Board of Education Considering Regulating Employee Use of Social Media

The Board of Education is reviewing a policy that would formally regulate the use of social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for all employees of the Manchester Public Schools system. 

Interim Superintendent Richard Kisiel discussed the policy with the school board during the Monday, May 14, meeting of the Board of Education. 

"We're moving into a new area of the use of technology," Kisiel told the school board. "We don't have any policy that regulates the use of social media by our employees. We need to establish some guidelines." 

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According to a draft of the proposed social networking policy provided by Kisiel, the policy aims to "regulate theuse of social media by employees, including employees’ personal use of social media, when such use substantially and materially interferes with the employee’s bona fide job performance or the working relationship between the employee and the employer by:

• Interfering with the work of the school district;
• harassing coworkers or other members of the school community;
• creating a hostile work environment;
• breaching confidentiality obligations of school district employees;
• disrupting the work of the school district;
• harming the goodwill and reputation of the school district in the community; 
• or violating the law, board policies and/or other school rules and regulations." 

The policy states that employees cannot use school system resources, such as phones or computers, for personal social networking use, makes employees individually responsible for their social media posts and presence (including any liabilities that may arise), and requires employees to "maintain appropriate professional boundaries" with students, parents and colleagues. The full policy is attached to this article as a PDF. 

Failure to adhere to the policy would lead to disciplinary action, including "the termination of employment consistent with state and federal law."

"This is not a question of free speech, it's a question of protecting the integrity of the district," Kisiel told the school board. "It's about protecting students." 

Before the social networking guidelines could become policy, the Board of Education must vote to approve them. 

If approved, .