001Good morning everyone. It's 10:33. Uh I'm sorry we're a few minutes late, but I want to call um uh the meeting of the uh curriculum ad hoc committee to order. Um and um and then put it over to the hands of these >> IT department. >> Yeah. And uh >> All right. Way to go. >> All right. Thank you. So um good morning everyone. My name is Mike. Um, and this is Eugene and we both work in the board of education IT department. Um, I want to say thank you for taking the time to join us uh this morning. Opportunities like this are special for us um because we don't often get the chance to share what we do behind the scenes in that. So, um before we begin, I would like to thank Dr.
002Jones for her guidance and support with this presentation. and um he's not here, but I'd also like to recognize Jeff Beckley um our A8 science and K12 library uh media program coordinator for his contributions. Um so I won't share a personal perspective. Um I'm a parent of two children in public school. So, I understand what it's like to see your kids uh spending time on devices and wonder um what they might be doing online. So, not long ago, I caught my son playing video games on his school Chromebook. Um so, I asked him, "How are you doing this?" Um and he replied, "I'll show you, daddy. Um but only if you promise not to tell my teacher." [laughter] He did show. Um so that moment reminded me of something that we all know. Um kids
003can be incredibly resourceful when it comes to technology and access uh to the things that they lack. So um before we dive in, I'd like to start this meeting with a question. Um and this question is designed to get you thinking about the scope of cyber security theory here in the schools. So my question is in the last 30 days, how many cyber security events do you think have occurred that were a threat to our school district's computer networks in the last 30 days? >> Are you asking board or are you asking the >> anyone in this room? >> Every day. How many how many a day? Unless you're around. Well, in the last 30 days, >> I pulled a report this morning, so I have [laughter] >> I'm going to go with I'll throw
004out a number. I'll go with >> Yes, I'll go with between 600 and a,000. >> Ah, okay. Well, that's that's high. >> Said 10,000, so I thought maybe she had some inside information. >> Okay. So, there were actually 323 events. >> 323. Yeah, 84 of those were actual alarms and an alarm turns into an investigation ticket um that actually gets treated by the team and this is pretty typical um for most school district during the school year. So um in a few moments Eugene um will walk you through Greenwich Public Schools layered approach to cyber security. Um, we're going to talk about how we block harmful content, how we identify early warning signs when a student may be in distress, um, and how parents can use technology at home to help keep their children safe
005online. So, our goal is for you to leave today feeling informed and supported. Um, we appreciate everything you do as active members of our school community um and partners in keeping our students safe. So, we're covering a lot of material this morning, but don't worry. Um, the presentation will be shared online afterwards, so you'll be able to revisit any of the information um when you need. So, thank you and uh let's get started. Mr. Eugene, you are up, sir. >> Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Dr. Jones. Thank you everybody for uh joining. My name is Eugene. I'm doing service consulting for the board of uh townfall and private companies as well. So to reiterate why we're doing this presentation, we want to protect the students our schools. We want to catch issues early and we
006want to work with the parents to uh make our approach clear and also to make sure that the parents are aware of our policies and we can improve them based on the full time. Now our approach is layered. So there are safe systems in play to protect uh student accessing network and working on our school provided devices as well as their school provided accounts. We have three main tools that I will be discussing today. The first one is IBOS which is a network filter that is used here. This protects everyone on the network inside our schools. So that includes your iPhone here on the guest Wi-Fi any device at the school regardless whether it's elementary school, middle school or the high school. The second layer is security which is a solution we install on student
007devices that includes uh K iPads and Chromebooks. So that's elementary and middle schools. And that protects students both at school and home. It is based on device. And the third layer is a monitoring solution which we use Gaggle and that is used to keep track of uh student account activity what students send via uh their Google accounts via their Gmails. So do you restrainate a little bit because that applies to different types of devices different grades of students in school if a kid brings in a Chromebook that's a middle school Chromebook they will get protected by your three layers I boss which protects the Wi-Fi security that's installed on the Chromebook and that's the G which monitors their account at home I boss does not work because case on our network here. Security will still
008work behind the screen. It's a personal device. We only apply eyeballs when this personal device is on the network here, including on the guest network. So, if the kid brings phone to the school and phones on the guest Wi-Fi, they would still get websites for lock, but they do not get protection at home and we do not look at their accounts. Let's start uh with a bit of discussion for um our internal protection. I boss >> let's ask questions or >> um I go over the presentation maybe >> yes and then we can questions hard stop today. >> Yeah. Okay, I'll write it down. >> Yeah, >> sorry. >> Always. >> And if you know something comes up later, we will work with Dr. Jones to make sure any questions that come up, you know,
009remotely via email will be reviewed and answered. Right. >> Thank you. Pardon the intrusion. >> So, what I do, we work with our internet provider. That's the company that uh provides the internet access for the district called Canadian network. um they work with this solution called DIOS. It covers everything that goes on the network inside the schools that the wired computers those Macinis in every classroom the devices on the Wi-Fi that's the teacher laptops the Chromebooks iPads as well as devices brought in that are on the guest Wi-Fi so 100% of the traffic from our buildings is protected all the schools have connections to the internet through our internet provider for redundancy. If one of the links is broken then internet will go through the second one and both links are protected. So now how
