Huntsville City School Board proposes bonus for staff amid ransomware attack
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — As Huntsville City Schools continue to navigate a ransomware attack that forced the school to go all-paper, the school board is considering a proposal to offer teachers and staff a supplemental pay package for their hard work.
“In the last two weeks you have really shown how amazing you are and for that, I truly appreciate you,” said Huntsville Schools District 1 Board Member, Michelle Watkins.
Earlier Wednesday, the District also came out with some positive news about the ransomware attack. “Those primary systems that do house student information, iNow and PowerSchool, do not appear to be compromised as part of the cybersecurity threat,” said Huntsville City Schools spokesperson Craig Williams
Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Christi Finley acknowledged the challenges created by the ransomware attack at Wednesday’s board meeting but noted one good thing to come out of the cyber hack. “Because of COVID, we’ve seen that that laptop has really prevented that conversation piece. And dialogue, and conversation between student to student, and teacher to student, was really kind of one thing that has become a positive out of all this,” said Finley.
Also on the agenda Wednesday evening, two proposed school year calendars; one would kick off the school year on Wednesday, August 4th and end on Wednesday, May 25th and a second proposed calendar would start school on Monday, August 2nd and end on Monday, May 23rd. Parents, students, and staff have until tomorrow, Thursday, December 10th to vote on their preference through a school calendar survey.