Ocean Beach School District's technology levy provides up-to-date laptops for students.

My name is Dan Kleffner and I’m the technology director at the Ocean Beach School District. I’ve been tech director for over two years and with the OBSD Tech Department for well over five years now. Before coming here, I was at the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District. They had just passed a tech levy themselves when I was hired on, so I know how essential funding from those can be and the difference they can make in the day to day operations, staffing, and availability and quality of equipment. I also have three children currently at Ocean Park Elementary, so I not only have a professional interest in the district, but a personal one as well.

The Tech Levy pays for a great many things around the Ocean Beach School District. This includes our network infrastructure, such as switches, the firewall and web filter, wireless access points, and the internet connection that allows students and staff to get online. It also covers the telephone system and various classroom technology, such as the computing devices, projectors, and document cameras that allow learning to take place in our buildings. The levy helps maintain the security cameras and access control systems, as well as covers the maintenance and support contracts for many of our devices and equipment. It ensures every student gets a Chromebook and stays safe online, provides staff with devices to teach their classes and educate our children, and keeps the various technology infrastructure, software, and subscriptions running behind the scenes. Most importantly, it gets us the tech staff to manage, support, and maintain all of these things, as well as continue providing the level of support that has come to be expected from the OBSD Tech Department. All the fancy technology in the world doesn’t amount to much when there aren’t people to keep it functioning, and the Tech Levy pays for all these things.

Pull Quote

‘Through an eye for deals, good vendor relationships, years of experience, and prudency with taxpayer money, the OBSD Tech Department has consistently come in on or under budget every year. This has allowed us to pursue projects sooner than anticipated, or that may not have even been an option otherwise.’

Dan Kleffner, technology director at the Ocean Beach School District

I’ve talked to other directors from districts that don’t have levies and have heard about the struggles and compromises they’ve had to make in order to get the equipment and services they need. They have to settle for “good enough” instead of what might be a better or even more cost-effective option for their district in the long run. The OBSD Tech Department has prided itself on being able to provide equipment that is more than just the bare minimum, and to come up with solutions that may not have been options were it not for the levy. Through an eye for deals, good vendor relationships, years of experience, and prudency with taxpayer money, the OBSD Tech Department has consistently come in on or under budget every year. This has allowed us to pursue projects sooner than anticipated, or that may not have even been an option otherwise.

The Tech Levy being separate from the general fund, and the OBSD Tech Department’s careful management of levy funds, are what allowed us to be flexible and why we were able to change direction so quickly during the covid-19 pandemic. We heard many stories from districts much larger than our own that were scrambling to get devices in the hands of students and staff. Because of shrewd handling of funds as well as planning and hard work by OBSD Tech Department personnel, we had begun preparing for the closure in advance and were able to get devices to students and staff in mere weeks once learning went remote. Educators in other districts were impressed with both what we had accomplished and how quickly it had been done.

During that time, the Tech Levy also made it possible for us to not rely on government CARES Act funds to purchase needed equipment, which became nearly impossible to obtain due to pandemic created supply chain issues. As a result, we were able to send equipment home with students and staff much faster than other districts. Many districts were not as fortunate. Because of our Tech Levy, we were able to instead use our CARES Act funds to get our students in grades K-2 back in school full time much sooner than other districts.

With the changing cybersecurity threat landscape, now more than ever we need to retain the flexibility the Tech Levy has provided us. New exploits and vulnerabilities are appearing on a weekly, if not daily basis, and it is rapidly becoming a full-time job to keep track of all of it. Districts large and small are getting targeted and compromised, including some in our area. The results have been schools getting shut down, sometimes for weeks, while bare minimum systems are disinfected and brought back online, followed by months or even years of deeper inspection, cleaning, and damage assessment. Unfortunately, situations like these are becoming more frequent. Hackers are targeting school districts because more often than not their tech departments are underfunded and understaffed, resulting in them potentially being vulnerable and easier targets. Combined with the fact that school districts contain sensitive student records, it makes them more willing to pay if they are hit with a ransomware attack. It’s no wonder then that school districts are being targeted at a disproportionately higher rate than private companies, who are likely to have greater technology funding and staff, and/or less desirable data to steal.

Due to our community funding the Tech Levy, we do not have to be one of those districts, as the levy affords us the ability to rapidly adapt as best practices and requirements change. While cybersecurity is eating up more and more of my time and the time of my team, we are working hard to keep our systems, staff, and students secure and avoid all of us becoming a target. While we could choose to ignore the growing threats and hope for the best, I want this department to continue investing the time and money to head them off and keep our children, and district, safe.

When it comes time to vote in February, please vote “Yes” on the Tech Levy. Thank you all for your continued support.