010the filtering works how the websites can be blocked or not blocked. We use category filtering because there are millions of websites on the internet. Nobody will be able to go through every single website and make a decision on this website harmful or not harmful use such companies as I boss and security. They have specialists as well as automated tools to categorize the websites. Then what the district does the district decides we want to allow one category for another category the website falls under the category then it will get uh either blocked or unblocked based on category. So for example, if we say allow social media, that will mean that Facebook group is not blocked, Instagram is not blocked, any site that falls under social media is unblocked. Now the district also has the capability there
011internally to make exceptions. We can say we want to allow social media but we want to block one particular website let's say twitter.comx.com so that website will be blocked but the rest of category would be unblocked. So that allows to be both u comprehensive to cover most of the websites because of the category which are categorized by the company who specialize in this and also granular. We can target specific websites if we think that one particular website is more helpful than another. What are the actual categories we block in the lab? that is just based on the appropriate content to something related to alcohol, drugs, gambling, uh piracy, hacking, those things are all blocked and educational [clears throat] content content for the productivity those things are not blocked. Now this is the list for the
012IBOS which will apply to apply to every device on the internal network. Later in the presentation, we also have a set of list for security which is tougher. It is more comprehensive because security applies to KA. Right? So what that means is that the high school will get less field than than middle school. That's an example what typically happens if you go to the block site on our network. We have a branding. It shows that the site was blocked identifies that we did it Cage public schools and also provides the reason. It's important for uh IT department as well as for um educators. So we know what happened and then we can troubleshoot if something goes wrong. the website is blogged but should not be blogged or if the website is allowed but shouldn't be
013allowed. We generally can uh make that decision. Next let's talk a bit about uh device based filter security. So security follows device home not only home but anywhere you go. So if the kid takes um iPad or elementary school Chromebook to a different country traveling Wi-Fi Starbucks doesn't matter security will still work works everywhere we use it because it is thought that the K8 devices need more comprehensive protection on high school devices. It is installed on the school provided devices for the P grades, elementary kids, the middle school kids. Does not apply to the personal devices to the devices that the school provides. It also has a category based filtering. Works the similar way as the IBOS. Securely categorizes websites. We pick which category will block, which category we allow. Security blocking is tougher than
014the I boss blocking. For example, block social media. And both will apply when the kid is at school. So kid brings Chromebook to school securely works on Chromebook and I [clears throat] boss works on network. One of them allows but the second one does not allow the cycle. That means that the K8 is protected tougher than the high school or the personal devices on the guest. The review what applies to what you have full coverage everything here at home KA gets protected by security at home high school device only mandatory for the school account there's no security on the high school device personal device only gets our protection when it is on school Wi-Fi. So if you bring your phone to the school but it's not connected to Wi-Fi phone's not protected it just access
015the internet that getting from the your cell phone with the high school devices um decision was made some time ago to not install security on them that is not a technical decision that's critical decision if there's an interest on the part of the superintendent or the board to review that it is definitely possible to secure everywhere. It's thought that high school students they have classes which involve subjects such as history and they also prepare for college and that they need to practice their judging. I will talk a bit about uh monitoring solution. The goggle gaggle is used to monitor uh activity on student emails which is one student emails another student looks at those messages that works based on the account not on the device. So if I sign in your student account on my
016personal device, I send an email, the guy will look at it. What it does reads all those messages, flags the messages that may contain self harm or uh inappropriate content in them and it notifies the personnel inside the display. When we talk about notifications, it will be based on how serious the situation is. So PSS possible student situation the term is a red alert that means that we think goggle things somebody can get hurt. If the message talks about violence, the goal will not send messages or emails. They will start calling people inside. the principles, head of security, uh our resource officers, they will get phone calls from gang. It will go on until somebody in the state answers the phone so we can investigate immediately. If there are threats of violence, it's also taken
017very seriously. uh yellow alert that you kind of questionable content that happens if one student shares with another let's say an appropriate image in a school email that will trigger an alert via email to the same personnel inside the system. So that will be reviewed appropriately and the action will be taken but they do not call in the middle of the night for those kind of things. Who's the response list? I already uh mentioned that it is our security leadership here, Mr. Grant Deves, resource officers from the schools, principles as well as it ties does not change for red or orange alerts. But uh the way our alerts are sent is different. Red alert again it's phone calls. Yellow alert those are the emails. Um let's talk a little bit more about other uh cyber
018security tools that we have. We use Google for student accounts. We have uh spam fishing protection enabled for all the accounts. If the students get some uh spam specifically applies to uh high school students who work with external senders more applying for college or not those are getting blocked we also have through Google uh AI powered protection for all the accounts and what that means if let's say somebody in the dark web says that the password for Joan Smith at greenchools.org is password. If Google AI scans those software sites, it sees that the password for that account has leak. It will automatically disable the account and notify the it. So, we will need to accept the password before enabling the student account. It also applies to stuff accounts for the monitoring. We have comprehensive record
