School officials in the Abingdon-Avon district confirmed yesterday that a data breach of its student information management system resulted in the tampering of grade point averages, however, a number of other facets had the potential to be affected.
The system is called Skyward and is used in a number of area districts.
WGIL was granted access to the student and parent portal today. Suzanne Batson, the former Skyward student management coordinator who originally helped to install the system also spoke with WGIL and provided detail in regard to what information is normally available to parents.
“It’s called a family access,” Batson says. “Parents can see grades, they can see attendance, they can see test scores, there is information that goes to the state.”
Fees for books, technology and food service are also included–all of which require credit card information. Health records, addresses and discipline records are included as well. Certain GPA’s and employee e-mails are the only pieces of information that have been reported as changed at this point.
An official cause of the breach has also yet to be determined. An employee has been placed on leave who is believed to be Director of Technology Mark Roberts, though many community members cite allegations against Superintendent Chad Willis regarding the issue.
According to a post on the 276 website, the district is working to restore secure data and has begun the process of notifying those whose data was breached.
