Nordonia Hills City outlines $566,000 network overhaul, server migration and cybersecurity push
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Summary
IT Director Mike Russ told the board the district completed a roughly $566,000 network overhaul with about 40% E-rate reimbursement, plans a server migration to Proxmox to save about $14,000 a year, and is working with NeoNet and a Filament contractor to meet House Bill 96 cybersecurity requirements ahead of an expected July 1 audit.
Mike Russ, the district's IT director, briefed the Nordonia Hills City School Board on Feb. 17 about recent and planned technology investments and an escalating cybersecurity compliance effort tied to Ohio House Bill 96.
Russ said the district completed a core network overhaul last summer at a project cost of about $566,000 and that, because of the district's free-and-reduced-lunch rate, the E-rate program will reimburse roughly 40 percent of that cost — about $225,000. "This past summer, we completed our network overhaul," Russ said. "Our project...was about $566,000. We got 40% of that back."
He described a planned migration off an existing Nutanix virtualization platform to Proxmox, an open-source alternative that he said will save the district about $14,000 per year in licensing. The migration also supports creating a redundant disaster-recovery site at the high school.
Russ outlined device-refresh timing: the district typically orders Chromebooks in spring but secured devices in January to avoid a spike in memory (RAM) prices. He said memory component costs have risen dramatically and that ordering early saved the district roughly $30 per device on that purchase.
On cybersecurity, Russ said House Bill 96 requires districts and other government entities in Ohio to adopt cybersecurity measures ahead of a July 1 audit and that the district joined a cybersecurity cohort through NeoNet to work through required posture categories. "We've attended seven meetings so far. So 7 hours of meetings, and we're only 12% through the material," he said, calling the work "an incredibly heavy lift."
Russ said the district absorbed cybersecurity-related software purchases within the 2025-26 budget and will share a cohort "report card" with the board; he indicated some findings will be discussed in executive session given sensitivity.
Board members asked clarifying questions about cyber posture and thanked IT staff for the work.