Executive Director’s View

Kevin Brown EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S VIEW

With a new wave of

cybercrimes being committed against schools, it’s more important than ever to be as vigilant as possible to protect sensitive student information,

financial resources and

student safety.

COMBAT DECISION FATIGUE ONE ITEM AT A TIME

As the reality of the pandemic continues to take a toll on our daily lives, we are faced with many new challenges. Superintendents and school leaders have “decision fatigue” as they are constantly rethinking every process in their schools. Things that were at one time routine are now controversial. How will we sell football tickets safely? Who gets to buy the limited number of them available? Will our board meeting be held in-person? What should our bus routes look like? How do we build a new master schedule every six weeks? Should we hire a company to disinfect the schools? How do we handle lunch schedules? What should pickup and drop-off look like? What’s the process for on-campus deliveries? How will we hold parent conferences? Who can install plexiglass in the office? Connectivity issues, anyone?

Some of the decisions that have to be considered involve cybersecurity, since so much of our work is now being done online. In this edition of INSIGHT, we will discuss the new realities facing the very real problem of cybersecurity. With a new wave of cybercrimes being committed against schools, it’s more important than ever to be as vigilant as possible to protect sensitive student information, financial resources and student safety. There have been concerns about hackers “Zoom bombing” remote classes or “kidnapping” important data and demanding a financial ransom for its safe return. One organization of cybercriminals is so well established, it even has a “help desk” staffed by a friendly person who will ensure safe payment of your ransom. This is indeed a big concern.

With so much activity occurring online to conduct our “new normal” school routines, there is more opportunity for concerns about cybersecurity. Yet, we know even the most secure sites can become hacking victims. Think of the Pentagon, retail stores, major banks and even political parties. How can schools protect themselves and their students while still making sure teachers have access to the information and technology they need to effectively teach our children? All of these uncertainties lead to even more decision fatigue.

One way to alleviate this fatigue is to check off decisions one at a time. My hope is that this issue provides some insights for you and possibly greater clarity, so that you can check this one item off your very long list.

Be well, my friends!

Kevin Brown TASA Executive Director

Here’s another practical and powerful idea I am “borrowing” from Shawn. He says that if you start each day by spending two minutes writing an email or text message of gratitude to a colleague, family member or friend, your social connection score moves to a level on par with the top percentage of people in the world. This is important as social connection not only provides feelings of happiness, but actually is as predictive of how long we will live as having a chronic disease.

Writing to one person per day in your network of support has this tremendous impact. I am going to commit to doing this. Starting today, I will write to someone important to me, and I hope that you will do the same. Together, we can improve our collective happiness, health and productivity. Share this idea with your family and friends. Share this idea with the students and the families with which you interact. Together, we can improve our level of success and happiness in the present and not wait on some future that may be over the horizon.

Brian T. Woods TASA President Superintendent, Northside ISD