Main Contacts:

Brette Doyle, Network Administrator / 228-8306
Beverly Kiesel, Information Science Team Leader / 228-8306
Cindy Daniels, Librarian / 228-8306
                
St. Mary’s believes computers, Internet, and email are important academic tools for students. With this access comes responsibility to use this technology in keeping with established St. Mary’s policies and the mission of the school.  St. Mary’s has taken precautions to restrict access to controversial materials and to impede plagiarism.

St. Mary’s Academy offers on-line electronic information services including but not limited to email and Internet access for students. All technology use at St. Mary’s must always be academically and educationally appropriate. The school provides the resources to meet individual technology needs to fulfill instructional and curriculum requirements.

Personal Laptops

Students who bring and use personal laptops (notebooks, netbooks, etc.) to school do so at their own risk.  The use of personal laptops during class is subject to teacher approval.   Students are still subject to St. Mary’s Acceptable Use Policy as outlined and any violation will result in the loss of access to SMA computers.  In addition, parents will be notified and the personal laptop will no longer be allowed on campus.

Students may use personal laptops on the SMA wireless network to conduct research and work on assignments.  Laptops must be configured to install operating system updates automatically and have anti-virus software installed.  It is the responsibility of the student or parent to ensure proper setup.

The Network Administrator will assist if a student owned laptop has technical issues connecting to the network or if the laptop causes a negative impact to the SMA computing environment resulting from malicious software or incompatible setup.  Any other technical issues encountered with a personal laptop are the responsibility of the student or parents to resolve.

The use of SMA technology resources such as printers, scanners, licensed software, etc. in conjunction with student owned laptops is not permitted.  It is expected that students utilize a ‘flash’ drive or online service (i.e. Dropbox) to transfer files to SMA computers before printing.

SMA utilizes Microsoft Office and Adobe products so it is HIGHLY recommended that students use compatible applications at home to complete assignments.

The school expects students to adhere to the following guidelines:

• Respect the rights of others and their privacy.
• Refrain from the use or posting of profanity, obscenities, or inappropriate language or threatening language.
• Refrain from any illegal activity.
• Refrain from any unauthorized use of the school system or network, disruption of any computer system or destruction of data.
• Leave work stations and peripherals in their appropriate places.

Specifically prohibited student activity includes but is not limited to the following:

• Engaging in harassment, posting false or defamatory information about an individual or group
• Posting any personal identification on blogs, podcasts, or on-line discussion groups (Example: Facebook) other than those directly related to an approved school course or activity
• Giving personal passwords to others or allowing others to use personal St. Mary’s electronic accounts, using another person’s account or email
• Use of external email services and social networking sites (Examples: Hotmail, Yahoo mail, AOL, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Use of instant messaging, chat rooms other than those directly related to an approved school course or activity
• Forwarding of email chain-letters
• Sending multiple mailings
• Using the copyrighted and/or original and  intellectual property of others including music, videos, photographs, and graphics without permission or appropriate source
• Downloading material of excessive byte size (i.e. movies, music)
• Printing personal and/or excessive hard copy
• Modifying computer settings or other users accounts
• Installing software, including games
• Non-educational use of computers (i.e. movies, games)

All student files are deleted at the end of each school year. Login and email accounts are deleted for graduated seniors.  Passwords are reset for returning students.

Students will notify the Network Administrator or school personnel of any message they receive that is inappropriate, a system security problem, or malfunction of the system or hardware. 

School administration reserves the right to monitor or examine all network activity including email.  Failure to follow this policy will result in referral to the Assistant Principal for Student Life and may result in revoking of a student user’s email and network and computer access which may impact a student’s ability to complete class work.  The St. Mary's Academy Administration will interpret the Computer/Technology Policy.

The school recognizes that computer use outside of school primarily falls under the guidance of parents.  However, inappropriate use of technology outside the school that disrupts the educational process or school community may subject the student to further consequences.