Nicene Classical Academy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 19, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Nicene Classical Academy (“Nicene”) collects, uses, stores, and discloses personal information through its school apps: Nicene Portal (the school portal), Nicene Agora (the family app at portal.niceneclassicalacademy.com/agora), and the Board app for members of the Board of Directors. They are one service made by the school, for authorized members of the Nicene community, and this Policy applies to all three.

1. Information We Collect

Depending on how you use the apps, Nicene may collect or receive the following information:

• Sign-in information: if you sign in with Google, your Google account's unique identifier, verified email address, display name, and the link to your Google profile picture. If you sign in with a one-time code sent by email, we keep only a scrambled (keyed hash) copy of the code, its expiry time, the number of tries and when codes were requested; the code itself is never stored.
• Account information: account status (pending, approved or suspended), roles (such as parent, teacher, staff, admin, director or board member), when the account was created, first and last sign-in times, the last day you opened the apps, and any name correction you asked for and the school approved. The school's own contact list (names, emails and expected roles) is used to give the right roles at sign-in.
• Profile and settings: a profile photo you choose to upload (or your Google picture link), your alert choices and quiet hours, read receipt and typing settings, muted, pinned, hidden or left chats, and your Community name choice.
• Student and family records: student number, name, grade, class, EICS number, the guardians' names and emails linked to each student, and private student notes for staff (for example, allergies or care needs), from the school's records.
• Attendance: class attendance (Present or Absent, short notes, and who saved or changed the record and when), Community Day check-in answers from families (Present, Absent or Partial, an optional short note, the answering parent's email and the time), advance absence notices from parents (dates and an optional reason), and Community Day volunteer assignments.
• Chats: the messages you send (text, replies, photos and emoji reactions), pinned messages, chat members and managers, when each member last opened a chat (for unread counts and read receipts), when you last typed (only if typing indicators are on), phone numbers you choose to save for yourself in a chat, and requests for a group chat (its name, purpose and the decision).
• Community and Market: posts, comments and reactions; prayer requests, questions and suggestions; Extracurricular activities (with optional details such as grades, fee, how to pay, dates and contact) and who marked Attending or Recommend; Network listings (which may include a phone number or email the author adds); and Market listings (title, details, price, photos and status) with a record of who asked about them.
• Photos: photos shared in chats, Community and the Market, and records about them (who shared them, where, size, whether they are protected, and removal). Requests to save a protected photo, their decisions, and each full-size download are recorded.
• School photo orders: order number, the ordering parent's name and email, each child's name, grade and student number, products, totals, status and notes. Payment is made by Interac e-Transfer outside the apps; the apps do not collect card or bank details.
• School information: notices, Weekly Updates, CLC and Chronicle posts, the school calendar, the Staff Board (staff only), and teacher and staff bios and portraits shown in the Directory.
• Board app: the board member list (email, name, title, voting status), board posts, votes (with each voter's choice), tasks, calendar items, folder links and meeting notices.
• Questions and feedback: questions you send through Chat Guidelines & Q&A ("What else?"), and Feedback board posts (with the app section, device type, app or browser and screen size).
• Usage records: a sign-in log (time, event, name, email, roles, account status and a device label such as "iPhone · Safari"; no IP address) kept in a school Google Sheet; a once-a-day record that an installed app was opened; and an activity log of actions such as approvals, role changes, attendance saves, deletions, photo downloads and emails sent. "Help me install" requests store the name, email, phone number and device you give, along with the children's names from school records.
• Device alerts: for each device where you turn alerts on, its push address and encryption keys, plus your alert list and delivery records.
• Technical information: our service providers may process information such as IP address, browser or device details and request times to run and protect the service. The apps themselves do not store IP addresses; where needed to prevent misuse (for example, sign-in code requests), only a keyed hash of the network address is kept.

2. Google Sign-In and Google Services

The apps use Google Sign-In only to identify you. They do not request access to your Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar or Google Contacts, and we never receive your Google password.

Separately, the school connects its own dedicated school Google account, with Google's limited "drive.file" permission (the apps can see only files they created), to store shared photos and the nightly backups. Your own Google Drive is never accessed. The school's Google Sheets are used for the school roster (Master Data), photo orders, an attendance records sheet (without notes or reasons), the sign-in log, and backups; they are written by the school's Google service account. The nightly backup is a full copy of school records, including attendance notes, absence reasons and private student notes; it is kept in the school's Google account and shared only as the school decides.

