Monroe RIC News

As the school year gets underway, classrooms are buzzing with activity, schedules are settling into place, and staff across our districts are working tirelessly to create engaging learning experiences for students. The beginning of the school year is always a busy and exciting time, filled with new opportunities, fresh goals, and the energy that comes with welcoming students back to school.

At Monroe One BOCES, we recognize the tremendous effort required to ensure a successful start to the year. From preparing staff, classrooms and devices to managing schedules, supporting instruction, and assisting students and families, your dedication helps make learning possible each day.

As teaching and learning move into full swing, our team remains committed to supporting your work. Whether through technology services, instructional resources, professional development, or operational support, we are here to partner with districts in meeting the needs of students and staff throughout the year.

While the pace of the school year can be demanding, it's also an opportunity to celebrate the collaboration, innovation, and commitment that make our school communities strong. Together, we continue to create environments where students can learn, grow, and succeed.

We wish you a successful and rewarding school year and look forward to working alongside you in the months ahead.

Here's to a great year of learning, growth, and achievement!

The Monroe RIC BOCES Team

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a time dedicated to promoting safe and secure online practices and practicing responsible digital citizenship. In today's digital environment, cyber threats continue to evolve, making cybersecurity everyone's responsibility. Whether you're working in the classroom, office, or remotely, taking a few simple precautions can help protect sensitive information and keep our school communities secure.

One of the most common cyber threats schools face is phishing. These fraudulent emails are designed to trick users into clicking malicious links, opening infected attachments, or providing personal information. Before interacting with an email, take a moment to:

• Verify the sender's email address
• Be cautious of urgent or unexpected requests
• Look for spelling, grammar, or formatting errors
• Confirm suspicious messages through another communication method

If something doesn't seem right, trust your instincts and report it.

Passwords remain one of the first lines of defense against unauthorized access. Create strong, unique passwords for each account and avoid reusing passwords across multiple sites. Whenever available, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add an extra layer of protection.

Experts recommend using a long random string or a four-to-five-word passphrase of at least 15 or more characters for optimal password composition.

We all know that software updates aren't just about new features. Many updates contain critical security patches that address vulnerabilities cybercriminals actively target. Make it a habit to install updates promptly and restart devices when prompted is sometimes easier said than done. Consider a "Restart Rally" to see how long each classroom or department can continuously restart their device on a weekly basis. Or try assigning groups of students/faculty/staff to a certain day of the week for their weekly reminder to restart and receive those updates!

Frequent restarts lead to the following positive outcomes for your faculty and staff:

• Faster patch/update adoption
• Fewer "my device is frozen" help desk tickets
• Extended device lifespan and performance

If you have a system that works in your district, please share HERE. We would love to share those best practices in future editions of this newsletter.

Schools manage a significant amount of confidential student, employee, and financial data. Help protect this information by:

• Locking your computer whenever you step away
• Never sharing passwords
• Storing sensitive information only in approved locations
• Verifying requests for confidential information before responding

This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, remember: Stop. Think. Verify. When in doubt, reach out to your IT department for assistance or Monroe RIC. Together, we can make cybersecurity a daily habit.

The RIC will be sunsetting shared DHCP hosting to district networks on December 31st 2026. In our efforts to secure and modernize our infrastructure the RIC DHCP servers & dependencies will be decommissioned on this date. This will allow us to then move forward with modernizing our hosted DNS services in AWS Route 53.

District “Guest" networks are being standardized to align with modern zero trust models. Our team is working to isolate each district’s guest network traffic and allow for greater in-district policy control. Reach out to your friendly neighborhood Infrastructure Manager, James Clement for more information!

Last summer, Monroe One made the organizational commitment to improve service delivery and user experience by consolidating our separate sites and applications into a single customer service management platform. Following the lead of several other RICs and BOCES across the state, we chose ServiceNow for its robust functionality, ease of customization, and strong data security practices.

Since then, our small development team has been hard at work updating existing workflows and building new ones in ServiceNow. Our first implementation was an entirely new, digitized Urban-Suburban application and placement system. This spring, M1 staff and our district partners used this system to securely access student applications and manage student placement. We'll be rolling out the parent portal this fall and look forward to the program’s continued success.

Other completed projects include an updated accident reporting and workers' compensation system, along with a data integrations and disaster recovery management dashboard. Currently in development are a completely overhauled PIP system, an OSI/DEI reimbursement portal, and a brand-new Monroe One admissions and itinerant services request, tracking, and renewal platform.

Watch for an announcement about PIP and OSI/DEI access and training this fall!

As we begin the 2026–2027 academic year, we’d like to gently remind districts of the value of connecting with their RIC project manager or procurement specialist early when considering purchases through the BOCES service menu.

