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District IT team outlines upgrades, cybersecurity gains and surge in help-desk tickets
Summary
Director of Technology Peter Esposito and Assistant Director Cassandra Nitti reported on device inventory, new classroom displays, a newly launched Incident IQ help desk (1,164 tickets in 12 school days), and ongoing cybersecurity training and phishing defenses.
Peter Esposito, the district’s director of technology, told the Board of Education that the information-technology department supports more than 10,000 user accounts and manages an inventory of roughly 6,500 active devices across the district.
“We handle the account management for over 10,000 accounts on multiple platforms,” Esposito said, and detailed an equipment inventory that includes nearly 3,000 Chromebooks, 450 PCs and 200 iPads. He said the district acquired 600 new Chromebooks this year and is provisioning them for students and staff.
Esposito and Assistant Director Cassandra Nitti reviewed a recent rollout of 68 new 75-inch interactive flat panels in large-group instructional spaces and described accompanying professional development for teachers. The presenters said the district coordinated installations with facilities staff and added electrical and Ethernet infrastructure where needed.
The pair also described a new help-desk ticketing workflow through Incident IQ. “Since we implemented that on January 6 … in that time period, we had 1,164 tickets put in. We responded to 1,158,” Esposito said, citing the first 12 school days of operation. The majority of tickets, he said, related to Chromebooks.
Nitti summarized the district’s data-privacy and cybersecurity work, including mandatory training, a district incident-response plan, collaboration with BOCES and outside partners, and phishing metrics collected through a partner platform. Between Dec. 15 and Jan. 15 employees reported 3,889 phishing emails; 2,369 were simulated tests while 1,520 were legitimate attempts, she said. Nitti said the district’s “phish-prone average is 2.5%, which is significantly lower than the industry average of 5.2%.”
Esposito described recent network upgrades: replacement of core and head switches at the high school and middle school, installation of new high-speed fiber pairs, and expanded camera and access-control capacity tied to the district’s Gentek security system. He also reviewed a five-year refresh plan that lists printers, iPads, PCs, switches and battery backups as items scheduled for eventual replacement.
Board members asked about asset-management scope, recycling or buyback options for retired equipment, and whether the IT refresh list is budgeted. Esposito said capital-reserve funds have been identified for some projects and that staff are evaluating buyback and recycling options through BOCES and an e-recycler.
The administration said the technology projects and cybersecurity work will continue to be presented to the board as they move into budget and capital-planning discussions.
