001All right. I will call this meeting of the Saratoga Springs City School District Board of Education to order. Um, please join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. To the flag of the stands, one nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Could I please get a roll call? Trusty Lakia here. Trusty Braxton here. Trusty Omecha here. Trusty Amory. Trusty Fogerty here. Trusty Copans here. Trusty Crackler here. Trusty Wilton. Trusty Witovich here. Student member Ballser. Student member How? Testing. Testing. Hello. Hello. Okay. Could I please get a motion to approve the minutes from January 22nd, 2026? I see Connie. and a second by Matt. Is there any discussion? Okay. All in favor? That's unanimous. And could I please get a motion to accept tonight's agenda? I see Tony and a second by Angie. Um any discussion?
002Okay. All in favor? And that's unanimous. This brings us to our first public comment period. And we do have somebody who would like to address us. On behalf of the board, thank you for being here. We truly value input from the community and appreciate your engagement. New York State Board of Education meetings are held in public so the board can conduct the business of the district visibly to maximize transparency and information sharing with the community. They are not public meetings with real time dialogue with attendees. However, our board provides two public comment periods during which speakers may address us to share information and opinions that may inform our work. In the case that follow-up is necessary, the appropriate district official will reach out. The first public comment period is limited to 30 minutes. Then after
003the board conducts its business, a second comment period is available with no official time limit. We ask speakers in the audience to conduct themselves in a civil and constructive manner, modeling the same respectfulness we expect from the students of our district. We do not allow comments about specific individual employees, students or trustees, whether they are complimentary or not, and whether they are identified by name or some other indicator of who they are. And we ask that you be succinct and try not to repeat previous speakers to allow more people the opportunity to address us. This opens the first public comment period. Each speaker is allotted a maximum of three minutes. And before you address the board, please clearly state your name. Our first three slots are reserved for students. First on the list is Jared
004Bench. I think I think it's good. Good evening. Uh my name is Jared Bench. Uh my daughter is a freshman here at uh Saratoga Springs High School. Her name is Jocelyn Bench. Uh she's been wrestling in boys modified uh last year and boys varsity this year. So that's the last two years she's been wrestling. Um I just wanted to thank the uh JV coaches Bars and Simpson and the modified coach Wetszel. They were actually able to enter her into the girls varsity class tournament this year where she advanced to the sectional state qualifying tournament held this coming Monday. You know, unfortunately, she's not prepared for these tournaments because boys wrestle a different style than girls, but she's given her all and even practicing freestyle after high school practices at the Journeyman Wrestling Club. Um, that's
005where she is tonight. She would have been addressing you guys today. Um, after this season there are rule changes and if she doesn't compete with the girls program, she'll have to stay wrestling with the boys. You know, unfortunately that's not fair. Um, I've been in contact with, you know, the athletic director here, John Goodson, the superintendent, Mike Patton, in order to get a girls wrestling program started here in Saratoga. The AD has stated they need to have do an interest survey in order to put it the program into the budget. I want to let the board know that the interest is there. There were four girls wrestling on JV this year, three girls wrestling on Modified, and multiple girls in the sixth grade that will be moving up next year that want to wrestle as
006well. Um, so not to mention, you know, our first girls wrestler competing for Saratoga High School this year at the girls sectional state qualifier Monday. Um, as you know, wrestling is girls wrestling is a growing sport. Um, in section two, it's actually the largest number of female wrestlers and wrestling programs in the state. There's 489 girls wrestlers, 15 school programs. Unfortunately, that doesn't include Saratoga, you know, the second largest school district in the section. So, why are we so far behind the times here? Um, you know, we have the interest from the students, we have the facilities and the coaches who want this program to succeed. Now, we need help from the board to approve a program like this um and get it started next season. So, my ask from the board tonight is how
007can we get this program started in Saratoga for next season um and put it in the budget since obviously the budget meeting is the next meeting here. So, that's kind of my ask of the board. Thank you so much for your time tonight. Appreciate it. Thank you. Is there any other member of the public who wishes to address the board at this time? Okay, seeing nobody, we do have another public comment period at the end of our meeting. This brings us to our board committee reports. Do we have any board committee reports? Sorry, Tony. Yeah. Um I have a couple. Um if a couple means three. Um Dirt met this morning. Lee um Lee and I um uh met with the dirt committee um and went through a really instructive uh simulation uh scenario around
008um you know what would happen if a chemical spill occurred in proximity to school district facilities. This one imagined uh that it happened in the grandandy industrial park and what ramifications it had for Geyser Elementary, the high school and then also the transportation department which is located there. Um some experts from Slack Chemical which is also located in the in the park uh came and and talked to us as well. It was really well done. it like most of the like all of the things I've actually been to uh as part of the dirt committee and kind of indicative of the long-term and um sort of uh contingency thinking that the that this committee is is doing and I I think um I for one am am glad that uh uh we've got you know
