Student data was not impacted, according to a forensic investigation that was completed Jan. 20.
The investigation showed that the security breach “may have involved unauthorized access to a subset of data stored on our systems, and that this data contains certain staff personal information,” Tim Peltz, RUSD chief information officer, wrote in a Feb. 14 letter to staff. “We have not identified any impact to student data, which is hosted with an external vendor and not on Racine’s local systems. We are continuing to work to review all potentially affected employee information.”
As a result, RUSD has offered free credit monitoring and identity protection services to employees, and it is providing staff with proactive fraud assistance.
DECEMBER BREACH
The school district breach occurred Dec. 13.
RUSD is now completely back online after dealing with technology issues for about two months.
Staff and student online learning access was restored Jan. 29, according to Peltz.
As of Feb. 14, the district has “fully recovered all educational and administrative operations,” Peltz wrote in a letter to families. “We appreciate the effort of our incredible IT team and all the work they have done to get our systems back up and running.”
Shortly after the breach, RUSD information technology staff took down district Wi-Fi as a precautionary measure.
RUSD Wi-Fi and staff email access were restored Jan. 29.
Without Wi-Fi, the daily operations of schools were more tedious and time-consuming, and more work was done with pens and paper.
Some instructors could not access email or use computers for daily tasks such as attendance and grading, according to Angelina Cruz, president of Racine Educators United, the union representing RUSD instructors.
According to Stacy Tapp, RUSD chief of communication and community engagement, “a large number” of employees, but not all, could access email on their cellphones, so schools had to adjust their internal communications.
The issues affected all grade levels, according to Cruz, because some elementary school tests require online access, and older students often use individual laptops for coursework.
Tapp and Cruz said the breach is an unfortunate reality, but families were largely supportive while teachers dealt with difficulties.
“It was just this collective understanding that this is the world that we now live in,” Cruz said. “There was a lot of understanding and grace granted to everybody involved. For that, I am very thankful.”
Siena Catholic Schools of Racine was recently impacted by a security breach of PowerSchool, an education software company.
Health care company Ascension Wisconsin and communication corporations AT&T and Verizon were hacked last year.
ADAPTABLE TEACHERS
Cruz said RUSD administration was very communicative in explaining the issues and timeline of when they might be fixed.
“As inconvenient as the whole thing was, I think the district did a good job of engaging people to the extent that they could and being responsive,” Cruz said. “We were solving a lot of problems on the fly. It wasn’t particularly contentious. People just did a really good job at handling it professionally and rolling with whatever was thrown at them.”
In December, many staff members hoped the issues would be fixed when they returned from winter break, according to Cruz.
However, a few days before class resumed in January, they learned the obstacles were still there.
The disruptions were frustrating, but teachers were adaptable and resourceful.
“The staff were pretty amazing through this in continuing to educate students,” Tapp said. “I don’t really feel that families felt the impact that significantly.”
Many educators had to make similar adjustments in 2020 when they shifted to remote instruction because of the pandemic.
“It was similar in terms of presenting us with a challenge that seemed pretty monumental,” Cruz said. “I was impressed by the ability of the educators in this school district to center students, to center teaching and learning, and to just figure it out in the face of adversity, which we’ve done before. … Despite this huge barrier, teaching and learning was still happening every day. Students were still engaged in their classrooms.”
©2025 The Journal Times, Racine, Wisc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
