Acceptable Use Guidelines for Electronic Information Systems for All Users: E-Mail, Networks and Internet Safety Requirements
2022.1P

The following rules and procedures constitute the Acceptable Use Guidelines for use of the district’s electronic information systems. Each user of the system (staff, volunteer or vendor) must agree in writing to abide by these rules in order to receive access to the system.

Network

Use of the system must be in support of education and research and consistent with the mission of the district. Incidental personal use is acceptable only if the District does not incur additional cost or lose employee time. The district reserves the right to prioritize use and access to the system, and does not intend to create a First Amendment forum for free-expression purposes.

Any use of the system must conform to state and federal law, network provider policies and licenses, and District policy. Use of the system for personal profit or commercial solicitation is prohibited. Use of the system for charitable purposes must be approved in advance by the superintendent or designee.

The system constitutes public facilities and may not be used to support or oppose political candidates, initiatives, or ballot measures, or for unauthorized lobbying activities.

No use of the system shall serve to disrupt the operation of the system by others. Internal wide distribution of email not authorized by the Communication Department shall be treated as unwarranted and removed from the system. System components including hardware or software shall not be destroyed, modified or abused in any way.

Malicious use of the system to develop programs or institute practices that harass other users or gain unauthorized access to any entity on the system and/or damage the components of an entity on the network is prohibited.

Users are responsible for the appropriateness and content of material they transmit or publish on the system. Hate mail, harassment, discriminatory remarks, or other antisocial behaviors are expressly prohibited. Use of the system to access, store or distribute obscene or pornographic material is prohibited.

User files and communicationson the systemare notprivate or confidential. The district reserves the right to monitor, access, use and disclose E-mail or other information for any reason. Diligent effort must be made to conserve system resources. For example, users should frequently delete E-mails and unused files.

Security

System accounts are to be used only by the authorized owner of the account for the authorized purpose. Users shall not share their account identification or password with another person or leave an open file or session unattended or unsupervised. Account owners are ultimately responsible for all activity under their account. Computers shall not be secured at the BIOS (basic system) level.

Users shall not seek information on, obtain copies of, or modify files, other data, or passwords belonging to other users, or misrepresent other users on the system, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the system. Encryption (a coding process of securing information)may only be used with prior district approval from the system administrator.

In the interest of security, the District will determine what system options may be made available to the end user.

Personal Security

Personal information such as addresses and telephone numbers shall remain confidential when communicating on the system.

Use of personal equipment must adhere to all district policies and guidelines. Non-district computers shall not be connected to the network system. The district will not be responsible for any loss of or damage to such equipment.

Copyright

The unauthorized installation, use, storage or distribution of copyrighted software or materials on district computers is prohibited.

Filtering and Monitoring

Filtering software and service are and will be used on all computer with access to the Internet. This will block or filter access to visual or text depictions that are obscene, contain child pornography, or is harmful to minors. Staff will, to the best of their ability, monitor minors’ use of the Internet in school, and will take reasonable measure to prevent access by minors to inappropriate material on the Internet or World Wide Web, and restrict their access to materials harmful to minors.

Staff shall not remove or circumvent the filtering system. Internet websites are continuously verified for appropriate content; however, if a staff accidentally accesses an inappropriate site they must inform district Information Technology Services.

General Use

The district has the right to determine whether specific uses of the system are consistent with these guidelines. The district may revoke access to the system and take other appropriate corrective or legal action for any activity in violation of these guidelines. Such actions may include discipline up to and including termination for employees. The District may report any activity district administrators suspect is in violation of the law to the appropriate law enforcement authorities (e.g. local police, State Auditor, Public Disclosure Commission, or Superintendent of Public Instruction.)

The district makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, for the service it is providing. The district will not be responsible for any damages suffered, including the loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, misdeliveries, or service interruptions caused by its own negligence, errors or omissions. Use of any information obtained via the system is at one’s own risk. The district also denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through its services.

A copy of the User Agreement Form must be signed and recorded by Human Resources for any user to maintain email and network access.

User Agreement Form - AUP (61K PDF)

October 22, 2001