

Board members asked clarifying questions about which buildings had vestibule changes and whether funding was provided to comply with HB 96; presenters said Huntington was the most recent vestibule project and that no specific state funding was included for the HB 96 compliance framework, though grants exist.

The board received the presentation and had no formal action tied directly to it that evening; subsequent agenda items included MOUs and policy changes that formalize some cybersecurity practices.

The board is scheduled to take up policy and contract items at future meetings and has authorized staff to continue planned installations and vendor negotiations.