November 15, 2022 at 11:00 AM - Information Services Committee Meeting

Discussion:  Call to order at 11:00.

Staff:  Kraig Lofquist, Deb Hericks, Priscilla Quintana, Scott Isaacson

Discussion:  The Technology Director gave an update on the GEER funds.  We are in the liquidation process of these funds.  Currently, we are awaiting a payment from NDE.  Robotics items have begun shipping and we have a few reports of them being received at schools in the last weeks. Back-ordered items will continue to be shipped through the early part of December. We are negotiating with the Governor’s staff regarding the use of GEER II funds for additional robotics purchases.

Discussion:  The Technology Director gave an update on the Future Ready Digital Learning Collaborative (FRDLC).  Proofpoint Security Awareness Training (PSAT) is a security awareness training and anti-phishing solution. An effectively statewide license has been purchased for Proofpoint for K-12 schools and ESUs. We are offering Proofpoint beginning this month to staff and students at ESUs and schools for participation.  Participants will receive the software at no cost during 2022-2023, at ? cost ($1.23 per staff member) during 2023-2024 and ? cost ($2.46 per staff member) during 2024-2025. Through negotiation and cost savings, we aim to keep the cost near that level in future years. Sign up will start for participants during September, 2022. The original configuration of this platform was not friendly to tiered, or delegated administration for districts. The PSAT team showed me their new multi-tiered administration features last week and are enabling this on our instances. This will improve ESUs ability to assist and delegate administrative control to districts as best fits their individual needs, which will improve the overall experience and adoption of the product.

Duo Security is a multi-factor authentication solution which emerged as the leader from an ESU 3 and NOC selection process. Similar to Proofpoint, a fund to subsidize the purchase of Duo security for ESUs and districts is available up to $300,000. A similar sustainability "ramp" and sign-up process is in progress. Final pricing and subsidy amounts will need to be determined based on the number of signups received.

Discussion:  The interlocal agreement for the Nebraska Cybersecurity Network has been reviewed by our legal team and is circulating for ESUs consideration. Rhonda and Andy Boell have created a web page for the network: https://www.esucc.org/nebraska-cybersecurity-network/ including a frequently-asked questions section populated with questions from NOC members and answers.

The Nebraska Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act cyber security grant committee continues to meet and define its work and processes. The web site https://slcg.nebraska.gov/ has been created to provide information and updates on the process. The committee will meet again on December 8, 2022 to work through more details of the application and review process for sub-grant funds. Generally, we expect to begin receiving project applications in January, 2023 and for likely a 2-3 month window.  First year funding could begin flowing to sub-grant recipients in the summer of 2023.

A lengthy discussion regarding the MOU for cybersecurity.  

Discussion:  Nothing new to report.  

Discussion:  SRS The 504 features were released on November 1st, 2022. The ESPD affiliate met to discuss the new system and develop a presentation deck. Rita McKinney and Trevor Paschall have held 3 Zoom training sessions on the new features. There will be some changes to make to the 504 system as more people use it and find things which can make it work better and easier. It has been a positive experience for users so far. Our contractor X-Eqt continues work on the updated code and database for SRS.  This work will be ongoing throughout this school year and will be released next summer. We made updates to SRS’s ADVISER reporting system this year. Many of the errors our users experienced are related to the way records were generated last year and we should not see these same problems in the future. We will continue to update and improve this part of the system to reduce errors and the amount of manual entries that districts make. The ESPD affiliate had feedback for us about helpdesk procedures and we will continue to make adjustments to improve our customer experience.

NVIS The new NVIS site is next on our team’s list now that SRS ADVISER reporting and the 504 feature release are complete.

Discussion:  The Digital Learning Coordinator gave updates for his work.  Discussion on the Social Studies work will continue through the contract with NDE on the reallocation of funds.  

Discussion:  Updates from Rhonda Eis on OER, the PD Library, and the ESUCC website.  TLT will be doing a Copyright Training with Renee Hobbs the next two days.  

Discussion:  The meeting adjourned at 11:58 AM.