The Board is committed to the effective use of electronic mail by all employees of the District in conduct of their official duties. The intent of this policy is to assist employees in using electronic messages. It is not meant to limit or discourage the use of electronic mail for conducting business. Rather, it is to establish a framework for the proper use of electronic mail as an official business tool.

The District complies with all Federal and State laws pertaining to electronic mail.

When available, the District's e-mail system must be used by employees for any official District e-mail communication. Personal e-mail systems may be blocked at any time due to network security, SPAM, or virus protection.

Employees should take all necessary precautions to prevent viruses from entering the District's network when opening or forwarding any e-mail attachments from unknown sources or that may contain viruses.

Employees must obtain permission from the site administrator before sending or forwarding mass e-mails or chain letters for District or nondistrict purposes.

Employees may join mailing lists that are work-related and do not generate an excessive amount of e-mail.

Staff must comply with District requests for copies of e-mail records in their possession that pertain to the business of the District, whether or not such records reside on a computer housed or owned by the District. State and Federal law exempts certain documents and information within documents from disclosure, no matter what their form. Before electronic mail is released pursuant to a public records request, all exempt information in it must be deleted.

E-mail retention is the responsibility of the e-mail user. Board e-mails are retained for only thirty (30) days for disaster recovery and not to provide for future retrieval. The District does not maintain central or distributed e-mail archives of any electronic mail sent or received.

F.S. 119.011, 257.05
AGO 96-34