(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Rod O’Donnell, Belpre Invitational meet director and high school boys track coach, talked to the Belpre City Schools Board of Education Thursday night about the positive impact the Sept. 13 invitational held at Civitan Park had on both local students and those visiting.

BELPRE — In an effort to follow state guidelines, the Belpre City Schools Board of Education approved Matt Morris as the district’s tech support coordinator Thursday night during its regular meeting.

“We have to adhere to a certain plan… sort of like our emergency operation plans that we do for our buildings,” Morris told the board. “We’ll have to do that specifically for cyber security. It is very involved. We have to go off of what’s called the NIST cybersecurity framework, and then we also have to use what they call CIS controls.”

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a set of voluntary guidelines designed to help organizations assess and improve their ability to prevent, detect and respond to cybersecurity risks. CIS Controls are a prioritized set of actionable, best-practice cybersecurity safeguards developed by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) to help organizations defend against common cyber attacks.

Morris said the district will have to report to the state what they intend to do by next summer.

“Come July 1, we’ll have to have a plan formally in place, approved by the board to say, this is what we’re going to do.”

Superintendent Jeff Greenley said district staff are actively undergoing required training to stay compliant and vigilant, with all administrators completing eight hours of cybersecurity training and other staff two hours.

Morris said despite the constant threats of cyber attacks, he believes the district is in a good place at the moment.

“I’m comfortable with where we are now, but we’re not where we probably should be,” Morris said.

Rod O’Donnell, Belpre Invitational meet director and high school boys track coach, talked to the board about the recent event held in Civitan Park on Sept. 13.

“Our totals this year, we had 91 teams represented… over 600 athletes registered, which is very good,” O’Donnell said. “When you take attendance from spectators and officials, we probably had between 900 and 1,000 people total, working for or watching the meet. So it was very, very successful.”

O’Donnell said the community’s support played a pivotal role in the meet’s success.

“There are too many people to thank because we had many, many volunteers,” he said.

He talked about how he told the team from Cloverleaf High School from Lodi, Ohio, to visit the river and see the sights. He said he saw the team along the river behind his house looking over at Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park when he got home from the event.

“And I looked down and there were 35 kids,” O’Donnell said. “I said something I didn’t think they’d take me up on. I said, ‘Do you want to go over there?’ 35 of them said, yes. So we got the boat and shuttled them over.”

He said that was just an example of the exposure the event had on the city of Belpre.

“It’s just a minor example that those kids will go home… and they’ll say, ‘There was the coolest state park with this big house,'” O’Donnell said.

He said plans are already underway for next year’s meet, scheduled for Sept. 19, 2026, giving Belpre another chance to demonstrate the spirit and teamwork that have made the event a staple in the region.