019keeping. So when the district needs to investigate the alerts from Google, the Google archives all the emails for kids and stuff and Google also archives all the information in uh Google accounts. That's the Gmail, Google Drive etc. Those records were not investigated. It is taken very seriously because we have both foyer requirement. So we need to provide information when requested as well. We also have uh family educational right privacy act requirements. So if somebody sends a for request and ask how uh what the grades of uh journeys are, you will not get the response because that's protected by fa. It's a private information of students. Um last part that Mike did mention is we also have another monitoring solution which is a C security information and event management and that's a solution that looks for
020all of the devices inside of the network for the actual cyber security events. So if somebody brings a malware infected laptop to school, we will get an alert and that will not go through uh the tools specific to the student protection. This will uh keep track of hackers trying to get inside the network, malware trying to spread, any activity such as this. So when Mike said that there's 300 alerts that applies to this, it does not cover uh spam emails being filtered. That's way more than 300 per month. >> Really? >> All right. And it does not cover a website being blocked, which is also way more than 300 per month. That we're talking about possible incidents with um the malware or u a hacking. When we notice that there's a cyber security problem, we
021have a capability to track the location of the device on the network. Right? So if we get an alert saying that somebody brought up an iPhone to a school and there's a malware on it, we can track down where it is located. We can remove from the network and we can send uh it to retrieve the device and uh remediate the tension. Now for the limitations. First the tools are not foolproof. Still requires a big role to play for uh educators for the parents. Their personal devices um which we do not protect. Tools are not 100% foolproof. for a tool such as goggle may be hard to understand what the student is trying to say in a message. It is not cannot have 100% reliability to notice that this message is questionable content and this
022one is not category filtering is not perfect. There could be websites that fall between the categories. There could be websites that are either brand new or categorized wrongly and they will get through the category based filtering. So there could be a gaming website that is not categorized as a gaming website by either security or iboss and it will slip through. Um >> I think might happen. Yes. >> Yes. We once had an incident where a student created uh his own website to play games. Obviously our uh vendors do not know that this website should be categorized as a gaming website. So that got through high school devices because they do not get security. It is uh not protected at home. So there is a responsibility to for the brand to work with kid to uh
023take bundles of those. They're also technical solutions how we can try and go around your uh blocking and the filtering. For example, um my family lives in uh the country of Russia and they as a country block Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and uh my parents discuss those blocks with me via Telegram and WhatsApp very often about how bad it is. So as you can see even the country in their entire multi-billion dollar resources is unable to uh block everything. So that's a limitation. We do try and block known services in avoid our filtering but it is not foolproof. So bit example how this can look in real life. If a student brings a laptop to the school and tries to open the website which is not school appropriate will block by the eye and the
024page of the blocking will be displayed. If a student sends an email with questionable content about his uh problems, it is flagged by the gangle. The school will get notification and investigate. The student goes with the Chromebook the house tries to use their KA Chromebook for the social [snorts] media or other inappropriate means the security will still work. block it on the phone Wi-Fi and if the student sends a message from school account talking about what we harm something like this then the government will start calling uh people inside this. So what the parents can do one is talk to your kid and they will need to uh use internet in their life quite a bit and they're going to need dangerous content. It is better if they have an understanding of uh how to
025look for that. K devices um have a higher degree of protection the high school. So that's something to keep in mind. And uh always as I said previously the protection is not the foolproof. So if something goes wrong it will uh which has what 8,500 students right. So even if protection was 99% effective that's going to be 19 incidents for 8500 uh kids. So we cannot avoid every single issue but we will work with you today. How that will work? Um reach out to the school because school has educators have good understanding of what is school appropriate what is not school appropriate the better than it does. It does the technical part. Work with your school. school will figure it out whether there need to be increasing blocking or decreasing blocking whether site should be
026uh recategorized. It will improve technical changes and provide updates back to the school and to the parent. Some resources that you can use at home. Smart social and common sense media are websites commonly used so you can figure out which content is appropriate for the age of your kid. And uh homebased Wi-Fi DNS filtering is something that you can configure on your router. So every device on your home network will get a degree of protection. Why I advise doing something like this instead of device based? This will cover both, let's say, high school conduit that the kid brings home as well as their iPhone or your home Wi-Fi and uh all the devices that we have. I I don't want to go into great detail or talk about specific companies for uh production that you
