Newfound schools finally recover financial data from cyberattack

BRISTOL — Nearly two years after the Newfound Area School District lost its financial data in a cyberattack, staff in the business office believe they've restored all lost information, enabling audits to proceed. The next step is to hold a special school district session to ratify the action taken last spring.

That procedural defect meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in the auditorium of Newfound Regional High School.

Superintendent Paul Hoiriis and School Board Chair Melissa Suckling explained the defect refers to the district’s inability to file the proper forms with the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration due to the ongoing data restoration effort.

Specifically, the district was unable to post the budget on an official state form, and it did not properly post the default budget, as well as failing to post a signed warrant article and not posting information within the legally-required 14 days.

Failure to ratify the 2025 school district meeting would hold up setting this year’s tax rate. Last year, the lack of school district financial information delayed towns’ ability to send out property tax bills by several months. The town clerks and school district moderator agreed holding a special meeting in November to ratify last spring’s action would be in the best interest of all.

The cyberattack on computer servers in the Newfound district occurred on Nov. 20, 2023, locking out not only administrators and staff members, but also leaving teachers and students unable to access teaching material. Interim Superintendent Steven Nilhas immediately informed district personnel and students about the problem, but publicly announced the breach at the Nov. 27, 2023 meeting of the Newfound Area School Board.

For the remainder of the 2023-24 academic year, the business office had to keep track of payroll and other expenses on consumer software and hand-written material because, despite hiring a Seacoast-based cyber security company through its Primex insurance carrier, the company was unable to unlock the financial data, and the district had no backups.

Eventually, a new system was installed with a cloud backup. But it wasn't until this year that business office staff — working overtime to also handle the current workload — were able to rebuild the missing financial data by meticulously going through invoices, bank records and receipts. Auditors came in at the beginning of October to begin their review of the 2023-24 fiscal year.

As for 2024-25, Hoiriis said staff expect to be able to submit information to the state by the end of the month — “which is only one month late,” he noted. “We front-loaded fiscal year ’24, and then the auditors will be then working on our fiscal year ’25, so there it is. We are finally in the light at the end of that tunnel of that cyberattack.”

After recent information has come to light about the Claremont School District's $5 million deficit due to poor record-keeping if not outright fraud — leaders are still trying to determine how the accounting errors occurred — Newfound is facing increased scrutiny from taxpayers, feeding into skepticism about the district’s consideration of the purchase of the local TD Bank property to serve as the district's central office. Projections of possible revenue and related tax benefits from the lease or sale of part of the property have not convinced Bristol voters it's a wise investment, or that the purchase would make up for the $16,000 a year in tax revenue the town has collected under bank ownership.

Meanwhile, the school board on Oct, 14 approved a $36,775 request from the district’s technology director, Paul Ciotti, to expand wireless internet coverage outside the high school to the athletic fields. The money will come from the district’s expendable trust fund for technology, money already appropriated by taxpayers.

Ciotti said the lack of internet coverage poses a potential risk, should there be a medical emergency on the field. He originally intended to include the football field in the extended coverage, but determined there was adequate cellular coverage at that location.

The plan calls for installing point-to-point bridges between the high school gymnasium and other locations, such as the track and soccer field, and baseball and softball fields. Some trees will have to be removed to provide a clear signal.