By Njura Kinyua
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Over a year later, Baltimore County Public School employees are still experiencing the effects of the 2020 ransomware attack that occurred two days before Thanksgiving and breached personnel data on the school system’s computer system and disrupted virtual learning and access to important computer files.
For weeks after the attack, employees frequently sent emails and made phone calls to school administrators asking that they quickly restore their lost information, including certification credits, dropped insurance coverage, and unfiled paperwork that affected their benefits and wages.
Yet despite these efforts, some employees said, their personnel data has still not been recovered.
Lena Amick, a social studies teacher at Owings Mills H.S. and Teachers Association of Baltimore County (TABCO) representative, said one of her colleagues had been unknowingly dropped from his healthcare insurance. Another colleague of hers reported being paid less than he deserved for weeks because the central office said it would take two months for his documents for a pay raise to be processed.
The attack has brought to light more concerning issues on the organization and structure of BCPS central office.
Cindy Sexton, the president of TABCO, said she currently meets with the chief of organizational effectiveness once a week and the superintendent once a month to discuss teacher concerns. She said she understands there is a process the school system has to go through but it takes a long time.
“We don’t quite get the answers as quick as we want them,” Sexton said.
The school system has spent an estimated $9.6 million to recover its systems after the attack, school officials said.
“We’re not quite back to where we were but we’re getting there,” said Charles Herndon, a BCPS spokesperson.
Officials said many of the payroll issues associated with the attack have since been resolved but other issues dealing with certification issues for education or advancement credits need to be corrected.
In the days after the attack, the school was back in operation but had lost a lot of data. Some of this data included the number of hours worked by some employees.
Baltimore County schools determined which employees had been paid in previous weeks and used that to reflect how much to pay them, school officials said. However, many contractual employees who had worked overtime or had completed a particular training, missed out on wages because of the lost information.
Some employees have said that they are not surprised by the delay in resolving some issues.
According to an audit done in September in which Baltimore County schools were reviewed by Public Works LLC, a management consulting firm, the organizational structure of the central office tends to be inefficient.
“The current structure has created isolated and silo-like effects with a lack of effective coordination, communications, and collaboration among all divisions,” the company’s report said.
In a survey conducted by Public Works, employees made comments expressing their dissatisfaction with central office organization.
“Communication has been disastrous since the ransomware attack. Even prior to the attack, central office staff were often rude and impatient when having to answer questions,” one employee wrote.
The firm recommended the creation and elimination of various job positions in order to increase efficiency and decrease costs.
The lack of organization in the central office is problematic as they are the sole conductors of a process known as onboarding. Onboarding is the bureaucratic processes that need to be done for someone to start working and is comprised of everything from signing an employment contract to pensions and benefits. It is an essential function to setting up new teachers or transfers from other school systems into Baltimore County’s system.
“New staff has had a terrible onboarding experience” Amick said.
She said there’s not enough people in the central office to address all the problems. Her colleagues have reported enormous human resources and administrative problems. Most of the issues today deal with on-boarding, Amick said.
Having onboarding backed up can lead to delays in employees getting pay checks, healthcare benefits, and certification approval, she said.
In a late November meeting, the Board of Education discussed how it has planned to move forward since the attack. Board members stressed security as a requirement and a responsibility and featured a presentation on their continued progress in healing and recovery for their students and staff.