027can do by yourself but if there's a desire u we can probably test something and put on the website uh the list of services that you can use to protect your device or there's an interest in that there are great many services questions that came before the presentation is person are we doing anything about a personal accounts? No, we do not. We do not have access to any other personal accounts. Does the monitoring follow the personal device? Only if there's a school account. So, if you sign in to the school account on your personal laptop, then those messages will still be monitored by the goggle, those messages in school account will still be stored inside the book. And for the blocking and unblocking of the websites as I mentioned earlier spools will work with it
028to uh make exceptions if it's unnecessary for uh school and uh that's it. Thank you. I hope it was not overly long [laughter] to Mike and uh Eugene great job. um we tried to refine uh this presentation um into something uh more digestible than just slides full of technical jargon. Um so thank you very much for that Eugene. Um yeah, we just didn't want the audience to start zoning out if you start talking about things like DNFS. Okay, so that brings us to the end of our presentation. Um, as we wrap up, the main message we'd like to leave with you is that keeping students safe online is a shared responsibility. Um, Greenwich Public Schools has invested a lot to put strong safeguards in place. Um, from our network and device filters to our monitoring
029systems, but technology can only do so much. So, as students grow, especially in high school, um they need opportunities to develop the judgment and digital citizenship skills that will help make them safe and responsible choices on their own. Um so, we encourage you to take advantage of the free family resources Eugene shared today, including um smart social and common sense media, which can be great tools um to help guide those conversations at home. So once again, um, thank you very much for being here this morning, for your partnership, um, and for all that you do to support, uh, the students and our solute community. Um, we Eugene and I would now be happy to answer any questions you may have about the information you shared today. >> Thank you. Um, I think Veronica and I
030probably have some questions and, uh, if we have some time, um, we'd be happy to go out. Um, do you want to go first or you might steal my question? >> Son of a relationship. Thank you guys so much for that presentation. Um, I and not only that, all of the work you guys do behind the scenes that we often don't see to keep everyone safe. I do have a couple questions. I'm wondering where I want to start. Sorry. Um there was a slide earlier on, you don't have to go back to it, and it talked about um sort of when child said something that's alarming, who is alerted. And I saw at the elementary school, I think it said principles and then tech officers. In middle schools, it was assistant principles and principles. And
031at the high school, and I could be wrong on my exact, and I think at the high school, it said um housemaster, principal, assistant principal, housemaster, and tech. And I was wondering if you could tell me who has tech officers and their roles in the school also just more on the ground uh at the school level rather than district level like in middle school do they not have tech officers at the middle schools >> in terms of technology and the hierarchy? Yeah. >> Um so every school has a first level help desk person which we call an ITSD or IT support technician. >> Okay. Um and if they run into issues that they need to escalate, they would escalate to level two resources here in central office. >> So [snorts] then it comes here. Exactly.
032>> And then you guys go um Okay. So every school has a and they would receive an alert. >> No, the ITS does not receive the alert. The principal >> the principles receive and they might ask the first the ITSD for help. >> You please feel free to >> go. So um in this particular case when it says tech offices it actually means my computer. So they cannot get through this is going to call it at central office. >> Okay. >> So that then says that >> that's what it >> if I just add to like with with gaggle I'll give you an example. It's not just email. It's also like the documents. So, if we have a high schooler sitting at the library on Saturday and they're thinking about harming themselves and they start
033a suicide note, it they will they will call us immediately whether it's 12:00 or whether it's 10:00 at night. And we want our administrators because they probably know things about the students that Mike wouldn't have any idea. And it could be a student who's on a safety plan, you know, and we know that there's some pretty scary stuff. we want to call the parent immediately whether it's midnight or 6:00 in the morning. So, it's that level of monitoring and the high school has the longest list of of call but because you have five houses and layers of people. Yeah. >> Great. >> Um do you want to jump in or do you want me to ask him question? >> Um >> no, no, no. I got No, no, it's okay. My other qu I have
034another one if you don't mind me asking. The gaggle that monitors I'm going to go with Google. I'm not your most technology savvy person, so I apologize if um >> if it >> if I'm stumbling a little bit with words. Um >> does that monitor staff and faculty accounts also? Um I guess for I don't know if I want to say for safety, but I guess really for safety. >> So this goggle does monitor uh every account >> every account from like so has like grant at school. >> I do not have it in my head. If a staff member was writing something concerning what the staff pulling, what the gole does uh record the staff email. >> Yeah. So how it works is every single email that goes in and out of the district
035a copy of that goes to Gekko. Every email whether it's due >> is a person on the other side. >> Yeah. The entire team is a huge >> Yeah. It's a big company >> and not all districts have this. It's it's an extra layer. Um, >> so I just want to recognize that thank you and I appreciate this. Um, and it's a great education and on a on a rear view looking at what we're what we're doing already. And so, um, I have some, uh, thoughts related about what we maybe maybe what some people feel we should be doing or what we could be doing. And one of the ways I like to frame it is, you know, if you had unlimited resources, um, are there things that you that you would do? what would
036keep what keeps you up at night that you know >> okay so um I do want to mention that there are things that we ask for in technology um and we put it into the operating budget uh for the next fiscal year and often um it gets cut out um for financial reasons um but one of the things I can think of right off the top of my head is what Eugene alluded to in his presentation um which [clears throat] is the fact that securely is not installed on high school Chromebooks. Um, and the reason for that is a couple of years ago there was a request um to fund the licensing for these additional 2 to 3,000 devices. Um, but that request was ultimately denied. I would bring that back immediately if we had
