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Board approves PowerSchool renewal after members press vendor security questions
Summary
The McGuffey board voted to renew its PowerSchool student-information license while several members pressed administration on whether the vendor strengthened security after a prior breach; administration said switching vendors would be costly and that the district does not store Social Security numbers in its instance.
The board approved a $26,979.93 renewal of the district's PowerSchool student information system for 2025–26 after a discussion about security and vendor litigation.
At the meeting, at least one board member said the company is the subject of a pending class action and that the district must consider student privacy after a headline‑making hack. Board members asked what steps PowerSchool had taken to improve security and whether the district's instance included personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers.
Administration said moving to a different student information system would cost "hundreds of thousands" of dollars and would be difficult to have in place before the July 1 start of the school year. Administration also said the district does not use Social Security numbers in its PowerSchool instance and that PowerSchool had made changes after the incident; the district is pursuing additional network protections, including DOS protection on its Dedicated Internet (EDI) line and E‑rate support for network services.
The board approved the renewal and separately voted to award a three‑year dedicated internet agreement with Comcast Business that includes added DOS protection for the district network. Several members asked administration to obtain written confirmation from the vendor about specific security enhancements and to document what data fields are or are not stored by the district.
No formal change to district policy was proposed at the meeting; board members directed staff to follow up with further vendor assurances and to continue exploring network protections.
