ABDB-AP: District Social Media Accounts
West Fargo Public Schools recognizes that many of our educators, learners, families, and community members are active social media users. As a district, we incorporate social media as a part of our communications strategy. These outlets provide new opportunities to promote the school district and build relationships with multiple audiences. Although various classrooms and groups may operate their own social media account, all such accounts associated with West Fargo Public Schools are a voice for the school district.
The primary purpose of any district social media account shall be to create a relevant, respectful, and professional forum for communication of information from and about the district to school families and the larger community. No district social media account is intended to create an unlimited, open public forum.
SOCIAL MEDIA ADMINISTRATOR
For purposes of this policy, social media administrator is defined as an individual who establishes social media accounts, generates and posts social media content, monitors social media content, and maintains social media login information and passwords on behalf of the district. There is to be no less than one social media administrator with full access and login credentials for each district-affiliated social media account. In addition, the Public Relations Department is to be the co-administrator of all district-affiliated accounts by having full access to account credentials.
Social media administrators may generate content and posts on district-affiliated social media accounts; but they may not generate content, comment, or post on any other private or third-party social media accounts on behalf of the district.
Any personally held, private social media accounts belonging to a district social media administrator must be kept and maintained entirely separately from the district-affiliated social media accounts. No district social media administrators may use a district-affiliated social media account as a platform for their personal views, opinions, or information.
District-affiliated social media accounts must be created and maintained with a district-issued email address.
Any personally held, private social media accounts belonging to a district social media administrator must be created and maintained with a personal, non-district-issued email address.
RESIGNATION AND/OR TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT
When a social media administrator leaves their district position associated with a district-affiliated social media account, they must complete one of the following two options prior to the last day of employment.
- Deactivate (delete) the account in its entirety.
- Provide updated account credentials to the Public Relations Department for the account to be transferred to their successor.
APPROVED ACCOUNTS
Except for district-affiliated social media accounts that have been registered with the Public Relations Department, no social media administrators, district employee, member of the Board, or other person acting as an agent of the district shall establish any account, site, page, blog or other similar presence on a third-party website or on any other third-party electronic social media application that purports to represent, or that a member of the public would be likely to reasonably believe represents (i.e., due to the manner in which information is presented), an official or authorized account, site, page, blog, or other similar presence of the full board, the district, any district school, or any district-affiliated program or activity (i.e., athletic teams).
REGISTRATION & REPORTING
A district-affiliated social media account must be registered with the Public Relations Department, thus granting the district secondary rights as a social media administrator.
Any social media accounts able to receive payment for contracts for services, goods, or donations, should request approval to generate the account from the District Business Manager prior to setup. Should the account receive any payments, a quarterly statement of activity should be provided to the Director of Accounting with a plan for fund utilization or remittance to the School District or related buildings.
When accounts are identified as being unregistered, and thus not in compliance with this policy, the procedures outlined in ABCE-AR1: Noncompliant Social Media Accounts apply.
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT CONTENT
Only social media administrators are authorized to generate new content and postings on a district-affiliated social media account. Any feature on a social media platform that would allow the public to generate new content or postings must be disabled by the social media administrator. The public may be encouraged to contact the main office with specific questions, which then may be directed to the appropriate district representative.
The social media administrators reserve the right within their discretion to monitor and remove any post or comment on a district account that may be reasonably believed to violate administrative policy KAE-AP: Online Engagement by District Stakeholders and/or violate a local, state, or federal law. This may include comments or posts that present a threat of violence, assault, harassment, or learner bullying. Any posts or comments removed must be retained in accordance with a social media record retention plan as indicated in KAE-AP: Online Engagement by District Stakeholders.
At the discretion of the social media administrators, the district may choose to use its social media account(s) to include district announcements of school board meetings and activities or the activities, meetings, and accomplishments of any groups that have been organized primarily to support a school-related purpose (such as parent-teacher organizations), provided that the same standards apply to all such groups when similarly situated. As indicated in administrative policy KAAD-AP: Distribution & Posting of Non-Curricular Material in School, non-school events, activities, or accomplishments of external agencies shall not be advertised or promoted through any district social media account(s).
A district-affiliated social media account shall not be relied upon to establish compliance with the requirements for giving public notice of open board meetings or the meetings of other governmental bodies that fall under the purview of the Board or the district. Any notice of such meetings that may be provided through a district-affiliated social media account shall be considered exclusively supplemental in nature.
When providing information on any district-affiliated social media account, the social media administrators shall redirect the public to the official district website (i.e., using an electronic link) whenever that information (and/or additional information) is also available on the district website.
CLOSED GROUPS
The district’s social media account(s) for public communications shall not make use of any private or closed networks or groups. Any member of the public interested in accessing the information the district provides through its public information social media account(s) shall be permitted to have such access, until and unless they are found in be in violation of any district policies governing appropriate online engagement.
LEARNER INFORMATION
In accordance with administrative policy FGA-AP: Student Education Records & Privacy and its associated forms, pictures of identifiable learners engaged in school-related activities may be posted through a district-affiliated social media account, provided that the learner(s) in the pictures are identified only by name and school, grade, or classroom.
RECORDS RETENTION
All district-affiliated social media accounts must verify, as part of the registration process, a record retention plan and/or the ability of the account’s platform to retain records for managing the open records created or maintained through the account.
Adopted: 07/01/22
Reviewed:
Revised: 11/07/23