Lynn Public Schools – General Website Policies    (proposed 11/08)

Each school in the Lynn Public Schools is expected to create and maintain a Web page.  School Webmasters and all who are working on Web pages that will ultimately be on a Lynn Public School site should consult and follow these standards and guidelines.

The Mission of the School Website
The Mission of the Lynn school website is to share information about the school with students, with parents, with the school community, and the world about the school. A school web site should accomplish this with the dignity that is appropriate for an institution of learning. Because a Web page may be the only contact people all over the world have with the school, or with the city of Lynn, every effort should be made to create an impression that is positive and favorable. A Web site is not a "student publication" in the traditional sense, as a school newspaper might be. A Web site should not air controversial issues, criticism of the school, or other information that might tend to create an impression that is less than positive and favorable. In short, a school Web site can and should be considered an information-sharing publication and a public relations tool.

Target Audience
Because a Web site is potentially accessible by everyone in the world, it is impossible to create a site that appeals to all potential audiences. Therefore, school Web sites should consider their primary audience to be the clientele of the school. This includes students, parents, and faculty members. The secondary audience should be the larger community of Lynn. Decisions about the kinds of information to include on a Web site should always be made with these two audiences in mind.

Educational Purpose
Another use of the Web site is to provide educational resources for the students. These resources might take the form of information prepared and posted as background for a special school event, such as background information about a play, and its author, that the school is presenting, or it might take the form of links to Web sites that are related to one or more aspects of the school's curriculum. If a group of students is studying weather, for example, links to sites that deal with meteorology are appropriate. The school Webmaster should maintain contact with all of the teachers in the school so that he or she can be aware of the kinds of educational resources that are appropriate at any given time.

 It should not be considered the Webmaster's responsibility, however, to prepare information on special events or to locate links that support instruction. The teachers who wish to have their students’ use the educational resources of the school Web site are the people responsible for informing the Webmaster of those resources. 
The potential uses of the school Web site for educational purposes are immense, and the site can be a significant educational resource within the school. However, the value of the site for education depends on the quality of the information and links the site contains. Teachers are encouraged to assess carefully links and other information that they request be added to the site and to use these links and information appropriately in instruction.

Involvement of Webmaster, Teachers and Students
Webmasters are encouraged to involve as many teachers and students as possible with the information that is to be put on the school's Web site. A staff member of the school should be designated as Webmaster by the principal, and this person has the ultimate responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the site. Only the Webmaster should have FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to post directly to the district server. The Webmaster must approve any content created by students for posting to the school Web site.

Copyrighted Materials - (Also see Publishing and Copyright Laws Handout)
Great care must be exercised by school Webmasters to avoid infringing on copyrights held by others. This includes images "borrowed" from other Web sites if these are copyrighted, as well as copyrighted musical recordings, stories, poems, articles, or other print material. Do not assume that because the copyright notice is not present that the material in question is in the public domain. It is safest to assume that material is copyrighted, unless notice to the contrary is provided. Educators and students should always credit the sources and display the copyright notice © and copyright ownership information if this is included in the original, even when material is used under the "fair use" doctrine.
Each school Web site that uses sources about which copyright information is not available should include a disclaimer to the effect that it is not the school's intention to use copyrighted material without permission and that the school will immediately remove any such material as soon as the existence of a copyright is brought to the school's attention. One way to facilitate this is to include an e-mail link to the Webmaster as part of the disclaimer.
Sample Disclaimer: It is not our intention to use copyrighted material without permission. If anyone is aware of any copyrighted material on this Web site that is not used with permission, please contact the school Webmaster by e-mail [provide an e-mail link here], and the material will be removed.

Advertisements
School Web sites may contain advertisements for school activities, including fund raisers, and non-profit community events (such as the United Way Campaign, blood drives, etc.) Advertising-related items, such as counters, etc., that serve a useful purpose for the school or the Web site may be included. School Web sites should never include paid advertising unless or until the Superintendent of Schools or his/her designate gives explicit written permission.

Required Content
The contents of Lynn school websites may vary from one school to another. However, as a minimum, each school should:                                                                                          

1) …post key points of contact (names of administrators, important telephone numbers, and address.

 2) …include e-mail addresses (with links, if possible) of administrators, teachers, and others in the school with their district-provided e-mail accounts. School e-mail addresses are public information and, as such, are proper tools for students and parents to communicate with school personnel.

3) …include a PTA / PTO / or School Council page on their website and assist the organization

It is recommended that you consider each of the following and discuss them with your Administrators:

As a courtesy, the school Web site may include links to the Web sites of the Business Partners and other groups that make significant contributions to the school.

Links to Other Sites
Part of the greatness of the World Wide Web is precisely that it is a web, with sites linked to one another. Schools are encouraged to link to sites that are appropriate to the educational mission of the school or that are of general interest to the website's primary audience. This includes standard WWW search engines. Schools should consider include a disclaimer that they are not responsible for the contents of the sites to which they are linked. However, the Webmaster does have the responsibility for checking each link on the school's site to make sure that information at the linked site is appropriate. Furthermore, the Webmaster is responsible for maintaining the links, including adding new ones that become available and deleting those that stop functioning.

Maintenance of Sites
Webmasters should set a timeline for minimum maintenance of their sites, such as a regular update once a day, once a week, or once a month.

Back to Web Workshop 2008