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Email Policy

Miller City – New Cleveland School District

August 2007

EMAIL POLICY

The purpose of this policy is to ensure the proper use of Miller City - New Cleveland’s email system and make users aware of what the school district deems as acceptable and unacceptable use of its email system. The Miller City - New Cleveland School District reserves the right to amend this policy at its discretion. In case of amendments, users will be informed appropriately.

LEGAL RISKS

Email is a business communication tool and users are obliged to use this tool in a responsible, effective and lawful manner. Although by its nature email seems to be less formal than other written communication, the same laws apply. Therefore, it is important that users are aware of the legal risks of email:

• If you send emails with any libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks, you and Miller City - New Cleveland District can be held liable.
• If you forward emails with any libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks, you and Miller City - New Cleveland District can be held liable.
• If you unlawfully forward confidential information, you and Miller City - New Cleveland District can be held liable.
• If you unlawfully forward or copy messages without permission, you and Miller City - New Cleveland District can be held liable for copyright infringement.
• If you send an attachment that contains a virus, you and Miller City - New Cleveland District can be held liable.

By following the guidelines in this policy, the email user can minimize the legal risks involved in the use of email. If any user disregards the rules set out in this Email Policy, the user will be fully liable and Miller City - New Cleveland School District will disassociate itself from the user as far as legally possible.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS

The following rules are required by law and are to be strictly adhered to. It is prohibited to:

• Send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks. If you receive an email of this nature, you must promptly notify your supervisor.
• Forward a message without acquiring permission from the sender first.
• Send unsolicited email messages.
• Forge or attempt to forge email messages.
• Disguise or attempt to disguise your identity when sending mail.
• Send email messages using another person’s email account.
• Copy a message or attachment belonging to another user without permission of the originator.

BEST PRACTICES

Miller City - New Cleveland School District considers email as an important means of communication and recognizes the importance of proper email content and speedy replies in conveying a professional image and delivering good customer service. Users should take the same care in drafting an email as they would for any other communication. Therefore the District wishes users to adhere to the following guidelines:

• Writing emails:
  • • Write well-structured emails and use short, descriptive subjects.
    • The District’s email style is informal. This means that sentences can be short and to the point. You can start your email with ‘Hi’, or ‘Dear’, and the name of the person. Messages can be ended with ‘Best Regards’. The use of Internet abbreviations and characters such as smileys however, is not encouraged.
    • Signatures must include your name, job title and company name.
    • Users must spell check all mails prior to transmission.
    • Do not send unnecessary attachments. Compress attachments larger than 200K before sending them.
    • Do not write emails in capitals.
    • Do not use cc: or bcc: fields unless the cc: or bcc: recipient is aware that you will be copying a mail to him/her and knows what action, if any, to take.
    • If you forward mails, state clearly what action you expect the recipient to take.
    • Only send emails of which the content could be displayed on a public notice board. If they cannot be displayed publicly in their current state, consider rephrasing the email, using other means of communication, or protecting information by using a password (see confidential).
    • Only mark emails as important if they really are important.
• Replying to emails:
  • • Emails should be answered within at least 2 working days, but users must endeavor to answer priority emails within 1 days.
    • Priority emails are emails from parents and administrators.
• Newsgroups:
  • • Users need to request written permission from their supervisor before subscribing to a newsletter or news group.
• Maintenance:
  • • Delete any email messages that you do not need to have a copy of, and set your email client to automatically empty your ‘deleted items’ on closing.

PERSONAL USE

We are often asked Email questions regarding personal use and privacy. Again, as stated in the past, the NOACSC has no policy regarding the use of Email for personal purposes. However, we do wish to reiterate to all users that Email use and network use is not private and should not be considered private nor used for private communications.

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

So whether or not you may use Email for personal purposes is up to your local board of education. The NOACSC has no policy. However, no matter what your local policies may be, Email is _NOT_ for_private_ correspondence. You should not consider Email any more private than a postcard. Email passes through many machines from one destination to another and the contents may be read by personnel on any of those machines just as a postcard may be read by anyone through whose hands it passes.

NOACSC and Miller City - New Cleveland personnel receive a copy of all bounced (undeliverable) messages so that we may be alert to any technical problems and assist if possible in getting the messages delivered. Please note that this is one of the reasons why EMail is not a private medium. As we continue to warn, IF YOU WISH TO COMMUNICATE WITH SOMEONE THROUGH A PRIVATE MEDIUM, DO _NOT_ USE EMAIL.

In addition, all work done on and through the NOACSC computer systems becomes the property of Miller City – New Cleveland and does not belong to you, personally. And further, your message may be read by system administrators or others on the remote system you are sending to or by supervisory personnel on systems through which your message travels as it moves through the Internet. If you would be uncomfortable with any of your messages being posted on a public bulletin board, delivered to your administration or school board, or printed in your local newspaper - DO NOT SEND THE MESSAGES VIA EMAIL!

Please also note that the NOACSC network, which is a part of the OECN as mentioned above and which is paid for and maintained with public dollars, may not be used for private commercial purposes.

Never send any confidential information via email. If you are in doubt as to whether to send certain information via email, check this with your supervisor first.

PASSWORDS

The use of passwords to gain access to the computer system or to secure specific files does not provide users with an expectation of privacy in the respective system or document.

EMAIL RETENTION

All emails should be deleted within a reasonable time period. If a user has sufficient reason to keep a copy of an email, the message must be moved a folder and not left in “new mail”.

EMAIL ACCOUNTS

All email accounts maintained on our email systems are property of Miller City - New Cleveland. Passwords should not be given to other people and should be changed once every 6 months. Email accounts not used for 90 days will be deactivated and possibly deleted.

SYSTEM MONITORING

Users expressly waive any right of privacy in anything they create, store, send or receive on the distirct’s computer system. Miller City - New Cleveland can, but is not obliged to, monitor emails without prior notification. If there is evidence that you are not adhering to the guidelines set out in this policy, the Miller City - New Cleveland School District reserves the right to take disciplinary action, including termination and/or legal action.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions or comments about this Email Policy, please contact Denny Mumaw, 419 876-3173 ext 1230, mumaw_d@mail.ml.noacsc.org. If you do not have any questions Miller City - New Cleveland presumes that you understand and are aware of the rules and guidelines in this Email Policy and will adhere to them.

DECLARATION

I have read, understand and acknowledge receipt of the Email policy. I will comply with the guidelines set out in this policy and understand that failure to do so might result in disciplinary or legal action.