• Website Guidelines

    Approved site editors are required to manage their individual school web pages on behalf of Pasco School District. These web pages must reflect the professional image of Pasco School District, its employees, and students. The purpose of web pages is to:

    • Educate: Content provided on the web pages should be usable by students, teachers, and parents to support student success. It will introduce visitors to your class and your programs.
    • Inform: Content may also inform the community about the school, teachers, students, or departments, including information about curriculum, events, class projects, and some policies. 
    • Celebrate: Content should celebrate the success of teachers and students within your school.


    Responsibilities and Ownership of Data

    Individual site editors are responsible for:

    • Updating their content so it's timely.
    • Ensuring all links are functional, up-to-date, and linked correctly.
    • Maintaining content for their pages, such as web banners, event calendars, and content on pages.
    • Coordinating with the Public Affairs Department to create graphics for the page. 
    • Writing parent and student-friendly text. 


    Frequency of Updating
    In all cases, content must be published in a time frame that is relevant and timely. People will visit websites whose content is fresh and up-to-date. Plan adequately. Remember to remove or inactivate expired items and to test links thoroughly.

    Best Practices

    • Personal information about students or staff may not be published without permission.
    • Grammar, spelling, and formatting of content should be correct. Use spell-check.
    • Do NOT use “Under Construction” words or graphics.
    • Do not assume that the reader knows acronyms.
    • Do not underline words, as that indicates a hyperlink and may be confusing.
    • All pages and links should be curriculum, instructional, or school-related, and appropriate for educational purposes.
    • Web banners and images should be sized appropriately by the Department of Public Affairs.
    • Web pages cannot be used for commercial purposes.
    • Use link text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, instead of using: To see what's going on at our school, click here! Use: See what's going on at our school!
    • Links to external websites should open in a new window.
    • It is best to post optimized .pdf versions of files; however, web pages should contain more than just a listing of .pdf files.
    • Be aware of the size of the files you post. Multimedia files are often large and consume more disk space. Videos can be posted to the district YouTube Channel and linked from there.
    • Do not use all uppercase letters.
    • Pictures need to be in .jpeg or .png format.
    • For a student's name and/or picture and/or information about the student to appear on a school website or approved social media site, the school must verify parental permission. Permissions are obtained on the student application at the start of each school year. There is no need for additional forms. Please check with your school data specialists to get the appropriate listing. IN the case where parents have granted permission for student photos to be used, schools should still proceed with sensitivity and caution. Filenames for pages and images should be checked to ensure that students' names do not appear there, e.g., johndoe.png, sallysue.jpg, or the student's full name, link to a social account, or any identifying information. 

    Technical Guidelines

    • In the interest of maintaining a consistent identity, professional appearance, ease of use and maintenance, use the available templates from Blackboard.
    • If you need pictures or web banners sized for your web page, contact Cassie Galvez at cgalvez@psd1.org to request an image.
    • Proper image sizes should be used rather than scaled in the web editing software. Contact Cassie Galvez cgalvez@psd1.org for support. 
    • Each image should have the "alt" tag specified with the content of the image. Alt tags identify images on your page for those who view them without loading the graphics files. An alt tag should give a short description of an image, and perhaps its purpose. For instance, a picture of Edgar Brown Stadium might say "Edgar Brown Stadium, spring". Alt tag information is important for users who have vision disabilities or other access issues. 
    • The district reserves the right to remove any web pages deemed inappropriate or contrary to district policies.

    Homepage Banners
    Public Affairs has provided site editors with a web banner template for your school's homepage. Open the template, create a free Canva.com account, and start designing! Add text, photos, and clipart for all of your school's announcements and events. Please limit the amount of text per banner to a headline and a subheadline or sentence; additional information can be linked to a webpage. Canva designs should be downloaded as a JPG before being uploaded to school homepages. Homepage banners must be created using the provided template or by the Public Affairs department. Please contact Cassie Galvez at cgalvez@psd1.org for support.   

    Colors
    Stick to black. Use color on a few words to emphasize something new or updated, but do not use color text on an entire page. It’s hard to read.

    Abide by Copyright Laws
    By law, you cannot use copyrighted materials without the owner’s permission. The Web is considered to be published or public. You will violate copyright laws if you:

    • Copy more than a few sentences from an article from another site and paste it onto your page (even if it is sourced). The same goes for photos, videos, images, etc. Better way -- write an introduction and link to the content you like, inserting a “link disclaimer.”
    • Right click and copy & paste any photo, cartoon, image (chart/graphic) or video you like and drop it onto your web page.
    • Scan something from a book and put it on your web page.
    • Use an outside organization’s logo without permission. 

    Questions?
    If you have questions about the website, need to add or delete a site editor, or want something designed for your web page, please contact Cassie Galvez at cgalvez@psd1.org.