How K12 Montana Schools Set Up Google Shared Drives for Staff Teams

Personal Google Drive is great for individual files. But when a whole team needs access to the same documents - and those files need to stay accessible even if someone leaves - Shared Drives are the way to go. K12 Montana recommends Shared Drives for every school team that collaborates on documents regularly.

Here's how to set one up and manage access.

What Makes Shared Drives Different

Files in a Shared Drive belong to the organization, not to any individual. If someone who uploaded files leaves the district and their account is deleted, the files stay. That's a huge difference from My Drive, where files are tied to the individual's account.

Creating the Shared Drive

Go to drive.google.com. On the left sidebar, click Shared drives. At the top left, click New. Give it a name (like "Office Team," "Curriculum Resources," or "HR Documents") and click Create.

Adding Members

Double-click on your new Shared Drive, then click Manage members in the top right. Add names, email addresses, or Google Groups. By default, new members are added as Content Managers, meaning they can upload, edit, move, or delete files. You can change this.

Understanding Access Levels

Here's what each role can do:

* Viewer: can only look at files. Lowest access.
* Commenter: can view and leave comments.
* Contributor: can add and edit files.
* Content Manager: can add, edit, move, and delete files.
* Manager: full control over content, people, and settings. Highest access.

Assign roles thoughtfully. Most staff members work well at Contributor or Content Manager. Reserve Manager access for administrators or IT staff.

Removing Members

You need Manager access to do this. Go to Manage members, find the person, click the dropdown next to their name, and select Remove.

Want help building out a clean file sharing structure for your district? K12 Montana Inc. helps Montana schools organize their Google Drive environment. Let's talk.