037additional funding. I would like to get securely on high school devices so that they are protected. >> Okay. What securely what securely does >> securely is software that's installed on a device that monitors that device um and blocks questionable content if that device tries to access pornography, guns, drugs. >> So that basically what protects the device as a whole because at the moment we didn't do that with high school devices. Absolutely not present violence at home. So they at school but not >> has there been any thought given to a media there forgive me if I missed it to an internet in K through8 instead of an internet I understand why an inter internetbased wouldn't really may not work in a in a high school model because there's there's so much more research and detail
038they have to go through but the K through and it's not a but K through you know uh at least the the the elementary schools. Um it seems everything that we would want the kids to be engaged with, we know what it is. So an intranet um is that is there limitations that that would stop that from K from the earliest grades? What's that? >> Yeah. Is that even state testing? like we have a lot of requirements from the state that that's kind of an old way of thinking when if you if you go back even 15 years ago that's kind of where elementary started but that's when a lot of our testing requirements and things at the state level were booklets you used to have all these like you know booklets for your whole
039building when you're doing assessments and almost everything at the state level has moved online now >> and Tony I would add to that that um just about every uh individual toolbox is cloud-based. Um, so that would mean like you would need access to the internet to run these apps, but in an intranet focus could open up, you know, specific uh IP addresses, you know, so we know exactly where the state, >> Right. a weight list that starts from an internet instead of the a white list that starts from an internet. Um this way there's cuz cuz we know exactly where we've got to go. We've got to go to the state. We've got to go here. And it doesn't seem like it would be that number to to believe that the district tried for at
040least uh some of the devices through security back way way back. We're talking about something like 2017 2018 and maintaining the white list was uh an effort that IT department with the number of people they had they do that. >> Do you remember if that was through high school or >> I'm pretty sure it was in here and the white list. So how you can do the white list right? Right now you saw the categories this securely right. So instead you can say block everything and I'm going to add websites one at a time that are appropriate right but that list needs to be maintained and that list is going to be many hundreds and they're going to change very often because let's say this year this is a website that used to teach mathematics
041the next year that company raised the prices forced to switch. So there were uh extreme number of changes to that list, extreme number of requests to unblock this and that right. So then also you know if the kids are and Dr. Jones can probably talk more about that. Um they still need to get information for their homework from that public websites and whatnot. So the teachers will come in they say this is an appropriate website where uh they post appropriate information kids need to look at it. So they have the critical thinking and you know practive homework that will be requested by Angela. My team will be to review it as well as the curriculum. All right. Let's say it's a middle school kid who needs to do a homework. The teacher says well they
042should visit some websites to do a research for the homework but it is blocked. Right. Then somebody needs to decide whether this request should be allowed or should not be allowed. It was just um too much. Right. >> Yeah. This is just my memory. I'm not saying decision should be made by it either way. Right. This is more of a um educational curriculum decision. Yeah. What to do. I'm just uh talking about my memory of college. >> And I do want to jump in and add one thing which is um we have invested uh significant resources into maintaining um dynamic block lists. Um, so we have the very best uh network filtering appliances and what that comes with is licensing to maintain an upto-date list on what to block. If we went to a white
043list based approach, we would lose that. >> Um, okay. I still I think you've thought about it and I and and and I appreciate that. So I think my question to answer I guess as I heard um the response I started backing up further well okay this knew it couldn't happen in high school because of research and so it sounds it can't happen in middle school you know so it really becomes a K through six question but again I think you've you've answered the potential limitations but you've given us enough information to bring back to our colleagues and have uh have that discussion so they're going to have those those questions. I I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask it anyway for the public. But it's frustrating that we
044cannot uh block, you know, there's not something out there. So my question is, is there something out there that can block all VPNs and proxies? And the answer is no. But the the the public should know that. And I guess how hard are you trying and to keep up with technology to do that? >> Okay. So, I would say even if it weren't possible to block all proxies and VPN, there is still the mobile network you need to worry about. Um, anyone who brings in a cell phone with their own cellular plan, >> there's nothing we can do about it. >> Yeah. Like for example, right, this not Wi-Fi, if I wanted to access any resource, can do that, right? Then you can hotspot this and it with your laptop. >> Yeah. No, I don't
045need I bring I have a cellular card in this computer. >> Exactly. That bypass. >> Yeah. I can't I I I get stopped. >> Kids do that >> in here. >> All right. That's probably a dumb question. >> Yeah. No, they're >> go to the phone discussion. >> I bet it's all >> Can I ask a question? Um, out of the I'm going to go back to your numbers and I know that this is going to be rough and I'm probably putting you on the spot, but out of the 84 alarms that you mentioned in the last 30 days out of 323 cyber security threats, how many of those that approximately, you can give me a percentage and nobody's folding you to this number. I'm saying that publicly. How many of those were elementary school?
