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Reddit’s r_k12sysadmin Credits: @r_channels @reddit2telegram
Streaming equipment for board room
We are wanting to stream board meetings on YouTube, the only requirement that was asked for was microphones for each speaker (eight) Is there an easy button for this?
https://redd.it/1nolsss
@r_k12sysadmin
Social Media use policy
Does anyone have a social media policy based on use? Like how it should be used?
For context, we are a rural <1000 student district in the upper midwest.
We have had an influx of local businesses and events, not directly involving the school district, dropping off flyers asking us to share them on our platforms. I am reluctant to "create" a post on our platforms unless it is school-sponsored or directly related to the district. If it's a community event that already has a post somewhere else, I'll share or like to help spread the word. The problem is that they go to admin and they say yes without thinking about it. When it's passed to me I have to pump the brakes and be the bad guy. I don't mind being the bad guy, but I want something behind me.
I'd like to draft a policy with guidelines so we can be consistent and turn away anything non-school-centric. Like anything else in k12, without a policy I feel that we have to be equitable, and if we do it for one then we have to do it for all.
If anyone has addressed this or has something in place that I could draft a policy from, Iet me know.
https://redd.it/1nokesc
@r_k12sysadmin
Autodesk SSO and named user licensing
Hello, I am looking for advice from anyone who has managed to migrate an Autodesk education account from the "classic" user management to the new user management console. We need to get SSO set up for named user licensing to work next year, and that is not possible in classic user management. There is scant documentation on classic user management & nothing about how to get the account upgraded from it.
https://redd.it/1nogfyi
@r_k12sysadmin
YouTube access
I need some help regarding YouTube access and Google Workspace. About 3 weeks before school started (Aug 13th, 2025) I was volunteered to be my son's private school IT guy. Yep full time job and now nights full of volunteer IT work. The school only has about 150 kids so it is not super terrible to manage. I have worked in non profit healthcare IT for the past 19 years from helpdesk to systems engineer in a Microsoft environment. I have now spent my fair share of late nights learning Google Workspace and making sure things are running smoothly.
Today we had a request to unblock YouTube as this has been turned off for all students as far as I can tell. After spending some time creating a security Google Group for this class and allowing YouTube through I cannot see how to block all YouTube videos/channels except for approved videos. (Which I did approve an entire YouTube channel.) I have turned on the "Signed in users in your organization can only watch restricted and approved videos" and set the restrictions down to 9+ with no luck blocking all other videos.
Am I missing something to block all other videos?
My only other thought that I can quickly use to bypass this issue would be to embed the video into a Google Slides presentation which does appear to work even with the YouTube service turned off. And since the students will be doing this on a self guided learning it might be best anyway.
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
https://redd.it/1no7fj6
@r_k12sysadmin
Logo Designers
Anyone have a company they work with that can provide source files after generating a logo? I am left with years of Fivrr logos made by god knows who and somehow the logos were uploaded to facebook from a flip phone, downloaded onto a fax machine, rescanned into a pdf and then compressed again just because it is fun.
Seriously, just opened a schools logo that is 100x100 pixels.
I have zero experience here and so I don't even know where to start with creators that would provide this work, let alone through a PO. I am a photographer and graphic designer as a hobby, but I am not touching this with a 10 foot pole.
https://redd.it/1no1f5s
@r_k12sysadmin
Reasons to block
I’m being asked to allow the following 3 things
1. Unblock GitHub.com
2. Unblock personal email
3. Create a guest WiFi with minimal restrictions so staff and students can get around our filter if needed
I’m against all 3.
GitHub has so much hacking software, plus every way there is to get around all our filters
Personal email is for multiple reasons. We don’t want kids on personal unrestricted accounts, they have a district email that should be used for everything school related and everything else should be outside only. When we had personal emails open kids were sending porn, bomb threats, cyber bullying and worse. Once they knew we could track them all stopped.
Guest WiFi I feel like if we do that then why even have a filter on our regular network? Why not unblock it all?
Please, help me find reasons not to do this.
https://redd.it/1no0mu7
@r_k12sysadmin
Where to allow Honorlock in Google Edu Admin Settings?
I have a student who's taking an online college course that requires the use of the Honorlock Chrome extension to take exams. I can't seem to find where I can allow this on the Google Admin side. When I follow the sparse instructions I can find online, I hit a dead end. Here's what I've tried:
\- Went to Devices>Chrome>Apps & extensions>Users & browsers
\- Selected organizational unit containing current students
\- The next instruction is to set the installation policy for the Honorlock extension to allow install; however, when I use the search function to find Honorlock in the Chrome Web Store, nothing comes up. Even if I go to the Chrome Web Store under a personal account Honorlock isn't showing up.
