WEB GUIDELINES
Guidelines for Web Document Style & Design
The availability of Internet access in Spotsylvania County Schools provides an opportunity for students and staff to contribute to the school system's (county) presence on the World Wide Web. The system's Web sites provide information to the world about school curriculum, instruction, school-authorized activities, and other general information relating to our schools and our mission. Internet access for the creation of Web pages is provided by the Office of Technology staff. Creators of Web pages need to familiarize themselves with and adhere to the following guidelines and procedures. Failure to follow these guidelines or procedures may result in the loss of authoring privileges.
Content Standards
School principals and county administrators must approve pages prior to being uploaded. (Click here to access form)
Subject Matter
All subject matter on Web pages should relate to curriculum, instruction, school-authorized activities, general information that is appropriate and of interest to others, or it should relate the County Schools or the schools within the County. Therefore, neither staff nor students may publish personal home pages as part of the County Web Sites, or home pages for other individuals or organization not directly affiliated with the County. Staff or student work may be published only as it relates to a class project, course, or other school-related activity.
Quality
All Web page work must be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Documents may not contain objectionable material or point (link) directly to objectionable material. Objectionable material is defined as material that does not meet the standards for instructional resources specified in County procedures. Regarding the question of quality or property of Web page material, appearance, or content, the judgment of the school principal or county administrators will prevail.
Ownership and Retention
All Web pages on the county's server(s) are property of the school system. Web pages will be deleted when a student graduates or moves unless prior arrangements have been made with the School Principal and Office of Technology.
Student Safeguards
1. The PreK-12 Student Release Form must be completed and approval granted by a parent or guardian in order for names, photographs, or work to be published on the Web site.
2. The form is part of the Student Code of Conduct, which is distributed at the beginning of the year.
3. Published email addresses are restricted to staff members or to a general group email address where arriving email is forwarded to a staff member.
4. Web page documents may not include any information which indicates the physical location of a student at a given time, other than attendance at a particular school, or participation in activities.
Technical Standards
Consistency
Each Web page added to the Spotsylvania County Schools Web site(s) must contain certain elements which will provide general consistency for County Web pages.
1. At the bottom of the Web page, there must be an indication of the date of the last update to that page and the name or initials of the person(s) responsible for the page or update. It shall be that person's responsibility to keep the Web page current. Curator can be used instead of the name of the contact person.
2. At the bottom of the Web page, there must be a link that returns the user to the appropriate point(s) in the County Web pages. Ex. back to middle schools and Spotsylvania's main page
3. Additional consistency standards will be developed by the County Schools representatives as the need arises.
4. All Web pages must be submitted to the School Principal or appropriate County Administrator for review prior to their placement of the County server(s). Once the update has been approved, the signed approval form must be sent to the county webmaster.
5. No computers other than the assigned building Web servers shall be configured as Web/FTP servers.
6. Users must exhibit care when creating Web pages with extensive tiled backgrounds or large graphics. Such files require extensive download time, are frustrating for modem users, and slow down the file servers. As a general rule, a Web page should not taker longer than one minute to download over a 28.8 KB modem connection. Graphics files shall be under 60K in size unless special situation exists that requires a larger graphic. Be sure to consider monitor size when creating web pages. 600 x 800 is the current standard.
7. The authorized Curator who is publishing the final Web page(s) for herself or himself, or for a student, will edit and test the page(s) for accuracy of links, and check for conformance with standards outlined in these guidelines.
8. Web pages may not contain links to other Web pages not yet completed. If additional pages are anticipated, but not yet developed, the text that will provide such a link should be included. However, the actual link to said page(s) may not be made until the final page is actually in place on the County server(s). Structure your information to take advantage of the hypertext environment; this is, don't put everything on one page, break it into pieces that can logically stand on their own and link to them. Label links well (make them descriptive and accurate.) Strive for high "scan-ability" - the ability to scan a page and quickly see what is available from it.
9. All Web pages must be given names which clearly identify them. The names of all documents shall coincide with current County naming practices and structures. The main page for all folders and webs shall be index.htm.
10. Create a document that is legible and well-formatted on many of the most widely used browsers.
11. Any graphics, sounds, or video used on Web pages must conform to the format currently used or approved by the County. (gif, jpg, pnp)
12. Web pages may not contain any student address links, any links, or any other type of direct-response links.
13. Final decisions regarding access to active Web pages for editing content or organization will rest with the building principal or appropriate county administrator.
14. All Web pages shall be linked to other County pages in relation to their current location on the server(s).
15. School address and phone number should appear on the index page with identification of being a part of Spotsylvania County Schools. A link to the main Spotsylvania page must appear on the index page.
16. Any changes/additions to Web pages must have a signed approval from the school principal or county administrator sent to the County Webmaster.
17. Take into consideration copyright standards and guidelines.
Other
1. Material on Web pages reflect an individual's thoughts, interests, and activities. Such Web pages do not, in any way, represent individual schools or Spotsylvania County Schools, nor are they endorsed or sanctioned by the individual school or the school system. Concern about the content of any page(s) created by students or staff should be directed to the building principal of that school or to that county administrator.
2. Given the rapid change in technology, some of the technical standards outlined in the guideline may require change throughout the year. Such changes will be made by the Office of Technology with approval of the Superintendent or designee. This Web Page Guideline will be updated on an annual basis, or more frequently if required.