046How many of those were middle school? And how many of those were high school? I'm so sorry. I was so hoping you were gonna ask how many of them were high, medium, and low. I have that right here. >> I do want that too. Actually, give me the high, medium, and low um threats. But then I'm also interested in the age like how as as a board, as public, how concerned I think we're pretty concerned about the high school. >> I think we're pretty concerned about the high school. So maybe how concerned should we be at the middle and elementary age based on what you guys are seeing that we obviously don't see and then from there when we understand the risk we understand what to do about it. >> Okay. So >> and also
047the higher medium sorry. >> So what I'll do is um I will generate a report um through our monitoring system to answer those questions and get those numbers. Um, while I do have the high, medium, and low, it's in a visual graph and it doesn't actually have numbers on it. Um, but I can actually have it generate numbers for you. >> You could summarize it for me and where I do better with words [laughter] if you have anything. No. Okay. I just um I'm interested to know because I think that we there's obviously a different focus when we're talking about our K through five and then a different focus in our middle school and different focus high school. Um, if you wouldn't mind, I was going to ask you this later. Um, I would also
048love if you could share with us the cost of the what the cost is to put securely on high school devices. Um, and any thoughts on increased security that you would want to see. Um, and my other question and actually this is my original question. Do you have any sense of how many individual devices in my head I'd like to separate phones and laptops, iPads into two categories, but I understand you may not be able to do that brought into the high school and used at the high school for essentially academic purposes. Do you have any idea like how many >> that bring their own laptops? Oh, a lot of them do at high school. >> A lot of them do at high school. >> Yeah, we did have quite a few actually at middle
049school, but we stopped that. Um I think we're in year two. So middle school they're required school issued devices and it's one to one. Every student has their own device. >> Yeah. >> And in K so it's K through eight every it's one for one. Every student has their own device. >> And then in the high school they have a choice for a school issue device or bring their own. >> They they all get a school issue. >> It's one and again they need it for their so we're one to one K through 12. Okay. >> Because we can't control their device. They have to be for certain things like FAT. They're on our device. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> I can give you round numbers. >> Round numbers. >> Yeah. For the >>
0502,500ish students at the high school. >> 2,500 at the high school. Yeah. >> We can often see upwards of 10,000 devices connected the Wi-Fi. And that would include their their Chromebook, their phone, >> iPads, anything they have, >> maybe a smartwatch. >> And that does not include faculty and staff or it does >> just students. So I so around 2500 Greenwich High School students y >> in any given day you will see 10,000 devices connected to us. >> So 5 years ago that would have been an average of about three devices per student. Um now it's about four per. >> So the if you do the math that's about four devices per student. >> Three non schoolisssued devices per student. >> Right. Three nonissued uh school devices per Okay. Thank you. That's a that's a
051crazy number. >> Yeah. >> I feel so personal because laptop non school I just want to write I just got to like process all that for a minute. Sorry. >> What categories of of of content generate most alerts? What are the >> Oh, that's a good question. I guess. >> Okay. I don't think I guess that's pornography. What do you think? >> Um said pornography. >> Right. So that means that's a >> po for the blocking. >> That was a guess by the way. Sorry. I should be for He said probably he was negative. >> We do not on a regular basis tracking what exactly been blocked. My guess would be that the biggest um I would say for security the biggest blocking would be uh social media and probably not even because of uh
052this trying to get to social media but what because so many websites have social media buttons embedded in them. So if it's a legal website but it has Facebook ads on it or a button for Twitter or whatever that is probably will get blocked when the entire website is being loaded it's going to load social media parts and that will trigger but >> I'm going to ask when we interface with security with Brent Reeves what is the issue that we're dealing with >> [snorts] >> It's usually inappropriate images. >> Oh yeah, you did >> inappropriate images. >> Sorry, I was thinking about like where we're talking about the blocking or we're talking about the goggle alerts. >> No one stopped you. It was very good information to have. So, thank you. I think we got
053two different questions uh answered and three in that you know you're stopping social media at so many different levels but you're only stopping it on the school issued devices. >> Right. So that's the the fact that that is among the top um and I I get it what you're saying is is um you know take it you know taking the whole picture that these could be just websites that are automatically trying trying to pin. Yeah. And so that that um inflates the number. An example, some time ago, one of the schools got a grant for um the virtual reality training something to use that education >> and uh Oculus is a part of the Facebook. So obviously Oculus uh needs to talk to the Facebook mothership to work. >> Yeah. >> And Facebook is social
054media and they have issues. >> Can I go back to the there was there was no security in the high school but on a on a particular thing, right? What was that? Um, no security at high school is a very strong statement. Um, >> right. So, I wanted to thank you. I wrote it down as a quick note because I had a question and [laughter] I know that can't be what I >> at the high school there is a security for the school network for school Wi-Fi devices that go home that internet is not built. >> Okay. So, in the middle schools when those school devices go home >> they're still filtered. They're still filtered and >> and that's the security aspect that we discussed earlier about maybe bring them back to the high school.
