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Committee pushes SchoolMint to provide tamper-proof lottery output, tighten duplicate controls
Summary
Committee members asked the vendor (SchoolMint) to produce an official, signed lottery output and build stronger duplicate-detection and address-verification tools to reduce gaming and improve transparency.
Staff reported a vendor meeting in which SchoolMint agreed to explore options for a locked output that could be generated and signed at the time a lottery runs: "Part of our our discussion with the company was to have an official lottery list. So when the lottery is run, a list would be automatically generated of that lottery right there." (Mister Piggott)
Committee members described repeated attempts by some parents to create multiple or slightly altered accounts to increase chances and asked for system-level checks and manual cleanup processes. Mister Draper urged a clear rule: "each child is allowed 1 chance in the lottery." (Mister Draper)
Staff described two duplicate-detection flags in the current system (definitive and fuzzy matches) and said Claudia and others perform manual merges when possible. The committee asked staff to continue pressing the vendor for a noneditable official record and for stronger automatic duplicate controls to reduce manual work and potential unfairness.
