Facebook in the K12 Classroom?

I have been looking into ways to faciliate community and communication in our district's newly developing Virtual School and I would love to incorporate a Facebook connection into the plan. Sure there are other tools, but none so universally adopted, duh.

I've noodled around a bit and created a group, but it appears that the group is linked to my own Fb account, which is problematic since I have a personal policy of not connecting with high school aged kids--not that my account is loaded with adult-themed stuff, of course, but I would like to keep the group concise and streamlined and out of my real friend and family conversation(s).

Cut to chase: Who's using Facebook in their classroom and specifically, how have you set up that connection to be both safe and secure?