As a result of a security breach at the state level, AOS 93 is no longer issuing letters to parents requesting the submission of students’ Social Security numbers.
According to AOS 93 Supt. Bob Bouchard, the security issues are with employee information, not student information.
Updating the Great Salt Bay School Committee Oct. 13, Bouchard said a business manager in another district was recently able to view the Social Security numbers of “every employee with every school in the state.”
After the discovery, the business manager “immediately called the state,” Bouchard said.
Although no one from outside the district accessed the information and no identity theft took place, “It was enough to say, ‘fix the system,'” Bouchard said. “Let’s stop collecting [students’ Social Security numbers] until we figure out what’s going on.”
Parents had the option to decline to provide the information, and only about one-third of parents complied, Boston said. Boston himself and committee Chairman Carole Brinkler said they declined to provide their children’s information.
Committee member Raoul Nelson objected to the letters, but Bouchard and Brinkler said the state required the district to request the information. Multiple efforts are underway to repeal the law, Bouchard said.
The Great Salt Bay School Committee meets in the Great Salt Bay library on the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m.