I suppose I could turn on the ability for users to request extensions as I don't currently have that enabled, but there's got to be a way to do this without that. How is it that this extension doesn't seem to exist?? Any help would be appreciated--thank you!
https://redd.it/1nnukkr
@r_k12sysadmin
Autodesk Education Renewal Hell
When I attempt to renew our Autodesk Educational access, the website never provides me the opportunity to upload documents. Click on submit, fail, click on retry which should take me to a location to upload documents proving who I am, it never does. In the past I could then submit a ticket to SheerID and they'd ask me to send the information; but now it looks like they are just auto-rejecting all requests where the documentation hasn't been submitted through the website. So now I'm stuck on waiting for Autodesk to respond.
I know this happens to other districts, although I have no idea how widespread, and I am getting tired of fighting Autodesk every renewal. I am just wondering if anyone has figured out why or workaround.
https://redd.it/1nnu9q0
@r_k12sysadmin
Emergency comms for staff
Hi all - small private school here. We're in a weird situation where we have a school AND other non-profit orgs on the campus. If the school goes into lockdown or has an incident, the larger campus doesn't have a way to receive those notices (i.e. no campus-wide PA, mass comms, etc.). We've started looking at platforms like Informacast (highly recommended here it seems) for text/SMS but they're telling us the minimum seat count is 250 and we've got 100 on the high side. Anyone have recommendations for alternate products and/or a way to bypass their min seats?
https://redd.it/1nnpjga
@r_k12sysadmin
Dell Latitude 3440 Battery Issues
Anyone else having issues with the batteries in the 3440? In the past 2 months, about 30-40% of our staff with that model have received messages where they won't charge and are giving the battery health replacement message at boot. Usually, I would blame it on the user for misuse or neglect, but not at this volume. Of course, the warranty we had just went out in May.
https://redd.it/1nnmkjg
@r_k12sysadmin
Does anyone know about Youtube and edlaw2D
If I go into google workspace and disable YouTube so no one can sign in with their accounts, but they go onto YouTube and they aren't signed in, does that still break edlaw2d compliance?
There wouldn't be any PII if no one is logging in right?
https://redd.it/1nn70gs
@r_k12sysadmin
Carehawk PA - setting the time
Would anyone have experience with a Carehawk CH1000 system or similar? We have one that is a couple minutes out which affects the bell times. I have access to VNC into the system which is Windows CE but there does not appear to be any "internet time" tab and when I set the time manually it reverts back to 2 mins out after a short time. I found a manual online and it references logging into the master clock to set it but does not give any details on how to do this. If all else fails we will have to call the vendor but I was hoping to figure this out as we have a few of these systems.
https://redd.it/1nl5d4h
@r_k12sysadmin
Suspicious Login - Google Workspace
Anyone else getting several of these over the past week or two? Oddly, they are mostly for student accounts, and the IP addresses listed are either our own WAN IP for the district's student VLAN or a local ISP. It seems like Google may have adjusted the threshold for triggering these alerts as they do not seem legitimate given the source IP addresses.
https://redd.it/1nl1t6n
@r_k12sysadmin
Migrating to Gmail this year...
Well I think we are finally going to migrate away from Groupwise to gmail for our staff (we have been using gmail for students for awhile). We currently use Barracuda for our ESG for Groupwise but not for students. Are any of you using an ESG with gmail or are you just leverage Googles controls? Any other bits of advice?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: We are waiting for our Google Workspace Plus licenses to hit our account and with 28k chrome books we are not moving away anytime soon.
https://redd.it/1nkjrhy
@r_k12sysadmin
Lease printers or purchase our own
For the past decade+, our private school has leased printers. Currently, we have 9 printers. 3 larger units, and the rest smaller units.
The benefits of our lease:
* Leasing company provides consumable replacements (toner, waste bins, etc.) at their cost.
* Company troubleshoots printer issues at their cost
* They track toner levels and deliver when it gets so, so it's ready when we need it
* A few others, but those typically cover what we've experienced
Downsides
* We pay for every color $0.045
* Our elementary and preschool teachers print a lot of color, so the monthly print bill is somewhat high for us
* Our lease is 60 months, so by the time our lease ends, total spent is higher than buying printers and managing them in house.
