JEFCOED Update - April 11, 2023

JEFCOED Family, 

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend and are settling back into the school week.  Education still looks different around our district, but we are making tremendous strides daily!  I will highlight a few of those as we continue to recover and rebuild from the ransomware attack.

• There is a functional wireless network in all schools.  Right now, those networks are being used only for state testing.  However, we are hopeful that we will be able to transition those networks to classroom instruction soon.

• Over half of our schools now have all phones restored.  The other schools have at least some phones that are functional.  As I stated last week, you may now call the school directly.   

• We are now very confident that no personally identifiable information was breached.  However, we are still contracting with an outside agency for monitoring.  

• Employees are going to be paid on time.  This was never in question, but rumors unfortunately spread quickly.  So to be clear, we have access to the necessary technology for employees to be paid.  Payroll will be sent out as normal.

This morning we held our board committee meeting, during which our technology director provided an update to our board members.  One particular statement she made hit home with me: “We are working as fast as we can and as slow as we must to bring all of the systems back up. “  I assure you, no one wants us back to normal more than the people working countless hours to fix this issue.  However, we first must make sure our data, systems, and machines are appropriately scanned and designated as clean or safe.  As we have said from the beginning, this is a process.  

Thanks for your continued patience.  I’ll continue to update you as developments warrant.

Sincerely, 

Dr. Walter B. Gonsoulin

Superintendent