055Okay. >> Administrator toggle that on or toggle that. >> Okay. >> And is there an in between? Is there a way to throttle that at at the home level or um >> high school >> for the high school? I mean, to be honest with you, the question is a moot point. The kids have four devices for every school uh issued device and then when they get home, they've got four more. They've got eight. So, it's it's a moot point. [clears throat] Yes. So, let let me answer separately. So, the first part is yes, if a kid has a phone, then you know the phone is filtered as much as the parents working on it, right? So if it's if it's not then the kid has a phone they can do it for uh the high
056school devices to have district provided high school devices to get them filtered at home. IT department will need to install the security on them. After we do that we can say we want to filter them this much or that much. We can filter them less than those devices but still filter them at home. >> Okay. We only have five minutes left. I I know we're not going to be able to get to everyone's question. Uh I think we should I'd like that be able to ask for whoever's questions we don't Is that okay if I ask for whoever we don't get to or if you have multiple questions uh send us an email start put in the subject line so that we can sort by today's meeting. Um but it was actually the the the
057young lady in the back row that had her hand up before you. I apologize. But >> oh, um, I was just wondering whether you could use the eyeballs that blocks the content that's allowed on the Wi-Fi. Um, why is that not being used to block social media for the high school level? Whose decision? I mean, competitive powers make that decision if they can block social media via the Wi-Fi instead of the device at high school. >> Okay. So, yes. So, I bloss does not block social media content. So that's the program itself >> that is uh going critical question it it's not the tech I do want to take one step back and mention that um I did put together a matrix of dependent before this uh meeting and I did uh write down that
058for social media it is actually blocked at elementary middle and high school >> I I I also think I I keep going back to this it's just boggling my mind I think part of the answer every time I come up with a question, I'm reminded that they have three of their own devices at least at least one of those is cellular in nature and it doesn't matter if it's hooked up to >> so so the question might be is why are we allowing personal devices at Greenwich High School if >> we can't have any control over that conversation day that's a different conversation that's actually going on And um >> but the thing but the thing is is we are going on with it. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry about about one of the three devices
059that seem to be an issue. That's something that we've heard a lot about, I think, is that okay, there's the cell phone issue. We keep going back to like separating or together. There's a cell phone issue, then the kids continue to have access on their devices to just go text messages, keep it basic, right? Then they can still message there and things like that. So the question >> I don't know >> I have an answer for that but you I I think I do and I think it's it's a question we've been having in the other meeting and and it's a good answer for it. Yes. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. So parent of three elementary school children. I just wanted to confirm what I heard before. My anxiety goes through the roof. So, children
060in elementary school, ages 5 to 12, currently have access to the internet and only a few select websites are being scrubbed. But then there's millions of other websites that they still have access to. Uh, and obviously they're too young to discern what's a an appropriate website, what is not a dangerous website. Is that true? Is that am I hearing that correctly? >> So, it is blocked based on the category that is maintained by the company. So the company >> there's millions of websites that they're not >> well there's millions of websites in their categories. [clears throat] >> That's their job. That's what they do. >> So they're an entire home base. I do I do want I do want I do want to >> say elementary school devices are the most highly restricted devices and
061I'll give you an example. Um elementary >> YouTube sorry there was YouTube at elementary school last year. So to me that's again >> right now YouTube at the elementary school is bomb. Yeah, right. But they would be there similar or not. >> Oh, the example I wanted to give was um access to email. So, elementary school, middle school, and high school kids all have access to email. At the elementary school level, email is highly restricted. So, elementary students can only email other elementary students. Um they cannot email or send or receive email to anyone outside. Um and only staff can email elementary students >> and there's no and there the they have no other they don't have cell phones in elementary school we should people that are watching online there is a bell devel and
062so the only thing that they have are school issued devices with significantly robust blocking not just blocking done at the at the district level but companies that that that are so large that they're almost everything's blocked until they get an opportunity to to to look at it. I mean, that's all they they do. I'm familiar with some of them. >> Yeah. I'll tell you. >> Yeah. So, my daughter's entering kindergarten next year, so I'm new to all the discussions. I'm still very cuz minds we're talking about K through five. So, we're talking about babies here and we're and we're just we're we're issuing babies. ratio. Um, and we've said time and time again in this presentation how we can only do so much. Is there any al opt out method, any alternative that we're thinking
063of? We're so hyperfocused on on teaching our kids through these devices. Are we entertaining any other ways to to teach our children versus just just throwing these these laptops, Chromebooks, whatever it may be? >> I think that I don't know if you have a chance to watch the last presentation that the curriculum team did. I would encourage you to go watch that because generally when you're out like in K5, they are not on devices all day. And I just want to reassure we were in a good conversation this morning even just talking um about a question that I got yesterday from a board member um about being more restrictive like with kindergarteners and and what we're doing right now is a lot of homework. We have more we need to have more discussions with our
064teachers because it's a real fine balance in K5. Again, all of our state testing 3, four, and five, it we're required to to have that. It would be cruel to to take a child in third grade and have them sit down for these incredibly difficult assessments and they've never been on a computer. And it's a real fine balance. And so, we're trying to make sure that instructionally when you when you look at what we do in elementary and it's all 11 schools, you know, foundations, you have Heerty, those are all manipulative. there you it's kids engaging with their teacher, kids engaging with other children. You know, I it resonated the other day. I was out at middle school and I think I I had emailed Sophie actually, another board member sitting in the back. Um
065just it really resonated that like in middle school for instance, I didn't see one phone. We are off and away all day at K8 and and they really recommitted to it. We've done it for several years, but I'd say the last two years have been really strict. And if a student gets their brings their phone out, they confiscate it. Parents have to come pick it up. Um, and you don't see phones out in K8 anymore. And we're looking now just at how we're using devices and and again trying to make sure it's very very balanced. We have to do some assessments that give us great information so we can make sure that your children are learning to read. And technology has helped us as educators to be able to drill down into data in ways
066that we couldn't do when we didn't have technology at all. But they shouldn't be on a device all day in a third grade classroom and having everything online. And we've actually I think with having the same consistent resources and tools across all of our elementary schools has made all the difference in the world. Um this is my seventh year in Greenwich. My first year I had one building. Almost everything they did on math was all built online. Phenomenal results, but they have now migrated to look just like our other 10 schools. And it's wonderful when you go look at building thinking classrooms. I know some of you that have been out in the buildings, the kids are around whiteboards and they're problem solving together. There's no technology. Um, and that really is our our goal.
