PowerSchool Offers Identity Monitoring in Wake of Data Breach

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Families of school-children concerned about the PowerSchool data breach announced last year can sign up for two years of free identity monitoring services paid for by the school information system vendor.
 
Mount Greylock Regional School interim Superintendent Joseph Bergeron mentioned the offer at last week's meeting of the School Committee and said he was hoping to spread the word through as many channels as possible.
 
"We have plenty of folks whose emails have changed," Bergeron said, pointing out the difficulty in reaching every former student or staff member who could have been affected by the data breach.
 
Bergeron said a link has been added to the district’s website to connect people directly to PowerSchool to sign up for the complementary identity monitoring.
 
The PowerSchool website explained that the service is available regardless of whether an individual's data was part of the breach:
 
"PowerSchool is offering complimentary identity protection services including, if applicable, credit monitoring services, for involved students and educators, regardless of whether an individual’s Social Security Number/Social Insurance Number was exfiltrated. In countries outside of the U.S. and Canada where the provider provides such services, PowerSchool is offering two years of complimentary identity protection services for all students and educators whose information was involved, regardless of what information about an individual was exfiltrated."

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School Budget, Environment, Recreation Highlight Williamstown Town Meeting

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — This month's annual town meeting returns to a familiar venue.
 
What goes on in that building the rest of the year could be a major topic of discussion at the Tuesday, May 19, gathering.
 
After two years (2020 and '21) on Williams College's football field and four years ('22 through '25) at Mount Greylock Regional School, the town's legislative body will be back at Williamstown Elementary School for a 7 p.m. meeting to decide on municipal spending and other town business.
 
The largest segment of the municipal budget goes to the public schools, and the spending plan for PreK-12 education likely will see a floor amendment intended to add an additional $120,000 to fund a math interventionist at Williamstown Elementary School.
 
The elected seven-member School Committee that governs the Mount Greylock Regional School District has proposed a $30.9 million operating budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The local share of that budget is meted out in assessments to the member towns of Lanesborough and Williamstown, which each vote whether to approve its assessment at town meeting.
 
Williamstown's share of the operating and capital expenditures for the regional school district is $16.8 million under the budget approved by the School Committee, an increase of a little more than $2 million, or 13.65 percent, from the budget for the current fiscal/school year.
 
A group of WES parents concerned about the mathematics instruction at the Grade prekindergarten-6 school plans to bring an amendment to town meeting to add the additional $120,000 — about 0.7 percent of the proposed assessment — to fund the interventionist position.
 
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