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Trustees press for validated backups and disaster-recovery language in district records policy
Summary
Board members discussed adding disaster-recovery and validated-backup requirements to district-records policy to reduce ransomware risk; staff said some systems are cloud-based under vendor SLAs, and trustees asked policy and IT to draft administrative regulations for testing and backup cadence.
Trustees at the Jan. 14 Redwood City School Board meeting discussed strengthening district policy on records retention and backups to reduce the risk from ransomware or accidental deletion.
During discussion of policy 3580 (district records), trustees argued the board should direct staff to require not only routine backups but periodic validation (restore tests) so the district can recover payroll, HR and financial data if a breach or data loss occurs. One trustee described industry best practice as performing a full disaster-recovery test about once a year and suggested the board capture that expectation in policy or in the administrative regulations.
District staff and IT representatives explained that many student and financial records are cloud-based and rely on vendor SLAs; some other digital files are stored in Google Drive where separate incremental backups are not configured. Trustees asked the policy committee and IT to propose AR language that differentiates student information systems (covered by vendor contracts) from district-maintained digital files and to recommend a validated-backup cadence.
Trustees also discussed workflow for producing historical paper records on request and noted the potential need for an off-site or otherwise protected copy of critical data. The board asked policy committee to coordinate with IT and insurance partners to draft language that provides appropriate protection without imposing undue burden on staff.
No final policy vote occurred; trustees requested a policy-committee follow-up and recommended administrative regulations outlining specific backup and validation processes.
