Board declines one‑year Aubrey contract after security and rollout concerns

The Albany County School District #1 board considered a proposed one‑year contract with Aubrey to centralize district data but voted not to approve the contract after extended discussion about security, workload and rollout.

Doctor Goldhart introduced the one‑year proposal as a conservative alternative to a previously discussed three‑year contract. "I've changed this to a 1 year contract just so that we feel not like we're bound to anything past that," he said.

Trustees and staff debated benefits and risks. Trustee Jessie Marshall reported calling several references and said one district in West Virginia was about a year and a half into implementation and still preparing parent engagement features. Technology staff said the district already has Power BI and PowerSchool/Oracle SQL reports in place and that building internal dashboards was possible but would require significant staff time and refinement of inconsistent data entry.

Security was a central concern. Technology staff told the board that "Aubrey has applied for SOC 2 certification, but they do not yet have SOC 2 certification," and Trustee (speaker 2) argued that lack of standalone corporate security certification (SOC 2 type 2, ISO 2700x or FedRAMP) raised privacy risks for student and behavioral data. Trustees also asked whether the University of Wyoming or other local partners could be engaged for an in‑house solution.

Supporters said the cost for one year was small and the tool could save staff time by centralizing disparate data sources; skeptics said the district should ensure staff and users endorse any platform and that security and data standards be proven before contracting.

The board called a roll‑call vote on the motion to approve the one‑year Aubrey contract; the motion failed (recorded as 4 yes, 5 no in the meeting record).