Website Guidelines

School, Department, Program, and Staff Websites
Guidelines and standards for Hart District affiliated websites.

Website Standards & Procedures

The William S. Hart Union High School District provides resources which allow schools, departments, and programs within the District to create and maintain web sites for educational purposes.  Web sites are public venues for educating, providing information, and communicating to our students, staff, and community.  District web sites provide information to the community about school curriculum, instruction, school-authorized activities, and other general information relating to our schools and the District's mission statement. 

Materials displayed on web sites are published on the Internet and accessible to the public.  Therefore the content should be of professional quality and consistent with the District mission statement for providing quality education to the local community. The content on web pages on District servers should comply with all policies and procedures pertaining to content standards, student safeguards, 

Content Standards

• Official Site:  www.hartdistrict.org  is the official William S. Hart Union High School District web site address. 
• School Sites: All school sites will be provided with the tools necessary to update and maintain their school's website.  
• Program/Department Sites:  All District departments will be represented and have information published on the District website.  All updates and changes need to be submitted to the District web team to maintain up-to-date and accurate information.  If a department or program wishes to maintain their own website outside of the District format, they are encouraged to use the web building sources available to them through Google Apps For Education (GAFE) and register a domain through the District Technology Services department.  These sites will be included as a link from the District site and noted as an external link.
• Staff Sites: All staff requiring a web site for instructional purposes will be provided space to create a web site and/or dedicated pages on their site's web page.  
• Subject Matter:  All subject matter on Web sites should relate to curriculum, instruction, school-authorized activities, general information that is appropriate and of interest to others, or it should relate to the 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.
• Content Approval:  Each Site Administrator/Principal has ultimate responsibility and accountability for the content on their school/department/program web site.  Site Administrators must clearly establish content approval processes with their site Webmasters.  Staff members are accountable for the content on their individual staff site.
• Quality:  All Web page work must be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Regarding the question of quality or propriety of Web page material, appearance, or content, the judgment of the building or district administrators will prevail. 
• Appropriateness: Content on District web pages may not contain objectionable material or link directly to objectionable material. Objectionable material is defined as material that does not meet the standards for instructional resources specified in District policies. 
• Accuracy: The District is implementing a monthly web check for the ten months of the school year (August – May) in which all websites should be screened to make sure all information is accurate and up-to-date.  The District Technology Services department will send a reminder to the staff members identified as webmasters for the school websites on the designated date.
• Linking: The William S. Hart Union High School District provides web space for staff, classes, athletics, performing arts, student organizations, programs, services and departments. Additionally, the District provides web space for individual school PTSA/PAC organizations as long as a staff member is designated as the website account manager and assumes responsibility for the content posted to that site.  Organizations that elect to maintain web sites and their content off-site are not the responsibility of the William S. Hart Union High School District.
• Links to External Web Sites:  District affiliated web sites may link to outside organizations that support the District’s educational mission.  The District cannot be held responsible for content on non-District sites. 
• Links to the following external Web Sites are appropriate:  Web sites that have an educational purpose and supplement the curriculum and instruction standards of the District; Sites that contain school performance and accountability data; Information about youth activities or organizations within the community devoted to community interests or child welfare designated as non-profit and non-discriminatory.
• Links to sites related to student activities: These are websites that are not hosted on the District servers, nor maintained by the District, but may be related to programs, services, events, curriculum, and/or departments of the District (e.g. PAC, Student Clubs, Booster Clubs, etc.).  Organizations that elect to maintain web sites off-site are not the responsibility of the William S. Hart Union High School District.
• Content Restrictions:  There are several uses of the Web that can be universally forbidden on District supported accounts. These include:   
• commercial activities where staff or students are promoting activities from which individuals, groups or companies may profit financially or otherwise. This includes fundraising or advertising for commercial or non-commercial organizations, except for District-related organizations and District-related events
• use of the District's name that in any way implies District or school endorsement of other organizations, products, or services without express permission from the District
• use of District or school logos and trademarks on any websites not officially sanctioned by the District
• expression of political views or endorsements
• any use of pornographic, racist, sexist, violent, defamatory or otherwise objectionable material 

Student Safeguards

• Web publishing must follow all policies and procedures in regard to student records and confidentiality. 
• Student names and images may be used on District web sites to promote the educational mission of The District and school programs.
• Web pages may not contain any student email address links. 
• 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 that indicates the physical location of a student at a given time, other than attendance at a particular school, or participation in activities. 
• Parents may opt out of any use of image/student work by indicating their wishes on school registration forms.

Copyright

• Web publishing must follow all pertinent policies and procedures.
• Posting any content that is copyright protected, must be accompanied by appropriate permissions granted and a notice at the bottom of the page crediting the original producer. 

Social Media

• The District supports the use of social media outlets as a means of greater communication with students, staff, and our community.  Online Social Media should adhere to the same content standards, student safeguards, and copyright standards and principles of District web sites.
• Staff must obtain approval of their site and/or district Administration to create online social media accounts for their specific site, program or department.  Site and/or district Administrators must have login and administrator access to social media sites pertaining to their site, program or department.
• All updates and changes need to be submitted to the School Site and District webmasters to maintain up-to-date and accurate information.  
• Place the following disclaimer on social media sites:  The views expressed on this site are that of the website administrator and do not necessarily reflect the views of the William S. Hart Union High School District. 
• Social media sites that allow for public comments should have the following disclaimer:  Comments and posts to this site may be removed at the discretion of the site administrators.