Please include your project manager as soon as possible in project planning and procurement conversations. Early collaboration helps ensure that purchases move forward smoothly and align with the appropriate processes.

A key reminder: a RIC/BOCES purchase order must be issued before any invoices can be submitted to the RIC.

As always, please reach out to your project manager with any questions, concerns, or guidance you may need.

Your insights and feedback have helped us streamline our processes, enhance our support services, and make this our strongest start to the school year yet. We're proud to share a snapshot of the support we've provided during the first quarter of the 2026-27 school year.

1,324 Support Requests Resolved
Our RIC teams worked with participating districts to successfully resolve 1,324 help desk requests during the first quarter, helping educators and staff stay productive and focused on student success.

When you need assistance, we're on it. Our teams responded to support requests in an average of just 1.8 hours.

From troubleshooting to full resolution, we closed requests in an average of 1.3 days, minimizing disruptions and keeping operations running smoothly.

The areas generating the most support requests included:

• Financial Systems
• SchoolTool
• Infinite Campus
• Microsoft 365
• Programming

We're committed to delivering responsive, reliable support and continuously improving the services our districts depend on every day. Thank you for partnering with us and helping us make each year better than the last!

Put in a Help Ticket!

The Help Desk is always here to help. Not sure where to turn or how to solve a problem you're running into? No worries! We've got you covered.

Click HERE to create an IT Help Ticket, and we'll get back to you as quickly as possible. Please note that our Help Desk number has been updated: 585-387-3809

Anyone that is not an agent, which are our technicians here at the RIC, is considered a guest of our RIC Incident IQ system. As a guest, we ask that you sign in with the guest access each time . A temporary password will be emailed to you. As a guest, you don't utilize Azure as a sign on vehicle.

You can access our guest log in by navigating to https://ric.monroe.edu/ then clicking help desk in the upper right-hand corner to make your way to our ticketing system. It is one more step, we realize, but we have found that it is safer all around for our guest users; which we of course we are all about!

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

We look forward to seeing you there!

• Nov. 17/18
• Dec. 8/9
• Jan 12/13
• Feb. 9/10
• March 9/10
• April 13/14
• May 11/12

DPO A [Tuesdays from 9-11:30am @ 11LP/A13]

DPO B [Tuesdays from 12:30-3pm @ 11LP/A13]

DPO C [Wednesdays from 9-11:30am @ 11LP/A13]

Get the latest updates from our team!

Tuesday, 1/5/2027 2:00-3:30 pm [15 Linden Park, Room 1A-1B]

Tuesday, 3/30/2027 2:00-3:30 pm [3599 Big Ridge Road, Spencerport, NY, USA]

Tuesday, 6/8/2027 2:00-3:30 pm [15 Linden Park, Room 1A-1B]

You and your team are warmly invited to the 4th Annual RIC Leadership Showcase on Monday, November 16, 2026 @ 15 Linden Park

This year’s showcase will feature practical sessions on cybersecurity, cloud migration, communications, analytics and AI, E-Rate planning, and more. It will also be a great opportunity to connect with colleagues and learn about current and upcoming RIC initiatives.

A tentative agenda is included below:

• 8:30 – 9:00 Arrival and Breakfast

• 9:00 – 9:40 CyberIQ – Cyber Training on Steroids

• 9:50 – 10:20 PIP 2.0 Preview

• 10:30 – 11:00 Cloud Migration – WinCap Case Study

• 11:05 – 11:25 eComms Phishing Playbook Walk Through

• 11:30 – 12:00 CSAD Recycling and Data Protection

• 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

• 12:30 – 1:00 Backdoors and Breaches Lunch Activity

• 1:00 – 1:30 Analytics and AI Initiatives

• 1:40 – 2:10 NY Inspires / Portrait of a Graduate

• 2:20 – 3:00 E-Rate and HW Life Cycle Planning Primer

• 3:10 – 3:30 Session A: VM Hosting Overview

• 3:10 – 3:30 Session B: JAMF Cloud and Best Practices

Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

To help us plan appropriately, please complete the registration form in advance: http://monroe.edu/ricshowcase

We hope you and your team will be able to join us for a day of learning, conversation, and collaboration. We look forward to seeing you there!

Please share with your team our next Systems Admin Meeting where we will discuss the following:

1. Updates on RIC HPE Essentials Hypervisor PoC
2. Updates on Secure Access, Cloud Hosting Environments
3. "A Yard Filled with Upturned Rakes" including RIC Hosted DHCP Service Ending December 31, 2026, Setting the Dumpster on Fire - [Guest Dynamics DNS, DHCP, Filter], Guest Network Dependencies and Future State Design, & Discussion on Route 53 DNS Migrations
4. District Round Table Open Topics

RSVP's are appreciated!