3. How We Use Information

Nicene uses personal information for reasonable school purposes, including to:

• authenticate users, create and administer accounts, approve access, and apply role-based permissions;
• provide chats, notices, Weekly Updates, the calendar, Community, the Market, the Directory and other features;
• record attendance, receive check-ins and absence notices, and follow up on attendance;
• send alerts and school emails you are meant to receive;
• process school photo orders and deliver photos, and keep photos shared in chats for possible use in the school yearbook;
• support the Board of Directors through the Board app;
• see which families are using the apps, help people sign in and install them, and answer questions;
• protect the service, investigate misuse, troubleshoot problems and keep it reliable; and
• meet applicable legal, regulatory and recordkeeping requirements.

Nicene does not sell or rent personal information, does not show advertising, and does not use analytics or tracking tools.

4. Cookies and Browser Storage

The apps use one essential sign-in cookie (nca_session). It holds only your account ID and an expiry time, is signed so it cannot be altered, and is marked Secure and HttpOnly. It lasts seven days and is renewed each time you open the apps, so you stay signed in until seven days after your last visit. It is set for niceneclassicalacademy.com so that the school's Directory site can also recognize you. A second cookie is used for about ten minutes during Google sign-in to protect it, and opening the Portal from Nicene Agora uses a one-time link that works for five minutes. These are for sign-in and security, not advertising. Community Day emails contain a personal check-in link that works without signing in and does not expire; please don't forward it.

Your browser also keeps some items on your own device: unsent drafts, the chats you archived, display, sound and radio settings, and photos you have viewed. Signing out ends the session in that browser but does not erase these items; they stay until you clear your browser data. Signing out on one device does not sign you out on your other devices.

5. Storage and Service Providers

Nicene uses these service providers to run the apps:

• Cloudflare, Inc.: hosting (Cloudflare Workers), the apps' database (Cloudflare D1), storage for staff bios, and a cache that helps photos load faster.
• Google LLC: Google Sign-In; the school's Google Drive for shared photos and daily backups; and the school's Google Sheets described above.
• Brevo: sends the school's emails from noreply@niceneclassicalacademy.com, such as sign-in codes, account approvals, school emails, Weekly Update emails, Community Day check-in links and reminders, board meeting notices, notes to the Director and Admins about requests and questions, and school photo download emails. Brevo receives each recipient's email address, name and the email's content.
• Push services (Apple, Google, Mozilla or Microsoft, depending on your device): deliver device alerts. Alert contents are encrypted for your device; a chat alert shows the sender's name, not the message.

Some content comes from elsewhere when you choose to view it: videos in Weekly Updates load from YouTube (youtube-nocookie.com), the radio player connects to the station's stream only after you press play, Google profile pictures load from Google, and student and staff photos load from the school's Directory site. Links to Google Maps, Signal and other websites open in a new tab.

These providers may process personal information in Canada, the United States, and other countries in which they or their service providers operate. To ask about Nicene's practices for service providers outside Canada, contact the Nicene Privacy Contact below.

6. Who Can See What

• Chats: only the members of a chat can open it. Teachers and staff cannot open chats they are not in. Teachers, staff, Admins and the Director are members of every By Grade chat. The Director and Admins can add people, including themselves, to group and By Grade chats, and a group's managers can add people to their group; anyone added appears in the member list and can read earlier messages. A group's invite link lets any approved account join, and any approved member can join an Extracurricular activity's chat from its card. No one can be added to a one-to-one chat.
• Names and emails: other parents see a parent as first name and last initial (for example, "Jane S.") in chats, alerts, the Market and Community, unless you choose to show your full name in Community. Requests to save a photo show the requester's full name to the person who shared it and the chat's managers. Teachers, staff, Admins and the Director see full names. Families never see other families' email addresses. School staff can see families' names and emails where their work needs it (for example, in chats they share and the student directory), and teachers' and staff members' emails are visible to members.
• Children: families see only their own children's information and photos (for example, in My Scholars), except that a parent chosen as a Community Day volunteer sees that day's class lists and attendance answers (no notes, reasons or contact details). Teachers, staff, Admins and the Director can see student information, including private notes needed for each child's care.
• Photos: chat photos are seen by the chat's members. Photos are protected by default: they are shown at screen size and cannot be saved unless a request to save is approved by the person who shared it, the chat's manager or school staff (Director, Admins and staff), who can see that one photo while the request waits. A photo the sharer marks as showing no people is not protected and can be saved by anyone who can see it. Community photos are seen by those who can see the post; Market photos by all approved members.
• Attendance: the Director, Admins, teachers and staff can open attendance for every class. Community Day volunteers (chosen by staff, and they may be parents) can open the roll call on that day and correct it afterwards; volunteers do not see attendance notes, absence reasons or contact details. To choose volunteers, staff can see the list of accounts with names and emails. Teachers and staff see check-in answers and notes on the roll call; volunteers see the answers only. The Director and Admins also see whether each family uses the app with alerts on and has opened it recently.
• Feedback board: every member can read posts on the Feedback board; other members see the author as first name and last initial, and the Director and Admins see the full name and email.
• Board app: board content is shown only to people on the board member list; Portal Admins who are not board members cannot see it. All board members can see who voted for each choice. Board members who are not parents can view the Portal as a parent does, read-only.
• Your questions: questions sent through "What else?" are seen only by you, the Director and Admins; an Admin may add a reworded version, without your name, to the public Q&A.

