816.  E-MAIL
 

1. Introduction

 2.  Purpose

3.  Scope

4.  Guidelines for
     System Users

5. Guidelines for
    System Administrator

6. Group E-Mail

The Bellefonte Area School District provides technology resources to its students and staff for educational and administrative purposes.  The goal in providing these resources is to promote educational excellence in the Bellefonte schools by facilitating resource sharing, innovation, and communication with the support and supervision of parents, teachers, and support staff.  The use of these technology resources is a privilege, not a right.

With access to computers and people all over the world comes the potential availability of materials that may not be considered of educational value in the context of the school setting.  Bellefonte Area School District firmly believes that the value of information, interaction, and research capability available outweighs the possibility that users may obtain material that is not consistent with the educational goals of the district.

School and commercial electronic mail (e-mail) systems are resources that are provided as communication tools for our employees.  ALL USERS OF THE BELLEFONTE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT E-MAIL SYSTEM MUST USE GOOD JUDGEMENT IN THE COMPOSITION OF ELECTRONIC MAIL AND IN THE SELECTION OF RECIPIENTS.

This policy is effective at all Bellefonte Area School District locations and applies to all system users at any location, including those using privately owned computers or systems to access district computer and network resources.  This policy represents the minimum requirements that must be in place. This policy is not intended to inhibit access to information services that district users have, nor to inhibit the transfer of information of educational value.  However, use of such services to access or attempt to access information not intended for public display or use, or to circumvent or violate the responsibilities of system users or system administrators as defined in this policy is prohibited.

Any information sent via e-mail becomes a district record that may be accessed and its contents disclosed by the Bellefonte Area School District.

District employees under appropriate circumstances, may have the need to view electronic mail messages.  It is also possible that others may view mail messages inadvertently, since there is no guarantee of privacy for an electronic mail message.  If confidentiality is a priority, alternative methods of communication should be considered.

System Users (district employees, board members, students, and other appropriate affiliates) are responsible for:

a.  Understanding, agreeing to, and complying with all security policies governing district computer and network resources and with all federal, state and local laws applicable to the use of computer facilities, electronically encoded data and computer software.

b.  District employees and board members of the Bellefonte Area School District are advised to use only the official e-mail address as issued by the district when conducting district business.

c.  Safeguarding passwords and/or other sensitive access control information related to their own accounts or network access. Such information must not be transmitted to, shared with, or divulged to others.  Similarly, system users must recognize the sensitivity of all other passwords and computer or network access information in any form, and must not use, copy, transmit, share or divulge such information.  Any attempt to conduct such actions by a system user is a violation of this policy.

d.  Taking reasonable precautions, including personal password maintenance and file protection measures, to prevent unauthorized use of their accounts, programs or data by others.

e. Ensuring accounts or computer and network access privileges are restricted to their own use only.  System users must not share their accounts, nor grant accounts to others not otherwise extend their own authorized computer and network access privileges to others.

f.  Using accounts or network access only for the purposes for which they were authorized and only for district-related activities.  Use of accounts or network access to conduct a personal or commercial enterprise, or to promote or advertise a personal commercial enterprise is prohibited. Transmitting or making accessible offensive, obscene or harassing materials, and transmitting or making accessible chain letters, etc, are prohibited.  Unauthorized mass electronic mailings and newsposts are prohibited.  The intentional or negligent deletion or alteration of information or data of others, intentional or negligent misuse of system resources, intentionally or negligently introducing or spreading computer viruses, and permitting misuse of system resources by others are prohibited.

g.  Representing themselves truthfully in all forms of electronic communication. System users must not misrepresent themselves as others in electronic communications.

h. Respecting the privacy of electronic communication.  System users must not obtain nor attempt to obtain any electronic communication or information not intended for them.

System administrator.  Unless otherwise stated, system administrators have the same responsibilities as system users.  However, because of their position, system administrators have additional responsibilities and privileges for specific systems or networks. For systems which they directly administer, system administrators are responsible for:

a.  Preparing and maintaining security procedures that implement district security policies that address such details as access control, backup and disaster recovery mechanisms and continuous operation in case of power outages.

b.  Taking reasonable precautions to guard against corruption, compromise or destruction of computer and network resources. Reasonable precautions for system administrators exceed those authorized for system users. System administrators may also intercept or inspect information en route through a network, under appropriate circumstances.

c.  Treating the files of system users as private.  It is recognized that a system administrator may have incidental contact with system user files, including electronic mail, in the course of his or her duties.  The contents of such files must be kept private. Deliberate access to system user files is authorized only in the event of a suspected security breach, if essential to maintain the system(s) or network(s) for which the system administrator has direct administrative responsibility, or if requested by or coordinated with the system user.

d.  Ensuring that district network (e-mail) addresses are assigned to only those affiliated with the operation of Bellefonte Area School District.

e.  Limiting access to root or privileged supervisory accounts. In general, only system administrators should have access to such accounts.  System users should generally not be given unrestricted access to root or privilege supervisory accounts.  As with all accounts, authorization for root or privileged supervisory accounts must be approved in accordance with this policy.

Acceptable use of group e-mail to communicate district business to employees, board members, students or other affiliates of the Bellefonte Area School District is set forth below:

a.  The district may, as needed, use group e-mail to communicate with all employees, board members, students, or other affiliates of the district (or subsets of them) on matters of district business that require immediate notification or that are of a sufficient level of importance to warrant special attention.

b.  District personnel may elect to use group e-mail to communicate with students or parents in regard to information of educational value and/or school assignments or programming.

c.  The use of any such group e-mails must be approved by the immediate supervisor or should be limited to those matters that affect the majority of the defined group.