I'm looking to see what your experience has been with in house printer solutions vs working with a lease company.
For context, we have three buildings on campus, around 300 students enrolled, about 70 staff members, and a handful of church volunteers who also print from time to time. We are not currently utilizing papercut either. So this may be something to put into consideration should we move to an in-house solution.
Additional information: We currently have Konica Minolta Bizhub machines. The smaller machines are the C3320i, and the larger machines is the C368
https://redd.it/1nkaajn
@r_k12sysadmin
You can't juggle too many balls without dropping one and I'm droping some balls. management advice?
I am coming up to my first year in edu and it has been an interesting experience to say the least. I don't intend to repeat past themes from past posts. I actually got the study hall teacher to take the day loaner cart and it has made a big difference.
I running into issues with contracts running out and outdated devices. I've been just overwhelmed since I started and it has been difficult to keep up with all forms of communication.
I came in one day to find that our adobe contract ended. I've been asked if I had recieved notifications leading up to this, but honestly I don't know. The beggening of the year has been a rollercoaster and I may have missed it. I mean, there was no documentation before me that tracked all of the different contracts we have. I get bombarded by services updating me. I just started a google sheet to track contracts, but I haven't found the time to really update it.
The contract ran out. I had no documentation on who provided it. After chasing that down, I learned we missed a window of time and had to choose another reseller. After a painful process I ended up calling adobe directly and getting something setup. This became an issue where all admin and arts department had to be in the loop. There were questions on why this happened. students didn't have access for days.
At the same time our VOIP system has been periodecally not working with external calls. Due to how busy things have been I had just been rebooting the network which would fix the issue, but due to the consistency I wanted to track down the real issue. Well this week I finally told the principle that I wanted to track down the issue. So isntead of just rebooting the FW and Switches, I had our third party look at it with me. Turns out, if I had just spent some time looking at the Xorcom unit I would see that the license agreement ran out in 2023. Then finding old emails I learn the unit is 7 years old and needs replaced.
Now at the beggening of the year I have a whole Server swap project ahead of me. I don't have any experience with in this. I had no documentation from past techs nor was notified by the last tech.
I take responsibilty for this, but I also wish I had better documentation when I started.
So you would think that the sole IT guy at a school should spend time getting to know their network gear, what services they support, etc. That I should have known all contracts that I am in charge of making sure doesn't run out without renewing. That I should know how old my devices are..
For those of us who are the only tech onsite, we have a lot to keep track of. How do you all keep track of everything? I need advice here, becuase this last couple of weeks did not look good on me. It felt a bit inivitable that something would happen like this, so I am not interally surprised, but it really does not feel great to feel spread thin enough that I miss key deadlines or issues that then lead to larger problems.
The phone situation may have been needed more attention sooner, it was a matter of conflicting priorities and I knew to a qucik fix to the phone issue, which didn't fix it long-term. The phone issue happened every other week, which is enough to become a problem that needed fixed.
Maybe a better workflow, a better way to manage my day. I got a key part of my workflow worked out by getting day loaners off my hands. So now I need to learn to manage things better.
https://redd.it/1nok7tk
@r_k12sysadmin
Skyward Issues
The issue seems to have resolved itself around 8:30 AM. I'm guessing that the issue was on Skyward's side of things.
~~Is anyone else noticing Skyward issues this morning? Specifically, we're unable to run any sort of reports/transcripts/data mining/etc. We get an error that says "The Print Queue is currently offline, your report has been queued."~~
~~We're located in the Northeastern US.~~
https://redd.it/1nofp5a
@r_k12sysadmin
Looking for Digital Signage Software recommendations
Good morning, I was looking to get recommendations for a digital signage app that's free/low cost and easy for non-tech users to manage. Appreciate it. Thanks!
https://redd.it/1nog04v
@r_k12sysadmin
Killer Drones, Google Outages & AI Whack‑A‑Mole
https://k12techtalkpodcast.com/e/killer-drones-google-outages-the-ai-whack%e2%80%91a%e2%80%91mole/ and all major podcast platforms
We unpack a busy week in school tech: a nationwide Google outage that disrupted Chromebook logins, new Sophos data showing improving ransomware recovery and falling ransom payments, and CETA’s annual report putting AI at the top of state priorities.
The conversation dives into the controversial campus drone pilot approved in Florida (non‑lethal pepper‑ball drones and on‑demand airborne security) and the AI Whack‑A‑Mole challenge as AI features appear inside search engines and become hard to block.
