Personal email account a must for educators, members

The line between personal and professional life gets blurred sometimes, especially when it comes to email.  While it is convenient to communicate with just one email account, you might want to think twice before casually chatting over school email.

Your school email is district property. That means no one from the district needs to ask your permission to review any emails you have sent or received. This is also the case for any district-issued technology such as laptops or tablets.

Email and technology are not subject to work day hours. It does not matter whether you are “on” or “off-the-clock.” The district owns the property 24/7.

Your personal email, cell phone or computer are not district property. The district does need your permission to access these accounts and devices.

Depending on your school board policy, negotiated agreement and/or staff handbook, the use of personal communication and personal devices may be restricted to outside the contract day.

Consider the following when using school email:

• Are you saying anything disparaging about students, colleagues, administration or the school board? If so, use your personal email on a personal device. Make sure you are sending it to the recipient’s personal email.
• Are you saying something political? Refrain from sending anything promoting or disparaging about ballot measures or political candidates (anyone from city council to the U.S. president).
• Are you saying anything you would want to be private? Be aware that at any time someone can review and read all communications from your school email.

NSEA highly encourages all members to create a personal email account through a non-school platform, such as Gmail or Hotmail to conduct personal and association business. Learn how to set up a personal email account at www.nsea.org/email. If you have questions or concerns about personal communication and your rights, call NSEA at 1-800-742-0047.