Email Communication Policy

Email Communication Policy

Purpose
There are four forms of communication: face-to-face, telephone, text, and email. Email is a fast and effective tool, but it needs to be used appropriately.

Before sending an email to staff, students, or parents, several things should be considered. Clear guidelines need to be established to ensure that communication between staff, students, and parents is appropriate.

Care must be taken when writing emails as they are void of essential cues such as facial expressions, hand gestures, and vocal intonations, which all help give context and meaning to written communications.

The Southwest Preparatory School District, email usage policy, provides guidance for employee use of district email addresses.

Staff, teachers, and administrators should ensure that they clearly understand the limitations of using district email accounts and adhere to district policies regarding email usage on work devices and networks.

The goal is to protect our confidential data from breaches and safeguard our reputation and technological property.

Scope
This policy applies to all employees, vendors, and partners who are assigned (or given access to) a district email. This email may be assigned to an individual (e.g. [email protected]) or department (e.g. [email protected])

Policy Elements
District emails are powerful tools that help employees in their jobs. Employees should use their SWPREP email primarily for work-related purposes.

Employees must adhere to this policy at all times, in addition to our confidentiality and data protection guidelines. SWPREP administrators have the right to monitor and archive district emails.

Inappropriate use of Work Email

Employees must not:

Sign up for illegal, unreliable, disreputable, or suspect websites and services
Send unauthorized marketing content or solicitation emails
Promote political campaigns, issues, or candidates
Register for a competitor's services unless authorized
Send insulting or discriminatory messages and content
Intentionally spam other people's emails, including their coworkers
Email students using student’s personal emails - All communication to students should be made to the student’s school district email.

Appropriate use of District Email

Employees are allowed to use their district email for work-related purposes without limitations.

For example, employees may use their email to:

Communicate with current or past parents, community partners, and school supporters.
Log in to purchase software where legitimate access has been granted
Give their email address to people they meet at conferences, career fairs, or other district events for district purposes
Sign up for newsletters, platforms, and other online services to help them with their jobs or professional growth

Personal use

Employees are allowed to use their district email for limited personal purposes. However, please be aware that all email accounts are the property of Southwest Preparatory School and may be subject to search or monitoring at any time. It is important to use the email system responsibly and in accordance with the school's policies.

For example, employees can use their district email to:

Register for classes or online meetings
Send emails to friends and family as long as they don't spam or disclose confidential information.
Download ebooks, guides, and other content for their personal use as long as it is safe and appropriate.

Email Security

Email is often the medium of hacker attacks, confidentiality breaches, viruses and other malware.

These issues can compromise our reputation, legality and security of our equipment.
Employees must:

Select strong passwords with at least eight characters (capital and lower-case letters, symbols, and numbers) without using personal information (e.g., birthdays.)
Remember passwords instead of writing them down and keeping them secret
Change their email password every year
Employees should always be vigilant to catch emails that carry malware or phishing attempts.

We instruct employees to:

Avoid opening attachments and clicking on links when content is not adequately explained (e.g., "Watch this video, it's amazing.")
Be suspicious of clickbait titles, which are headlines designed to grab attention and entice people to click on a link or read an article, often by using sensationalized or misleading language.
Check email and names of unknown senders to ensure they are legitimate.
Look for inconsistencies or style red flags (e.g. grammar mistakes, capital letters, excessive number of exclamation marks.)
If an employee is unsure whether an email they received is safe, they can refer it to the IT Department.

Response Procedures

District employees should respond to parents, co-workers, and administrators within 24 hours.
When a staff member receives an email from a coworker, parent, or student that requires more time to gather information and reply properly, the staff member should respond by acknowledging that the email has been received and indicating when an informed response will be sent.
Staff, parents, and students are encouraged to send emails during business hours - Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.- during the school year.
Emails that are sent to staff outside of business hours are not required to be responded to until business hours re-commence.
Parents and students acknowledge that some staff work part-time, and in these circumstances, part-time staff are not required to respond to emails outside of their scheduled working times.
Staff on leave (including school holidays, long service leave, sick leave, etc.) are not expected to check their email.
To maintain communication and stay informed during the summer break, staff members are expected to check their emails at least once a week.
When staff are on extended leave, staff will activate an auto-reply message detailing relevant leave dates to ensure that any emails sent to them are responded to and people are aware of who to contact during their absence.
Employees who will be out of the office and not responding to emails should set an out-of-office response with contact information for another employee who can answer their questions.

For example:
Thank you for your email. I am out of the office from Monday, May 5 through Wednesday, May 7. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Jane Doe at [email protected] or call her at 210-555-2017.

Email Signature

Employees will use a district-created email signature template for all external and internal emails to ensure uniformity, brand recognition, and professionalism.

Teachers, staff, and administrators who represent the district through their email communications should close their emails with this uniform template.

Here is the template of the only acceptable email signature for internal and external emails:

[Employee Name] 

[Phone number]

[Employee Title]

[Work Address]

Employees are not permitted to include images other than school logos, quotes, icons, emojis, links, or videos in their external or internal email signatures.

Writing a Proper Email

All mail written internally should be constructed professionally and provide important information.
The purpose of the email should be clear, i.e., if the response requires an action or if the information is ‘For Your Information’ only.
Emails should always be respectful, professional, courteous, inclusive and concise.
Staff should use proper punctuation and grammar and write in complete sentences.
Emails should not use sarcasm when the recipient can’t see body language or hear the tone of voice to gauge how to react to a comment.
Emails are best when they are brief and informative. Issues that require a detailed discussion should be dealt with in person or over the phone.
Staff may choose to respond to a parent or student email by asking for an in-person or phone conversation with the parent or an in-person meeting with the student if they deem this to be the most appropriate means of communication to discuss the matter raised in the email.
Parents may choose to respond to a staff email by asking for an in-person or phone conversation with the staff member if they deem this to be the most appropriate means of communication to discuss the matter raised in the email. Staff will make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request.
Staff should not respond to abusive or confrontational emails and will instead forward them to the Assistant Principal and/or Principal.
Time-sensitive and highly important or confidential information should be communicated via phone.
The subject line should be appropriate and consistent with the reason for the email.
Staff should use an appropriate salutation and email closing.

Learn More: How To Write a Professional Email (With Tips and Examples) https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-a-professional-email

Proper Channels for Sending Secure Information

Please see a district leadership member before sending conference info via email.

District-Wide Email Access

Only authorized employees may send out a district-wide Eblast or communication on behalf of a campus or the school district.

Authorized personnel must only send out district-wide communications that are relevant and important to SWPREP employees.
District-wide communication will include proper grammar, punctuation, and salutations, an authorized signature, and complete sentences.
Eblasts sent to all district employees must be approved by a SALT member.

Disciplinary action

Employees who do not adhere to the district email policy will face disciplinary action up to and including termination.
Example reasons for termination are:
Using a district email address to send confidential data without authorization
Sending offensive or inappropriate emails to our customers, colleagues or partners
Using a district email for an illegal activity
Emailing student images, behavioral information or personal directory information