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Williamson County Schools Computer Guidelines
- Updated
2/17/09
(in accordance
with the Williamson County Board of Education policy 4.404, 4.406,
4.406p, 4.407, 5.404)
Laptop Procedures
The Information
Technology (IT) Department, in accordance with board policy has outlined the following
guidelines. In order to keep the voice and data network running
securely and in optimal condition, all computer users must adhere to
the following guidelines. Failure to follow all or part of these
guidelines, or any action that may expose Williamson County Schools
to risks of unauthorized access to data, disclosure of information,
legal liability, or potential system failure is prohibited and may
result in disciplinary action up to and including loss of network
privileges, confiscation of computer equipment, suspension, termination of
employment and/or criminal prosecution.
1. Employee
Compliance
All employees must
comply with the Williamson County Board of Education policy
5.404
4.407
4.404,
Williamson County
Schools Web Publishing Guidelines,
and the Williamson County Schools Computer Guidelines.
2. Student Compliance
All students must
comply with the
Williamson County Board of
Education policy
4.406, the
Acceptable Use, Media Release,
and Internet Safety Guidelines in English
(Spanish Version)
and the Williamson County Schools
Computer Guidelines.
Students who wish to
have their photographs, names, or work posted on the Williamson
County School's website or other publications and media must
first receive consent by obtaining a parent or legal guardian
signature on the
Acceptable Use, Media Release,
and Internet Safety Guidelines in English
(Spanish Version)
Students in grades
7-12 may be issued an email account for the purpose of
completing school work. Accounts may include access to chat and
message boards within the account group. Student email accounts
are filtered for content and monitored by authorized personnel.
Students are not allowed to use the account to communicate
outside of the school account system. Students must use
appropriate language in all communications. The use of
profanity, obscenity and offensive or inflammatory language is
strictly prohibited and will result in disciplinary action.
3. Network Security
Only users with
valid Williamson County School network accounts are authorized
to use the Williamson County School's network and computer
equipment. Employees and students must only use their assigned
network account. You are prohibited from giving anyone your
network password or network account information other than to
authorized IT personnel.
Do not allow anyone
to use a computer while you are logged in. All computer users
should always logoff from the network before leaving their room
or office.
For the protection
and security of Williamson County Schools data, all computers
attached to the Williamson County Schools physical network (a
computer located at a Williamson County Schools facility either
wired or wireless), must be the property of Williamson County
Schools. It is prohibited to attach a computer that is not
property of Williamson County Schools to the network without
first receiving approval from IT Department management.
Use of software
designed to gain passwords or access beyond the rights assigned
to a user or computer are strictly prohibited. Use of such
programs risk the security of the network and is considered
"hacking". The intent to control unauthorized
access is a violation of State and Federal law. Violators will be prosecuted.
Should you inadvertently discover passwords or any other measure
used to control unauthorized access, you must report this to the
IT Department.
No user shall
encrypt files or folders or attempt to hide files or folders
stored on a network server or local workstation. Any encrypted
or hidden files will be deleted. Encrypted and hidden files are
a security risk since they cannot be managed by IT
administrators.
All network users
may be monitored at any time by authorized personnel for the
purpose and inspection of compliance to these guidelines.
4.
Workstation/Computer Use
All employees and students are
prohibited from installing any software on any computer unless
authorized in writing by a member of the IT Department. Illegal
downloads or use of copyrighted software, music, videos,
pictures or other files is strictly prohibited. Only compatible,
legitimate and approved school related software is acceptable.
All employees and students are
prohibited from using any Williamson County School's computer for illegal, obscene,
pornographic, personal profit or commercial
activity.
Changing or tampering with any
computer's system configuration is strictly prohibited.
Any attempt to
bypass the State provided internet content filtering by use of a
proxy or other means is strictly prohibited unless authorized.
Any desktop applications designed
to limit access to students or staff, other than those used by
the IT Department for network security purposes, is prohibited.
Use of a broadcast messenger
service such as "net send" to send messages over the network is
prohibited except in the case of an emergency.
All computers must be turned off
before 8:00pm every evening in order to complete the backup of all files on the server and for server
maintenance.
Computers found to be tampered
with or computers with unapproved software or files will be
re-formatted and restored to compliance.
No
computer shall be moved by anyone other than IT Department
personnel unless approved by a member of the IT Department.
5. Server Software
Only authorized IT
Department personnel will install software to the server.
6. Saving Documents
Employees and
students must save all documents to the network. Do not save any
applications to the network, only documents and data. Due to
server storage limitations, any applications or executables
residing in your user directory will be deleted. (Exception is
given where individuals have created applications as part of a
curriculum assignment and such activity has been approved by a
member of the Williamson County Schools faculty or staff.) Any
documents residing solely on your local computer are at risk. It
is your responsibility to make sure important documents and data
are saved to the network.
7. Network
Drives/Shares
Network drives
have been provided to all users for the ease of use of network
resources. Drive letters assigned to an authorized network user
are specific to that individual user. Any attempt to gain access
to a drive that is not assigned to your user account is strictly
prohibited.
All users have access to a Public directory on the server. This
is your (“P” drive). Please use it with caution as anyone can
read and possibly delete information in this directory. Make
sure you have a backup of anything you place in this directory.
The IT Department will not restore anything deleted from the
(“P” drive).
All teachers, librarians and office staff have access to a
Teacher directory on the server. This is your (“T” drive). Only
teachers, librarians and office staff within your school will
have access to this directory. It can be used for more secure
documents.
8. Viruses and Virus
Protection
The Williamson
County School's IT Department will provide all virus protection
and related software for all workstations and servers. Virus
protection and related software will be installed by authorized
IT personnel unless otherwise approved by the IT Department.
Do not open any
email attachments from anyone you do not know. Never send anyone
an email you may suspect contains a virus. The intentional
spreading of messages or files containing damaging or
destructive programs or data is against federal law. Violators
will be prosecuted. If you feel your computer may contain a
virus, please contact the IT Department immediately.
There are many virus
hoaxes. Never delete system files from a computer in order to
remove a potential virus without first checking with the IT
Department to make sure the virus is valid and not a hoax.
No student or
employee is allowed remote access (access from outside the WCS
network) to any Williamson County School network resource from a
non-WCS computer without first obtaining a working and updated
virus protection program. This includes, but is not limited to,
VPN Access and Webmail. Recommended virus protection programs
include Sophos, AVG, Trend Micro, McAfee and Symantec.
9. Copyright Policy
For
the Williamson County School's copyright policies, click on the
following link...
Williamson County Board of
Education policy 4.404
10. Email
The Williamson
County Schools email system has been provided for the internal
and external communication of employees and board members.
Responsible and ethical use of the email system is required. The
email system may not be used for personal gain, or political or
religious views or in any illegal, offensive or unethical
manner. The email system is intended only for valid and
legitimate Williamson County Schools related communication.
Williamson County Schools does reserve the right to access any
employee’s e-mail for any business purpose, and also for
inspection for disciplinary or legal actions.
11.
Donations
The current
minimum standard for all donated computers (either PC or Mac) are
Intel Pentium 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo or above
with 30 GB hard drive and 1 GB RAM. Regardless
of the intended use of the donated computer, all donations must
comply with this minimum and be approved by the IT Department.
DO NOT ACCEPT A DONATION WITHOUT FIRST GAINING APPROVAL BY THE
IT DEPARTMENT.
Williamson County
Schools reserves the right to modify these guidelines as deemed
necessary in order to provide a safe and secure environment for the
technological needs of employees, students and board members. We
appreciate your cooperation in following these guidelines.
Thank You,
Information Technology Department
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