Nicene may share information with the service providers described in this Policy when needed to operate the apps, or when disclosure is authorized or required by law. Nicene does not disclose personal information to third parties for their own marketing. The apps link to other services, including the school's Directory site and Google services, which may have their own privacy practices.

7. Retention

Nicene keeps personal information only as long as reasonably needed for the purposes in this Policy, school administration, security, and legal or recordkeeping requirements. In particular:

• Chats: a chat with no new message for 365 days is deleted automatically with its messages and members (By Grade chats stay, and only their old messages are deleted). At the start of each school year, all chat messages are cleared. Removing a chat from your own list does not delete it for the other members.
• Photos: photo files shared in chats and Community are kept in the school's Google Drive, including for the yearbook, after chats are cleared and after the new school year starts, until the school deletes them. A removed photo goes to the Drive trash, which is emptied after 30 days. Market photos are deleted when the listing closes (30 days after posting, or 3 days after it is marked Sold, Given or Done). An approved request to save a photo lasts 7 days, and a school photo download link lasts 30 days.
• Each new school year: family accounts are deleted (families sign in again), and attendance, notices, the calendar, chat messages, alert settings and the activity log are cleared. Attendance records and related notes may be exported by the school before the reset as part of its administrative and recordkeeping responsibilities; otherwise copies remain only in backups for up to about 60 days. Community posts, Network listings, Feedback, photo orders and Board app content are kept until the school removes them.
• Sign-in: a sign-in code works for 10 minutes and its record is removed after a day or more; the link for opening the Portal from Agora works for 5 minutes. Sign-in log rows are kept until the school removes them.
• Alerts: your alert list is kept for 180 days, queued copies for 90 days and delivery records for 365 days.
• Backups: each night the apps copy school records to a Google Sheet (rewritten each night) and a backup file in the school's Google Drive (kept 30 days, then in the Drive trash for up to 30 more). No chat messages, Board app content or "What else?" questions are included.
• Other records (for example, Market listings and inquiries, questions and photo orders) are kept until the school deletes them. Cloudflare's own restore history may keep deleted database records for a limited time.

Signing out does not delete your account or records. There is no self-service download or delete button; to request a copy or deletion, contact Nicene using the details below. Requests are considered subject to applicable law and Nicene's legitimate recordkeeping obligations.

8. Safeguards

Nicene uses administrative and technical measures intended to protect personal information, including HTTPS, signed sign-in sessions, role-based access checked by the server, limits that slow misuse, scrambled (hashed) storage of sign-in codes and download links, and encryption of the key for the school's photo account.

Chat messages are stored on the school's own systems and are not end-to-end encrypted (unlike Signal), so people with technical access to those systems could access them. Please never send passwords, codes or banking details in a chat. Photo protection makes casual copying harder, but no app can prevent a screenshot. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and Nicene cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Children and Student Information

Nicene takes particular care with personal information about children. Access is limited to authorized members of the Nicene community, and what each person can see depends on their role. The apps never use children's school photos as profile pictures; please don't upload a child's photo as your own. Photos with children are protected by default, and photos shared in an Extracurricular activity chat may be used in the school yearbook (the chat tells the sender). Parents see their own children's information, attendance, reported absences and photo-order status in My Scholars; student photos come from the school's Directory site.

Attendance is a school-administration feature. The attendance screen does not show volunteers parents' contact details or private student notes. Attendance notes should be brief and relevant to the attendance record; please avoid unnecessary sensitive details, and do not post sensitive student or family information in chats or Community.

10. Access, Correction, and Privacy Questions

You may submit a written request to access or correct personal information about you that Nicene holds. You may also ask how information is collected, used, disclosed, stored, or processed outside Canada. Nicene may need to verify your identity before responding and may withhold information where permitted by law. For questions about chats, you can also use "What else?" in Chat Guidelines & Q&A.

For requests or privacy concerns, contact:
Nicene Privacy Contact (School Administration)
Nicene Classical Academy
Email: tech.nicene@eics.ab.ca

If you are not satisfied with Nicene's response, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta at oipc.ab.ca.

11. Changes to This Policy

Nicene may update this Policy as the apps or its information practices change. The latest revision date is shown at the top of this page. Material changes will be communicated through the apps or another appropriate school communication channel.