We also discuss promising advances in live, voice‑to‑voice translation for K12 meetings and classrooms.
https://redd.it/1no5u0e
@r_k12sysadmin
Security Watch 9/19/25
On K12TechPro, we've launched a weekly cyber threat intelligence and vulnerability newsletter with NTP and K12TechPro. We'll post the "public" news to k12sysadmin from each newsletter. For the full "k12 techs only" portion (no middle schoolers, bad guys, vendors, etc. allowed), log into k12techpro.com and visit the Cybersecurity Hub.
A wave of cybersecurity updates highlights growing risks across multiple fronts: the threat group WhiteCobra is abusing extension marketplaces like Visual Studio Code to spread malicious add-ons that deliver info-stealing malware on both Windows and macOS, with victims already reporting cryptocurrency theft.
Meanwhile, OAuth consent phishing is emerging as a low-effort, high-reward tactic where users are tricked into granting malicious apps ongoing API access that bypasses MFA, underscoring the need for tighter consent controls and user education.
On the infrastructure side, Microsoft is reminding users that Windows 10 will reach end of life on October 14, leaving 42% of systems at risk if they do not migrate to Windows 11, despite its broader adoption.
Finally, September's Patch Tuesday introduced issues with SMBv1, breaking legacy dependencies and requiring a workaround while Microsoft develops a fix.
https://redd.it/1no1vfg
@r_k12sysadmin
TalkingPoints users - any recent "wrong language" complaints
For those who use TalkingPoints for communication with families, have you received any complaints recently from parents who received messages in the wrong language, and it seems that TalkingPoints has the correct language info for the parent? We've received 2 complaints like this in the past week, including one where a Hispanic family shared a screenshot of a message they received in Spanish, English, and Assamese. With both complaints, the language was set correctly in TalkingPoints. I do have a ticket in. Thanks!
https://redd.it/1nntox5
@r_k12sysadmin
Expresspoint Keypad solutions before I start throwing devices? 😂
Sole IT guy for my district. Cafeteria has been using PrimeroEdge Expresspoint for awhile now. However, the person running our cafe has changed 3 times in the past year resulting in a massive amount of headaches.
Mainly started with windows machines for POS devices. Head person wanted iPads. Moved to those but keypads were inconsistent. Keypads would work, but the enter key wouldn't actually hit enter in Expresspoint when putting in a person's ID. So the staff had to hit enter on the screen manually.
New head person comes in, doesn't like that (obviously, neither do I). Wants keypads to fully work (yeah, me too). Try going to Chromebooks (as they don't want large Windows laptops or desktops and want touch screens). Same issue as iPads. Get head person to relent and I move users back to Windows machines with external touch displays. Finally all is back to working as it should.
Now however, they want a POS to use as a mobile terminal during breakfasts so kids can grab breakfast from a cart instead of in the cafeteria.
They don't want a laptop as there is no touch screen. They are insistent on a Chromebook or iPad, but still want full functionality of the keypads (which again work, but the enter key does not).
Any other suggestions before I start throwing things and telling them to deal with the hardware I have and what works? 😂
The keypads work in every other piece of software, except for Expresspoint. I have tried different keypads, different inputs, different input languages, hotkeys, etc.
PrimeroEdge support has been less than useful.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
https://redd.it/1nnvnsb
@r_k12sysadmin
Securly Blocking "Youtube" when student searches google. Preload is mandated to off in google admin.
Having an issue where a student does a google search, results load, and then (as if google was preloading the pages) securly picks up a youtube result and displays a block message.
We solved this once before by disabling the performance setting “Preload pages” (in chrome) which can also be found under google admin at Device > Settings > Users & Browsers > Network prediction.
Now it’s either not respecting the setting, or they introduced something new I’m unaware of that causes the same thing.
Observed today on these ChromeOS versions:
140.0.7339.201
139.0.7258.164
139.0.7258.172
Verified that the setting in question was indeed mandated off (client) or “Do not predict network actions” (admin)
Anyone else seeing this or have a solution?
https://redd.it/1nnpu60
@r_k12sysadmin
Ticketing System for K12 school (Email based)
We are a smaller school (1300 students, 255 staff; 4 in tech dept) and we currently use One to One Plus as our ticketing system. Prior to that, we used Spiceworks (when they had on prem). I am looking for a solution that fits us a little better. Our staff send emails to open tickets, and our comments and workflow updates come back to them as replies. It's been that way for two decades, and it works for them. I do not want to change that. So, ideally, our solution will streamline with that easily.
