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Florence 5 board hears PowerSchool vendor cybersecurity incident; district says local systems were not breached
Summary
District technology staff reported a vendor (PowerSchool) cybersecurity incident affecting vendor systems in late December; the board was told district systems were not accessed, vendor notifications and credit‑monitoring offers are being handled by PowerSchool, and more details are available on the vendor’s status page linked by the district.
At its January meeting, the Florence School District 5 Board was briefed on a cybersecurity incident involving the district’s student‑information vendor, PowerSchool. Mr. Kennedy (facilities/operations/technology presenter) told trustees the incident occurred on or around Dec. 19–24 and that district log reviews show activity on Dec. 22. "They did not get into anything here," Kennedy said, adding that the district’s local systems were not accessed.
Kennedy said PowerSchool has posted information on a vendor status page and that notifications to affected users — students and staff — will come from PowerSchool. He said the vendor has described steps such as credit‑monitoring offers for impacted accounts and that the district has linked the vendor page on its website for parents seeking details.
The board did not take action on the matter at the meeting. Trustees asked for continued updates and were told the investigation is ongoing with the vendor; the district emphasized that parents should rely on official PowerSchool notices and the district web page for instructions on next steps.
The district did not provide evidence in the meeting of personal data being exfiltrated from local Florence 5 systems; it said vendor logs and vendor‑led notifications are the primary sources for families. The administration said it will continue to monitor vendor communications and report additional findings to the board.
Next steps: the district will track vendor updates, relay official notifications to families through its website, and return to the board if the local investigation produces new findings.