067Um, so we're doing that and we're doing that work right now. And you know we're watching obviously nationally what all the concerns across the country. It's not just here and we want to be leaders in this field. We don't want to you know be following everybody else. And I think that's why uh on next Thursday like we're having the cell phone discussion for high school. That's a big discussion. Brent and two years ago it was it you know we made one decision and now they're just going to review that again next Thursday to see if that's where the district's going to stay. And if I can just add to answer his question too, I think that as a as a board, and I know Dr. Jones does this all the time, it's really important. You
068know, we're thinking about all the kids in the district. We're actually thinking K through 12. So, a lot of the work that we do, and it's one of the reasons we asked to delineate a little bit, you know, some of the issues you talk about in elementary school, how it's going to be different from middle school, how it might be different from high school. There's a lot of kids at high in high school. It is one building. Uh there's different, you know, concerns and that's something that we're also working on. U on looking at it. >> Dr. Jones, was your heart stopped at 11:30 or 12? >> That was your heart stop. [clears throat] >> We have time for one more question. Yeah, I think so. >> Yeah. Thanks. Uh my name is my my
069daughter, so I'm sharing your news, but don't want to reveal the discussion. Um let's say that they get the u uh devices which I totally disagree with that they need to have the devices. Um just want to say that um I'm more concerned about privacy especially with GG. Um so do [clears throat] the um parents have access to the data privacy policies that GG is implementing? Who has access to all every single stroke that GG is collecting? on our kids and how do we handle that? Are they teaching their own AI on the behavior of my child? So um I I want to discuss this topic that what does go collect where is data store and do they have access to this? So the district has access to the data that go has gang have
070privacy policy they listed I believe on the toolkit right so there uite for the digital toolkit it shows all the privacy um settings for all of the vendors that are allowed to be used by the university including um also Dr. Jones has a policy here to investigate uh the incidents and how they actually if flags the concern it's not that random people inside the board of can just go into G and look at what the students are telling each other. So there's also internal policy on that and Mago does have uh they do have third party cyber security assessment so report for them. >> Yes, they received an F on the >> second. >> So they fill out the assessment last year from the uh foundation that they said gag got an F on something
071which >> this is a team area. Okay. >> [laughter] >> So sorry. >> So there is there is a priv privacy foundation in the US that reviews all of these vendors and see >> no that's not what I'm saying. Sorry. Fine. Fine. >> We've got that it go it's someone else. Thank you for bring that to our test. >> Yes. So there's a spreadsheet on the website of the district which lists all the tools on use and has the links to their privacy policies whether they sign um state agreement about student privacy. Connecticut has the law on that and it has the links to that. You can search your website and find it there. So that's for the privacy not only go but every tool that the district uses. All right. Um we did cyber
072security evaluation of GAL and they provided a report. They contracted uh reputable third party company to come in and analyze their systems and they were able to provide that report to me. I signed an NDA with them right as I'm a consultant as my company uh because of four requirements and I can say that it was in a pretty good shape. So that was for their cyber security the cyber security part. Um Jennifer Loud who's in charge of data here did privacy assessment for them. So they went through both cyber security assessment and the privacy assessment. >> Can parents have this um report. >> You will be able to go to both their website where they have the policy listed and also you have access to the digital uh toolbox. >> Can I I cannot
073have report on my own child. Can I just add too that Connecticut does have one of the best Connecticut data privacy laws. It is very restrictive in the state and we can't purchase um technology a platform that doesn't actually meet the state standard and they have to sign off on it. When we first went into CO it was a challenge actually because there were some big platforms that they you know they didn't want to sign off. The question that you're asking the team is researching right now. We we are some of our parents have asked is there any way that I can get a parent report? Um is there not a platform that will do that? And I think Mike you just did. I I think that right now >> yeah he's really into it
074right now. We're trying to find if there is something that would allow us to give you as parents more information about where they're going and what they're doing. It's trying to find a platform that actually works and does what we need it to do. I I think it's going back to the logic of the discussion that we allow everything that you know like rightly So we have a provider and then we have link to a chapter that we can Yeah. >> I do want to make one point there which is if you're using a school even a full work email uh you should have no expect I'm sorry we're about to not have an about me >> is she but anyway you know we're done. I want to thank Can you put that in an
075email because the other parents >> I I and also we stay >> and we can add that and then for the parents that have um that have kids going into into kindergarten you know myself uh Veronica Sophie we're elected to do this we're often elected because of our of our own experiences. So I've had two kids that have gone through kindergarten and I have someone who lives in my who lives in my house who's legally and religiously required to stay there. Um, so and he's a kindergarten teacher and um, so the very uh, you know, I'm dealing with it on a on a day-to-day basis and I can assure you that um, the the the use of the devices from what I can see as a parent and a husband of a of a kindergarten
076teacher is is limited. I mean, we're moving boxes into holes and that would be wrong, right? Holes into, you know, tubes into holes and and things like that. Um, don't have an anxiety attack going yet. I want to thank everyone. Veronica, thank you so much. I'm going to conclude this conclude this meeting. >> Um, and uh, and now we can be as informal as you want. >> Thanks, guys. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Ask me a person.