One to One is okay, I guess... but there are just enough little workflow issues that nobody in our department likes it all that much. I'm hesitant to go back to Spiceworks Cloud because of the ads and I often see "get away from Spiceworks" types of posts in this group. I've seen several other threads with dozens of different options mentioned, but I wanted to get some advice with the lens of "we don't use a portal, we just use emails" type of environment.
(We can't afford Incident IQ, by the way. lol)
https://redd.it/1nno0mg
@r_k12sysadmin
Lenovo Chromebooks issues (a classic?)
Hello everyone,
I'm writing to find out if you've encountered (and solved) two problems we're having with Lenovo Chromebooks:
\- The Wi-Fi card shuts off, and the only thing that fixes it is disassembling it, removing it, and putting it back in. We've found that leaving the Wi-Fi card slightly higher (1 or 2 mm) sometimes helps them last longer without the problem recurring, but I don't trust it.
\- Chromebooks start very slowly. When you turn it on, it takes perhaps 3 or more minutes to reach the login screen, and it loads the user profile equally slowly. Resetting the Chromebook doesn't fix it.
Anyway, I'll leave these two issues to see what you say!
https://redd.it/1nni0qp
@r_k12sysadmin
Personal User Emails
We are a K12 district, we have iPads for PK-5 and Chromebooks for 6-12.
We have our network locked down so for google you can only login with our district provided accounts which only have access to login to the chromebook. No additional services enabled.
We are a Microsoft Office 365 district and we are getting requests for above to unblock personal emails for the district. They are saying kids need access to their personal email for fafsa and college board.
I'm worried about all the repercussions of what is going to happen when we not only give students, but staff access to their personal email addresses now. I know tons of teachers that will create google classrooms and make all their kids create gmail accounts and now work outside of our restrictions. Staff will then start using personal for work, making FOIL a nightmare. Cyberbullying, and access to google additional services like google voice etc on a personal account we have no way of restricting or tracking down who is sending what. We have had issued with bomb threats in the past through personal emails, plus the students and staff using personal accounts was an issue and thats why we blocked it.
How do you all handle personal email, is it allowed?
https://redd.it/1nn31bs
@r_k12sysadmin
Dell 3120 Chromebooks spontaneously opening RCS chats help center page
We have a really weird problem with the new Dell 3120 chromebooks. Sometimes when a student logs into the chromebook, Chrome will spontaneously open a tab or three of the "RCS chats with businesses" help center page. It doesn't happen all the time, but my observation is it happens the first time that student logs in to that chromebook. We have several other models, and this is only happening on the 3120s. Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas what could be causing it so I can make it stop?
Pictured: The same student logged in to two chromebooks. 3120 on the left, and 3100 on the right.
3120 on the left, 3100 on the right
https://redd.it/1nl47rv
@r_k12sysadmin
Papercut Mobility Print stability?
Anyone seen Mobility Print stability (what a mouthful) issues since the update to 1.0.3776 on Monday/Tuesday. We had reports starting Tuesday AM that print service was offline but didn’t connect it to the update (timing-wise) until this evening. MP app logs show the service restarting from time to time since the update. We’ve engaged our copier company who partners with Papercut, our MSP, and have a ticket to Papercut in as well. Just curious if anyone is seeing similar.
VMware environment,
Server 2019,
Still rocking 24.x on Papercut MF (update to 25.x now on the to-do list I’m guessing)
https://redd.it/1nkrrie
@r_k12sysadmin
Disable Chromecast on Chromebooks in Google Admin?
Is there a way to disable Chromecast so that students cannot connect to other devices? A recent update on our flat panels removed that restriction. We now have to touch each panel.
In Google Admin, is there a way to disable Chromecast as an option for students as a short-term solution? I see in admin that I can disable casting tabs, but that doesn't disable the device from casting.
https://redd.it/1nkf7rv
@r_k12sysadmin
The Atlantic offering Free Digital Subscriptions for All US Public High Schools
I am curious if anyone has heard of this yet? I had a teacher send me a link to a google form to sign up. In requires supplying the Schools external IP address, which I am assuming is used to say "any traffic from this address is not paywalled".
I am a bit apprehensive about putting our HS IP addresses in a google form without knowing where its going and who it is shared with. How would you all deal with this?
Google form: https://accounts.theatlantic.com/products/free-hs-access/
Press Announcement: https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2025/09/atlantic-gives-free-digital-access-high-schools/684221/
https://redd.it/1nkayt1
@r_k12sysadmin
