District Web Policy

The availability of Internet access in District 194 schools provides an opportunity for students and staff to contribute to the School District's presence on the World Wide Web. The District's web sites provide information to the world about school curriculum, instruction, school-authorized activities, and other general information relating to our schools and our District's mission. The pages also serve as a link to educational resources on the internet for students and staff to access. Creators of web pages need to familiarize themselves with and adhere to the following policies and responsibilities. Failure to follow these policies or responsibilities may result in the loss of authoring privileges or other disciplinary measures.

Content Standards

Building and district administrators and/or their designee are responsible for web page approval.
  • The host level for pages shall have the authority and responsibility to review, approve, and post pages to the site. Each host level shall determine its personnel and means for accomplishing these tasks. Said personnel shall be trained in the district web page policies and guidelines.
  • Publishers who have content publication requests denied or who have content removed from a website may appeal to have the content reinstated. The content in question shall remain unpublished until the review process is completed.
  • The Superintendent and/or the Superintendent's designee shall have the ability to veto or remove any content at any time.

Subject Matter

All subject matter on web pages should relate to curriculum, instruction, school-authorized activities, general information that is appropriate and of interest to others, or it should relate to the School District, or the schools within the District. Staff or student work may be published only as it relates to a class project, course, or other school-related activity.

Quality

All web page work must be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Documents may not contain objectionable material or point (link) to objectionable material. Objectionable material is defined as material that does not meet the standards for instructional resources specified in District policies.

Ownership and Retention

All web pages on the District's server(s) are property of the School District. Web pages will be deleted when a student graduates or moves unless prior arrangements have been made.

Student Safeguards

  • Web page documents may include only the first name and the initial of the student's last name.
  • Documents may not include a student's phone number, address, names of other family members, or names of friends.
  • Web page documents may not include any information which indicates the physical location of a student at a given time, other than attendance at a particular school, or participation in activities.
  • Photographic images of students in any form, including video clips, cannot be published on any server accessible beyond the firewall border of the ISD 194 network; internal web servers are excluded from this proviso.
  • Submissions of student work for publication on any non-ISD 194 server shall require parental permission.
  • Staff members name, teaching assignment, photo, email address, and voice mail number may be published. Photos of staff members can be published only with permission of the staff member in question. Staff can choose not to have their email address "hot linked" on web publications

School Board Policies

All documents on District 194 server(s) must conform to School Board Policies and regulations as well as established school guidelines. Copies of Board Policies are available in all school offices. Persons developing or maintaining web documents are responsible for complying with these and other policies. Some of the relevant issues and related Board Policies include the following:
  • Electronic transmission of materials is a form of copying. As specified in District Policy, no unlawful copies of copyrighted materials may be knowingly produced or transmitted via the District's equipment, including its web server(s).
  • Documents created for the web and linked to District web pages will meet the criteria for use as an instructional resource. (reference policy F-160)
  • Any links to District web pages that are not specifically curriculum-related will meet the criteria established in the District Internet Authorized Use Policy (AUP). Any other non curricular materials should be limited to information about other youth activities, agencies, or organizations which are known to be non-sectarian, exclusively devoted to community interests or child welfare, are non-profit , and non-discriminatory. (reference policy F-260)
  • All communications via the District web pages will comply with the District Internet Authorized Use Policy (AUP) and the District Code of Conduct Policy. Offensive behavior that is expressly prohibited by this policy includes religious, racial, and sexual harassment and/or violence.
  • Any student information communicated via the District web pages will comply with District 194 policies on Data Privacy and Public Use of School Records. (reference policy D-80)
  • Any deliberate tampering with or misuse of District network services or equipment will be considered vandalism and will be handled in accordance with the District Internet Authorized Use Policy (AUP).(reference policy F-260)

Technical Standards &Consistency

Each web page added to the District web site(s) must contain certain elements which will provide general consistency for District web pages.
  • At the bottom of the web page, there must be an indication of the date of the last update to that page and the name or initials of the person(s) responsible for the page or update. It shall be that person's responsibility to keep the web page current.
  • At the bottom of the web page, there must be a link that returns the user to the appropriate point(s) in the District web pages.
  • Additional consistency standards will be developed by the District as the need arises.
  • Users are discouraged from creating web pages with extensive tiled backgrounds or large graphics.
  • The authorized teacher who is publishing the final web page(s) for herself or himself, or for a student, will edit and test the page(s) for accuracy of links, and check for conformance with standards outlined in this policy.
  • All web pages must be given names which clearly identify them. The names of all documents shall coincide with current District naming practices and structures.
  • Any graphics, sounds, or video used on web pages must conform to the format currently used or approved by the District.
  • Web pages may not contain any student e-mail address links.
  • All web pages shall be linked to other District pages in relation to their current location on the server(s).

Other

Material on web pages reflect an individual's thoughts, interests, and activities. Such web pages do not, in any way, represent individual schools or District 194, nor are they endorsed or sanctioned by the individual school or the District. Concern about the content of any page(s) created by students or staff should be directed to the building principal of that school or to that school's media specialist.

For additional information or permission to use or link to this policy contact: Greg Utecht, Coordinator of Technology, TIES, and Media Services, grutecht@isd194.k12.mn.us

The District 194 Network Services Committee would like to thank Mary Alice Anderson, Media/Technology Specialist at Winona Middle School and District 861, Winona, MN for their assistance in the development of this document.

If you have comments regarding this page, please contact Linda Swanson, Communications Coordinator.
HTML by Wendy Wulff, graphic design by Sue Kemnitz. Last updated 12/10/04.