CWCS Board Approved: September 27, 2022
The Connecting Waters Charter Schools’ Governing Board of Directors recognizes the use of technology is a necessary element of the CWCS educational mission in the 21st century. Technology is provided to protect, encourage, and enhance the student’s educational experience while enrolled at CWCS.
Google Workspace for Education is the platform that CWCS has chosen to use for student learning. Google Workspace is a cloud-based service that protects against many data threats, from data leaks to data loss. The Board recognizes that cloud security is important and desires to utilize a system that can be trusted to protect staff and student information. The data stored on Google Drive will be encrypted, which protects it from outside threats. Users will also be able to choose who has access to their files. The Google Workspace for Education system is scanned and filtered by the Securly security system CWCS has recently installed. The Google Workspace platform and Securly security system working together offer the greatest protection from online threats to our students and staff; therefore, we cannot allow any exceptions for parents and students to opt-out of using this platform. It is a vital communication piece for our families and staff.
Using Google Meet allows the IT department to see performance data for each meeting that occurs. This data helps them determine where help is needed and which students may have a device or internet connection problem. It also only allows students with an actual CWCS account to join the meeting. This keeps the meetings safe from unwanted and/or inappropriate behavior.
Google Workspace makes it easy to collaborate and share different types of files which will allow more effective communication. Parents, students, and teachers can sync and share their Google calendars, student work samples, and other files. It will make it much easier for students and teachers to schedule meetings, online classes, and offers a more efficient way to provide effective educational instruction and resources to students.
The Board recognizes that Gmail allows all partners to communicate efficiently with one another to help our students be successful. It is a beneficial tool for communication, instruction, follow-up, etc. Gmail allows communication to happen in real time and be available for access after thefact. It is a great way to correspond with all parties.
The Google Apps for Education (GAFE) permission form needs to be signed by all students as it is our official permission form that confirms parental approval for the student to interact with our online systems and approves the student to use CWCS technology for any academic purpose.