Technology presenter outlines paging expansion, cybersecurity upgrades and recurring software costs

Julio, the district’s technology presenter, told the School Committee on the second budget workshop night that the technology budget is up modestly — “about $75,000” — primarily to cover ongoing costs tied to ongoing projects rather than one‑time capital purchases.

He said phase two of the phone/paging and emergency management project will add hallway speakers and full programming for zone paging and emergency alerts. “We have about 95% of the classroom speakers done already,” Julio said, and 60 hallway speakers are due to arrive at the end of April with programming planned in July so the district can “hit the ground running.” Matt Darien, the district electrician, was named as having led much of the in‑house installation work.

Julio emphasized that some items previously paid from capital are moving to recurring operating lines. He said the system requires per‑speaker Singlewire licenses and that the district expects roughly 280 speakers overall, with a recurring licensing cost of about $4,500 per year.

On cybersecurity, Julio described recent and prospective investments. The district has previously added endpoint/patching tools and encryption protections and is trialing Rapid7, a security information and event management (SIEM) product, to consolidate logging and flag unusual activity. “It pulls all of this data in, analyzes it for you and will say ‘hey, you may want to check this out,’” he said, explaining the operational value of a single monitoring pane.

Julio also described an AI‑driven email security pilot that began Jan. 13 and, he reported, has stopped 10,925 suspected phishing or spoofing emails as of early March. “Google will stop about 80%,” he said; the additional layer has reduced end‑user exposure further in the pilot.

Other smaller items include a $1,300 administrative tool to simplify Google Admin Chromebook management and a multiyear replacement schedule for interactive displays (Promethean panels) and teacher laptops. Julio said the district staggers student Chromebook purchases (incoming grades 1, 5 and 9) on a four‑year life cycle to smooth budgeting.

Committee members followed with questions about market price pressure on devices, whether the paging install could be completed in‑house and student involvement in testing; Julio and staff confirmed most work was done by district personnel and summer workers will assist with testing. The meeting record shows no formal vote on technology items; the committee will consider the full recommended budget at its next regular meeting.