Bobby Ardoin

Special to the Daily World

St. Landry Parish School Board members were told Monday night there will be additional long-term costs for rebuilding after a hacking incident shut down the district's computer system.

Computer center supervisor Byron Wimberly told board members during a series of committee meetings that the district’s staff is currently too small to handle the increased number of cyber system duties.

Wimberly added that it will also be expensive to fund the the work done by the staff and statewide sources to restore internet access to the district's 48 sites and 17,000 users. Cybersecurity experts from the State Department of Education and the Louisiana National Guard assisted the five-person staff at no cost to the district.

More:State steps in to help St. Landry Parish schools after cyber attack shut down computers

“The cost is going to be very expensive," Wimberly said. "You can start looking at security expenses of not less than $160,000. We are going to be looking at more training and along with that, we have a staff that is so small for a job that is very large. We need to get into the best posture to ensure that we do not get into this position again."

Thanks to a sufficient information backup system, none of the information already stored in the district’s backup servers was compromised. District-wide payroll was unaffected, and employees will be paid on time this week. Access is being restored in phases, and should be complete by the end of the week.

Wimberly recommended hiring more personnel for the IT department. He also said the district has struggled with turnover as staff leave for higher-paying positions.

Maintenance Director Claudia Blanchard said increasing the size of the school system’s IT staff has been part of a district strategic plan for the past several years.

Superintendent Patrick Jenkins said the additional costs of restoring the computer system and providing more cyber security will be paid from the annual operating budget.

“At this time, the general fund will absorb it. As time goes along, we will have to look at (the costs),” said Jenkins.

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Finance Director Tressa Miller said the district’s liability insurance should be able to handle some of the unspecified expenses.

In order to fix the system, which is being restored in several phases, Wimberly said staff have worked 15 hours or more a day.

The extra hours of work will cost the system more in overtime pay, Wimberly said.

Wimberly said assistance from the state and National Guard helped provided additional help in checking each computer at every school site in order to determine the extent of the virus attack.

Much of that work at the school sites was completed over the weekend, Wimberly said.

Carol Mosley, IT Program Leader from the State Department of Education, told the board that the incident is not a unique situation.

“Some of the other school systems are still recovering," Mosley said. "One school system started this year with limited knowledge of the students they had as well as the teacher base. Three of the school systems had no backup and those systems had to rebuild everything."

Blanchard complimented Wimberly and the computer staff for the effort in restoring the system in such a short amount of time.

“We received help from neighboring districts who paid for the help we received from them and businesses came in and made some donations. Now we have to build up our system in order to minimize the problem.

“I don’t know one person that stepped back from this. It seems like a setback for us, but I think it’s also going to make us much better,” Blanchard said.