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Rocklin Unified highlights cybersecurity upgrades and student Chromebook‑repair program that saves the district money
Summary
Chief Technology Officer Ryan Johnson outlined infrastructure and cybersecurity investments — new cameras, upgraded firewalls, SIP trunking and battery backups — and students from Rockland High’s Riot program demonstrated a Chromebook repair hub that the students said repairs roughly 1,000 devices a year, saving about $100,000 annually.
Chief Technology Officer Ryan Johnson told the Rocklin Unified School District Board that the district is investing in infrastructure and cybersecurity to protect a complex network that supports teaching, nutrition, transportation and business services.
Johnson gave a data‑heavy snapshot of the district’s digital footprint: about 16,000 Chromebooks, roughly 1,600 iPads and more than 2,100 Windows devices across the K‑12 system; nearly 254 miles of internal network cabling; thousands of daily emails (he reported about 55,000 internal and 48,000 external messages each day, with roughly 10,000 identified as spam); and many daily attack attempts. He described upgrades made over the summer — installation of roughly 64 cameras, new next‑generation firewalls, redundant internet feeds to reduce outages, SIP trunking to improve 911 functionality and battery backup installations in front offices to sustain phones and connectivity for up to three hours during power failures.
"We get about 26 million emails in the course of a school year," Ryan Johnson said, emphasizing the cyber‑risk posed by large email volumes and the district’s training, phishing exercises and multi‑factor authentication requirements to reduce vulnerability.
The board also heard a student demonstration from the Rockland High School Riot program. Teacher Paul Warner introduced seniors who run a Chromebook‑repair hub that receives broken devices from across the district, performs quality control and returns fixed units to schools. Senior Grant ETO said the group tracks repairs and sprints through daily work cycles to meet demand. "Our main focus of the Riot group is the Chromebook repair hub that takes broken devices from all over the districts TK through 12, repairs them, QC checks them and then delivers them to their original owners," Grant said.
Warner and superintendent stock noted the financial benefit: students and staff estimated the program saves the district about $100,000 a year in avoided repair costs by repairing approximately 1,000 Chromebooks annually rather than sending them to outside vendors.
The presentation also noted student pathways and industry partnerships (HP and other partners) that provide internships and opportunities to visit industry sites, including planned trips and competitions.
What’s next: district staff said technology planning will continue to focus on refresh cycles, cloud migration where appropriate, ongoing cybersecurity assessments with federal and state partners, and continued support for student career‑pathway programs.
Representative quotes - Ryan Johnson (CTO): "We do a lot of training with our staff and awareness ... we require every single employee in the district to have multi‑factor authentication." - Grant ETO (student): "Our main focus of the Riot group is the Chromebook repair hub that takes broken devices from all over the districts TK through 12, repairs them, QC checks them and then delivers them to their original owners."
