The Brainerd Public School District board received a first reading of a draft social media policy intended to set boundaries for staff conduct on personal accounts and clarify who may post to official school pages.

Carla, who developed the draft policy, said she consulted multiple district examples and MSBA templates and that the primary impetus had been employee postings during work time and occasional blurring between personal accounts and official school pages. "I was asked to develop something. There was something actually in the works several years ago...it's been reworked since I first initially did it," Carla said, adding that the draft borrows language from other districts to establish clear administrative expectations.

Board members sought clarifications. Several asked that the policy explicitly distinguish personal postings from district-managed pages, and one board member asked that the policy include an explicit reference to reposting and sharing in addition to original posting. "Wherever it said post in that new policy, can we add 2 additional words to post? Can we add repost or share?" a board member asked; another replied, "I mean, it's the same thing. Yeah. Posting something is resharing, posting." Board members also asked staff to confirm that the draft aligns with existing technology, copyright and bullying policies and to route the draft to the district attorney and to MSBA for review.

Why it matters: The policy would codify expected staff conduct on social media, address posting images of students (noting some families opt out) and specify that district pages are administered by designated school staff. The draft is a first reading; board members said they expect up to three readings before adoption.

Next steps: Staff agreed to revise the draft to clarify "personal vs. district" posts, consider language covering repost/share behavior, confirm cross-references to technology, copyright and anti-bullying policies, and submit the draft to the district attorney and MSBA for review ahead of subsequent readings.

Clarifying details: Staff said district school pages have designated administrators and that the policy seeks to prevent staff from posting images of students on personal accounts when parents have opted out. The draft will be reviewed by legal counsel before subsequent readings; the board noted the district already has related policies for technology, copyright and bullying.