1. Protocol/Responsibility
   
2. Requirements
   
3. Web Publishing Recommendations
   
4. Web Technologies Supported on District Server(s)

• Each school is responsible for the development and updates of their pages. The Instructional Technology department will offer training and support for designated staff members.

• It is strongly encouraged that the principal designates a Web page committee. This committee may be made up of administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, community members, and students. The chairman must be a designated staff member.*

• Each school is responsible for acquiring the PISD Publications, Video, Internet Consent and Release Agreement prior to posting any student’s name, picture, art, written work, voice, verbal statements or portraits (video or still) on the school's web pages. This form must be signed by the parent(s) and student, and filed at the campus each year. This form is available at http://k-12.pisd.edu/techs/release.htm

• Upon written approval (email acceptable) by the building principal or the designated staff member*, the web page files will be posted to the district web server by the Instructional Technology department. At no time will files be posted that are submitted directly by students.

Requirements 

• Pages that contain time-sensitive information, such as: calendars, school events, staff information, must be updated monthly to insure current, accurate information.

• The Instructional Technology Department will post web page files as received.

• Web pages must be checked monthly to make sure that links work.

• All Web pages must have a title (which appears on the Web browser’s title bar).

• Each school’s main homepage must include the school’s name, address, phone number, a link to Plano ISD, and a school contact’s PISD email address. 

• Each page must (at minimum) contain a link back to the previous level in the school’s site, and a link to the site’s main navigational page

• Each page, when technically possible, should comply to Web accessibility standards, Section 508, Web-based intranet and internet information and applications. This requirement should be implemented as soon as possible, but no later than May 31, 2005.

• The Plano Independent School District Web Servers are for educational use only. Contents of the site should give information and promote school activities (PTA, classes, staff, departments, sports, school projects, calendars, volunteering opportunities, etc.) Information concerning curricular and non-curricular student groups as approved pursuant to policy FNAB may be posted to the school's Web pages.
  http://www.tasb.org/policy/pol/private/043910/pol.cfm?DisplayPage=CQ(XHIBIT).html

• External Links (Links to sites and content that is not hosted on an official Plano ISD Web server)

  • Commercial Links

    Certain fundraising information and links may be allowed, such as "shopforschool.com" or "marketday.com". These company links should have approval district-wide.

    All other commercials, commercial transactions, or advertisements are prohibited on school pages.

  • Educational Links

Elementary: External links should be discouraged on elementary school pages. This is largely due to the fact that the Curriculum and Instructional Technology departments actively research and provide sites that support and enrich curriculum through the district's instructional Web resources.

Secondary: External links should be allowed as approved by the building principal.

• All official school and district sites must be hosted on Plano ISD Web servers. 

• Teachers may post personal classroom pages with their school's Web site following the same protocol and guidelines presented in this document.

• Files hosted on the Plano ISD Web server(s) and hyperlinks from these files should not contain information that is in violation of (or promotes the violation of) any district policy or regulation nor any local, state, or federal regulation or law. 

• Staff members' PISD email addresses are posted, as public information, on the district's main Web site at http://www.pisd.edu Staff members' PISD email addresses should also be posted on each school's Web site. (It is recommended that schools also include telephone extensions and staff photos, if available.)

• The following student information is generally acceptable to include, if parent(s) have given permission/consent to use it per district release form, on a school's web page.

  • Elementary students: Student’s picture or work with first name, or first name and last initial only.

• Secondary students: Student’s picture or work with first and last name, or first name and last initial, or first name.
  
  No other personal information about a student is allowed, such as email address, phone number, home address.
  
  
• Unauthorized use of copyrighted material is prohibited. Giving credit (web address or active link) to a company that has created a graphic, design, etc. for a school page may be allowed, unless the proxy filter blocks the site.
   
• If a school wants a Web page counter on its site, it must be an "invisible" counter type only.
  
  
• Prohibited items include:
  
  • Personal information about staff and parent volunteers: non-district email addresses, non-district mailing address, and non-district phone numbers except as approved by the building principal. Example: PTSO/PTA/Booster Organization officer/contact requests to have their personal email address listed in the appropriate area on the school's page(s) and principal approves the request. Note: Pictures and names of staff and parent volunteers will be allowed with principal’s approval.
  • Student personal contact information of any kind
• Links to staff, volunteer or student personal home pages
• Links to "non-official" PISD related sites that are hosted on remote/external (non-district) web servers - Examples: athletic booster pages, PTA pages, teacher created classroom pages, etc. 
  
  However, booster organizations, PTA, teachers, etc. may post their pages on their school's Web site following the same protocol and guidelines presented in this document.
  
• "Guest books", "chat areas", "message boards", or similar
  
• Links to sites that are not accessible inside the network (through the "Bess" filter) 

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Web Publishing Recommendations

• The following information should be included on school pages: welcome from the principal, general information about the school (namesake, history, when the school opened, last renovation, etc.), event information (calendar, upcoming meetings, special programs, days off, early release days, etc.), SBIC information (names, addresses and phone numbers of members, committee's role and mission, annual report, and action plan), information about the PTA (officers and board members with phone numbers so that newcomers can access them, events, programs, and volunteer opportunities), pertinent information from student and parent handbooks (policies and procedures on attendance, discipline, tardies, etc.), copy of school newsletter, link to attendance area information, link to test score information, recognition of students and teachers, parenting information to help parents tutor or assist their children, and fundraising activities.

• Use a consistent style on the school’s main pages. (Individual departments, grade levels, programs, etc. may vary, but the administrative and general information pages should maintain consistency in look and navigation.)

• Elementary schools should place a link to the district's Elementary Curriculum home page. The link can be placed on any of the school's pages as desired, but should be present on all "grade level" or "classroom" type pages. The address to use is http://k-12.pisd.edu/currinst/elemen/elemen.htm 

• Pages should be sized so they will display properly in a variety of screen resolutions. Pages should be previewed and tested at least at "640 x 480", "800 x 600", and "1024 x 768".

• Regular text entries on web pages should be limited to the fonts "Arial" and "Times New Roman" on the PC, or "Helvetica" and "Times" on the Macintosh. Any special fonts should be saved and used as graphics to ensure that they display properly.

• Avoid color schemes or backgrounds that make the information on the page hard to read.

• Colors should be "web safe" as much as possible, so they will display properly in 216 colors.

• Avoid using white text or links (white is difficult to print).

• Graphics should be used judiciously. Photos and other graphics should generally not exceed a total 100k (file size) per page.

• Animated GIF files should be used very sparingly and need to be relatively small. The amount, size, and type of graphics used have the most direct affect on the "load time" of Web pages.

• Video and audio files may be used when they are appropriate and are compressed properly. They are generally large files that take long "load times" for the user, and many times require some users (non-district networked machines) to have special plug-ins or viewers/players, in order to view or hear the files. 

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• The district web server does not support "cgi" scripts

• The district web server does not support Microsoft FrontPage Extensions

• All district-networked computers utilize Java capable browsers. Currently, the district supported browser is Internet Explorer 6
  
  
• All district networked computers have the following viewer/plug-ins loaded:

Plano ISD School Web Page Guidelines committee members: 
Roxanne Burleson, Doyle Dean, Don Dempsey, Mary Gorden, Carole Greisdorf, Vicki Halliday, Mary Hewett, David Hitt, Sue Kirk, Jim Long, Bonnie Manley, and Cathy Taylor