How School District 27 Built a Security-First IT Culture in the Heart of BC

With IX Solutions as a long-term partner, the district transformed a fragile IT foundation into one of the most secure and well-architected environments in the province.

Leading IT in One of BC's Most Geographically Expansive Districts

Running IT for the Cariboo-Chicoltin School District—or School District 27—is no small undertaking. With nearly 5,000 students, 1,000 staff, and 20 schools spread across 23 sites, the district covers a geographic area the size of Switzerland—stretching six hours from East to West across the northern interior of British Columbia. 

Sean Cameron, Director of Instruction, oversees the district's IT department alongside a team of five: three system administrators and two field technicians. It's a capable team, but a lean one—and in a district of this size and complexity, they need all the support they can get.

"Our team is skilled," Sean says. "But identifying trusted partners that can augment what we're able to do ourselves and help us move forward with more complex IT initiatives—that's where our partnership with IX originates."

A District Ready to Move Forward

When Sean assumed oversight of the IT department, the district was operating on outdated systems without a clear roadmap for where it needed to go. Hardware was aging, enterprise security was limited, and the path forward wasn't well-defined. Knowing that an honest external view was the right place to start, Sean commissioned a formal IT optimization roadmap with IBM—a structured assessment that surfaced the gaps and helped prioritize what needed to happen first.

With that roadmap in hand, the next step was finding the right partner to help execute it. For Sean, that wasn't a difficult decision. He had previous experience working with IX Solutions at another school district, and he trusted their work, their culture, and their ability to deliver.

Building the Foundation: Network Infrastructure First

The first major initiative was foundational: a complete overhaul of the district's wired and wireless network infrastructure. The existing network had gaps in both performance and security—insufficient to support a large, geographically dispersed district with modern demands.

IX architected and led a full Aruba network deployment, including wireless access points, switches, and a complete redesign of the district's virtual network architecture. Alongside that came the implementation of network access control using Clearpass—a key layer of security that ensured only authorized devices could access district systems.

IX guided the district's internal team through the full redeployment, making knowledge transfer an explicit part of the process rather than an afterthought.

"It would take a lot longer and there'd be a lot of extra cost and risk exposure without being able to work with someone like IX Solutions," Sean says. "A district our size would really struggle to figure this out on our own."

Today, Sean and his team recognize their district’s network infrastructure as one of the strongest deployments of its kind in the province. 

Securing the Environment: A Multi-Layered Security Uplift

With the network foundation in place, attention turned to a broader, multi-layered security program. This work unfolded across several integrated initiatives.

1. Endpoint Security — IX led the implementation of certificate-based security across all district endpoint devices—a technically complex undertaking that significantly raised the security bar for every machine issued to staff and students.

2. Firewall Review and Hardening — Working from a zero-trust model, IX led a comprehensive review and hardening of the district's firewall policies, aligning the environment with Ministry best practice recommendations and tightening what had previously been left open.

3. Microsoft 365 Security Uplift — Like many BC school districts, School District 27 holds A5 licensing for Microsoft 365—among the most feature-rich licensing available in K-12. But having the license and maximizing it are two different things. When the district upgraded to A5 to give teachers access to Teams Phone lines, a flood of security alerts followed. Rather than ignore them, Sean engaged IX.

“When A5 got turned on, all of a sudden all these alerts and notifications started coming in," Sean recalls. "I asked the IX team: what do we do about this? They said, ‘we're going to have to do some configuration.”

IX walked the team through the full configuration process: optimizing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, enabling BitLocker disk encryption, activating Defender for Office email security, and implementing Conditional Access policy optimization.

4. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Re-implementation — Alongside the M365 work, IX led a full review and re-implementation of multi-factor authentication across the district, creating a tiered, policy-driven approach that connected back to the certificate initiative and brought all the security layers into a coherent, integrated whole.

"It's a really integrated and robust security platform," Sean says. "We feel we're in as good a place as any district in the province from a security standpoint. That's a significant accomplishment for a district our size—and it's only possible by working with a partner like IX."

That sentiment is echoed by the IX team who led the work.

“School District 27 approached our security uplift as a true partner—curious, well prepared, and most importantly, genuinely invested in finding the right solution for their environment,” says Eddie Moncada, Modern Security Consultant at IX Solutions. “Their knowledgeable and technical team wasn’t afraid to ask hard questions and push back where necessary, helping us design a custom solution that significantly improved the district’s security posture without disrupting their day-to-day operations.”

More Than Projects: A Support Block That Extends the Team

Beyond defined projects, IX provides the district with an ongoing block of support hours—a flexible resource that effectively extends the expertise available to their internal team.

For a small IT department in a mid-sized district, this changes what's possible. When a technician completes a configuration and wants a second set of expert eyes before committing, they can call on IX. When Sean wants to bring a new initiative to the Superintendent with confidence, he knows IX has reviewed it.

"Our team takes care of what they need to take care of, and we use the specialized expertise from the IX team as required," Sean explains. And that confidence travels up the chain. "If I say it's going to be led by IX, right away having their stamp of approval lowers my risk exposure and gives everyone confidence."

That confidence extends all the way to the district’s senior leadership. 

An IT Environment Among the Best in the Province

The distance School District 27 has traveled is significant. Five years ago, limited capacity, aging systems, and no clear path forward held the district back. Today, going on six years of partnership with IX Solutions, Sean is proud of their technical standing as an organization.

"In every area that we've worked with IX, I would say we're right at the top of the province," he says. "A district in the northern interior of BC, able to say we have one of the best network deployments in the province—that's directly connected to partnering with IX and having their leadership."

It’s an assessment that Chris King, Vice President at IX Solutions, wholeheartedly agrees with.

“School District 27 has done something genuinely rare—deliberately transforming a once at-risk environment into one of the most secure, well-architected, and resilient K–12 IT environments in British Columbia,” says Chris. “That doesn't happen by accident. It takes disciplined planning and a security-first culture, and their team has built both.”

That progress has also shifted the culture within the IT team itself, as the district’s technicians actively look for opportunities to bring IX in.

"Our field techs and system admins are asking, does IX do that? Can we bring them in on this? That's a very positive place for a district to be," Sean says. "They'll help us be better, so why not bring them in?"

The Case for Partnership and Not Going It Alone

Sean is candid about the economics of IT in K-12. Recruiting top-tier specialists to a smaller community is nearly impossible—and even if you could, you wouldn't need them full-time. What you need is the ability to access world-class expertise on the problems that matter, when they matter.

"IX Solutions might have a person that is the best in the industry at what they do," he says. "We couldn't afford that person even if they wanted to come live in Williams Lake. And even then, we don't need that person full-time—we need five percent of that person on a specific project. That's what the partnership gives us."

For districts still hesitant to invest in external expertise, Sean's message is direct: you can pay now, or pay more later.

"Not investing is not really an option anymore. And in the short and long run, it's far more economical to partner with a company that can do it twice as fast, do it right the first time, and provide professional development and training for your team."

"A lot of companies say they're customer-focused, but with IX, for every person you deal with, that comes out very clearly. They make sure that success happens—and it doesn't matter if you're the largest school district in the province or a district like ours."

After six years, that relationship has become something the district builds on—a genuine partnership that gives Sean, his team, and district leadership the confidence to move forward.

"They exist as a true partner—not just a service provider that's about the contract. It's about building trust and a long-term relationship built on being able to deliver."