Local Schools Report No Impact from Data Breach

Like Saline schools, Dexter, Chelsea and Milan also said they were not impacted by the PowerSchool data breach.

The Sun Times News asked Dexter Community Schools Superintendent Chris Timmis about the breach that reportedly happened in December to PowerSchool, which is a cloud-based K-12 software provider. 

It’s been reported that a compromised credential was used to access PowerSchools’ PowerSource customer support portal. USA Today reported on Jan. 13 that “The software provider popular at K-12 schools became aware of the data breach in late December and is working with the FBI to figure out what happened.”

The data breach may have exposed student and staff data at different school districts around the country.

“No. We were fortunately not affected,” Timmis said of any impact on Dexter schools.

Milan Area Schools Superintendent Bryan Girbach said Milan does use PowerSchool and their server for it is hosted at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. 

“We were not affected by the recent PowerSchool data breach,” Girbach said.

Chelsea School District Superintendent Mike Kapolka said Chelsea uses Powerschool as well as and so does most of the schools in Washtenaw County.  He said the data breach did not impact the CSD. 

Here is the memo they sent out to families on Friday, Jan. 10:

“Good morning, Bulldog Family,

We are writing to inform you of a recent cybersecurity incident involving PowerSchool, a company that provides student information management software to our district and all other schools in Washtenaw County.

PowerSchool recently notified us that on December 28, 2024, they discovered unauthorized access to certain customer data. After collaborating closely with PowerSchool and the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD), we have confirmed that our district’s data was not impacted by this incident.

In response to this situation, we have taken additional steps to further safeguard our systems and ensure the continued security of our district’s data. Please rest assured that protecting our students’ and families’ information remains a top priority.”