May 2, 2023 at 8:00 AM - Information Services Committee Meeting

Discussion:  Call to order at 8:00 AM.

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

Discussion:  About $1.6 million of GEER II funding is available for additional robotics item purchases. ESUCC, NDE and the Governor’s office agreed verbally on a scope of work, which was drafted into a contract. That contract has been signed and the purchasing process will open in May, 2023. The process will be to contact schools and ESUs who have unmet requests from the previous purchases in September, 2022, to confirm whether those items are still needed or the requests need to be adjusted. In addition, we have consulted with Nebraska VR/NDE and will be working with schools to determine needs for additional accessibility items to make the robotics items more accessible to students with special needs. After the requests are finalized, the orders for additional items will be placed in June, 2023 for fall delivery.

Discussion:  ESUs are continuing to implement Proofpoint Security Awareness Training with their schools. A review of data from the platform shows that 119 schools and ESUs with 14,145 users are registered as of May 1, 2023. Signup for Duo Security licensing opened March 1, 2023 via a Google sign up form and remains open because as of May 1, 2023, 1,380 licenses are 1,384 licenses are still available to receive the full subsidy. The pricing for those who have signed up so far is $2 per user per year from March 30, 2023 - March 29, 2024; $5 per user from March 30, 2024 - March 29, 2025; $8 per user from March 30, 2025 - March 29, 2026; and estimated at $11 per user from March 30, 2026 - March 29, 2027. We have submitted a proposal to continue the Software Innovation Network and Dorann Avey submitted a proposal for other Future Ready-related work, including support for the Canvas consortium. The current round of Innovation funds is July, 2022 through June, 2025, though proposed legislation on the use of lottery funds may change the time window and availability of the funds.

Discussion:  The Nebraska Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) state committee opened applications for sub-grants on March 1, 2023 and accepted them through April 30, 2023. The IIJA state committee will meet May 11, 2023 and will begin the process of scoring the proposals received. After that meeting we will have a better idea of the timeline for awards being made. The ESUCC on behalf of NOC submitted a proposal for $205,000 for a three-year project which will host the CSET security assessment tool and provide assistance to schools using the tool to conduct assessments, and additional support for Proofpoint implementation. If the project is funded, this additional assistance will be made available to all schools and ESUs in Nebraska. We are tracking the progress of LB638 (proposed by ESUCC), LB651 and LB635. It doesn’t appear that those measures will be enacted in this session, but may lead to study of the issues.

Discussion:  Nothing more to report.  

Discussion:  Digital Learning Director shared updates from his reports.  

Discussion:  Rhonda gave a brief report regarding OER, TLT Leadership, and the ESUCC website. She also explained how books are added to the library.

Discussion:  Matt Hasting NSWER

Discussion:  Meeting adjourned at 8:36 a.m.