PAGE Welcomes Three New Board Members
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tee to the superintendent; as school hospitality chair; as a PTO representative and as a PAGE building contact. She also serves or has served her community as a Girl Scout leader; as a trained Court Appointed Special Advocate for the Ocmulgee Circuit; and as a University of Georgia Delta Gamma Fraternity director and as vice president of programming and a board member for Delta Gamma Alumnae Association. Carter’s professional development history runs deep. She has received training in project-based learning, PBIS coaching, standards assessment, ESOL and in promoting a positive learning for African American students, among other training. She has also added academic coach, ESOL and reading endorsements to her certificate. She previously taught special needs students at Morgan Middle and for the county’s alternative education program, as
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Amy Carter, a sixthgrade teacher since 2004 at Morgan County Middle School in Madison, is the new PAGE board of directors representative for District 11, serving 12 districts south of Atlanta, including Morgan, Henry, Rockdale, Clayton and Walton. The social studies, reading and language arts teacher said she was “mentored by excellent teachers,” and she has followed suit by having mentored many pre-service educators. She has also served as a team leader and a district vertical team member for social studies. “I have seen a major overhaul of social studies and worked to implement new standards, strategies and rigor into all curriculum areas,” she noted. In leadership roles, Carter has served as a team leader; on an advisory commit-
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Amy Carter, District 11
well as ninth through 12th grade at Jasper County High School in Monticello. At the University of Georgia, she earned both a bachelor of science in social science education and a master’s in early childhood education. As a board member for District 11, Carter is committed to ensuring that teacher voices are heard, and she especially looks forward to “working with PAGE members and lobbying for our teachers at PAGE Day on Capitol Hill.” — Meg Thornton
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Emails involving individual students cannot be revealed under the Open Records Act to a member of the public, but emails regarding scheduling, supplies, general complaints about the work environment, among others, will most likely be revealed due to an open records request. As noted above, there is no clear directive from Congress or the Supreme Court regarding the status of emails as educational records for purposes of FERPA. The Open Records Act may negate this in favor of releasing the emails to the parents. Best Practices With all of this in mind, here are some good tips for best practices with school email. First, as analyzed above, assume that the email may be revealed to another party. Do not put something in email that you are not comfortable with another party, usually a parent, reading. Second, as school email remains the property of the district, it is best for educa28 PAGE ONE
tors to use it specifically for school purposes. Use of school email for unrelated matters could be construed as a violation of Standard Five of the Code of Ethics (Public Funds and Property) for Georgia Educators. It could also be a violation of a local school system’s fair use policy. Common issues here are using school email for second jobs or side businesses, forwarding spam or solicitations to colleagues, or contacting policy-makers. In fact, it is standard practice for PAGE to request that educators contact policy-makers from personal, not professional, email. Third, follow these quick email professionalism rules: check for spelling and grammar errors, keep the email short, and do not be terse or use a negative tone. Make sure to know the difference between reply and reply-all. Finally, an email is a permanent, written record. While there are instances where the written word takes out an element of ambiguity, there are other times
where writing is not necessary. Sometimes it is better to speak than to write. Know n those times. 1. This article does not analyze or incorporate any local board of education fair use/ email policy. PAGE encourages all school system employees to review local board policies, including policies that govern the school system’s rules for employee usage of professional email. 2. Often this arises in the special education context, usually in discipline matters. Federal law limits a school system’s ability to discipline special education students. For example, if two students get into a fight at school and one of them is served through special education, their punishments may differ. It is a violation of confidentiality to email the parent of the general education student and explain that the other child did not receive the same punishment because of his status as a special education student. January/February 2020