By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Carter County Board of Education began their regular monthly meeting for July (July 15) on a somber note, extending their sympathies to the Stafford family for their loss, and the county’s loss of one of its students.
Moving into other agenda items, the board received a report on an instructional program, Camp Carter. There were 78 students who participated from East Middle in the first week, and 62 students who participated during week two. During the Friday Museum portion of the camp over 100 parents and family members participated. Students took part in various learning projects at the camp, and projects included a student made replica of a one room schoolhouse.
The board also heard a report on the Summer Boost program which is aimed at generating parent involvement in student reading over the summer months. Carter County is one of 29 districts in the state chosen to participate in the program, which is a partnership between the Department of Education, the Summer Feeding Program, and the Children’s Reading Foundation. Summer Boost received over 1,000 books that they were able to give away at their congregate meal sites. Additionally, the Age of Learning donated 40,000 K3 books to the program.
The technology director reported to the board on what steps were being taken to protect the students and Carter County Schools through data security and internet safety. The process is ongoing and stays at the top of the technical department’s priority list due to threats being ever evolving and different individuals and groups being a threat to students’ and faculty’s personal identifiable information (PII). Social security numbers, addresses, logins, ID’s, and digital images are all part of PII.
There are numerous things Carter County is doing to protect this information from being compromised. One is a cloud-based internet filter, which filters content that reaches both adults and students. Another is managed accounts which allows for all of the accounts of both adults and students to be disabled, turned off, or time slotted. Managed devices fall into the same category as managed accounts, such as in the case of a student or adult bringing their own devices onto school property and that device being subject to filtering.
Adult and children single sign on is another way in which security is maintained. This is not 100 percent active, but it will be in the near future and will eliminate the need for multiple passwords for school applications such as infinite campus. A multi-level firewall, which includes four separate firewalls to protect information from a breach, is another means of protecting information. Another is multi-factor authentication, where the individual signs in then receives a text message verifying that login. This will affect all adult accounts if the individual is outside of the district. such as logging in from home or while at a restaurant.
Adult password reset is a feature that will help teachers who are working from home. Previously if someone noticed any suspicious activity on their accounts, they would be required to contact someone at the school to change their password. Currently in that scenario the teacher will be able to reset their password immediately and secure that account from a possible threat. There are also other safeguards in place and the Carter County School Board says they are actively working toward keeping a safe and secure learning and working environment for all students, faculty, and staff.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