00930 40 people talking about this type of scenario and this type of thing every every month. It was it was really well done. Um, next thing is uh the subcommittee that um Beth and uh Matt and Olivia and I are on to talk about uh student voice for the um our our board goal to increase student voice this year. Um, one of the recommendations that uh that we had uh in our last meeting and I wanted to throw this out as a sort of suggestion question um and something that uh specifically Olivia and and Sydney if she uh is able to read the minutes or or watch this can think about before the next meeting. One of the things that Matt and I talked about uh was um we the suggestion we have is to
010maybe uh in order to be able to increase just the possibility for student voice at this table. Um not a requirement but possibility is to um ask Natalia who uh I spoke to today and and and is is um in favor of this if it if it works for for everybody. um asked Natalya to um kind of intentionally ask after board committee reports like this one, after Mike's report, after at the end after board uh member comments, um sort of ask the same thing of student reps that she asks of us, you know, does anyone have any questions for the the member who just spoke? And um I I throw that out so that Olivia and Sydney can uh maybe if you have any comments or or concerns or whatever, you know, address them to
011Natalia and Beth um and we can maybe start something like that at the next meeting. It's it's certainly not meant to put you on the spot. Um in fact, I'll note that most of the time when Natalyia asks the board if are there any comments after the finance committee report, for example, nobody says anything. We don't have a lot of questions. we it's there if you need it and want it. But that was a suggestion we had just a simple thing to put in the uh agenda to make things more intentional. So um I throw that out for for what it's worth. Um and then the last thing is we also had uh um our finance uh and audit committee meeting uh this Monday and um several things uh were brought up. Uh Bobby gave
012us an update um on the 2025 2026 internal audit which is going on now. Um it was determined uh mostly at the recommendation of our auditor that we stick to one not two topics of sort of the deep dive that they do when when looking at um sections of our our district. And the the one that was picked and chosen was uh the a look into the Medicaid and state aid um uh portion of our uh of our program. It's it's a robust enough topic to uh to have it be the only subject of their deep dive analysis and mainly among other things they're they want to make sure we're we're getting everything that we qualify for. And it's it's it's complicated. it's um it you know it's got a lot of moving parts and
013so we thought it would be useful for uh the auditor to take a look at that and see if we're really leveraging everything that we we can get from uh from Medicaid and state aid. So that was decided on. Uh Bobby reviewed again the um as as we do every year the fiscal stress monitoring report of the office of the state controller. This is something that we typically have. I I don't think I don't think in the years that I've been on the board, I don't think we've ever had a um a designation they call it. Uh they're the OSC looks at uh financial factors and what they call environmental factors. They they're not environmental in the sense that they're the outside world. They're uh factors within our our district. But they gauge us on
014both of those concerns and um there were zero designations or concerns um in the scores that we were we were uh given. So it's a fiscal stress test of the district and the state controller had nothing to say that everything was running smoothly. Um Bobby also talked to us about the budget that's coming up and um uh and in in context of his association of school business officials and the lobbying that they're doing uh much like what Mike talked about last uh board meeting um that the superintendents are doing with their association and a lot of talk about the foundation aid formula UPK uh zero bus emission trans uh transition um piggy febacking for public works contracts. There there are a lot of issues that they would like to see the state address. Um and
015Bobby ended that part by saying that he thinks the state will probably not meet its April 1 deadline. Um this year um hopefully like last year it won't let it won't go too far, but um that's the the early tea leaves are are leaning towards they're a little behind in in meeting their their budgetary deadline. We talked about the u the tax cap figures. Um the when all the variables are put into the the you know grinder um it's looking like our maximum allowable tax cap uh limit could sit fairly high this year around 4.86%. We discussed using like last year um the debt service fund um called the V fund that um if we apply some some of that balance to um to our uh our books we can bring down that uh that
016number into uh what might be a more uh palatable um mid3% uh um tax cap figure. That's not something the finance committee decides on. That's something we'll discuss at this table in the coming um budget discussions, but it like last year that is that is something that's on the table and the the board members in the meeting thought the um the argument was convincing and and sounded reasonable. Um we have a seeker resolution on the budget or on the uh agenda tonight. We talked about that. It's it's essentially there there's no environmental review really needed because we're um replacing doors internally within the school, but that's a formality we have to uh address tonight in the in the agenda. And then um we talked briefly about two things I brought up, the Voresville Central School
017District cyber fraud incident and wanted to talk about how we were covered and um similar, you know, in the case of similar uh issues. And then also a uh not a new state law, but a state law that's getting some new um attention around um uh the timing of the payment of wages to to workers. And uh we talked about potential implications there and Bobby's going to um going to look into that. So that is it. Does anybody have any questions for Tony? Okay, seeing none, are there any other board committee reports? None tonight, that moves us over to um student member reports. Oh, okay. I think I think we're good. We have a little bit of volume here. Okay. Um we received updates from five elementary schools, the middle school, and the high school
018for this week. At Division Street Elementary School on Tuesday, the belt team hosted an informative and engaging technology safety night featuring a valuable presentation from Lori Gion from Boseies. It was wonderful to see so many families come together to learn about essential topics like social media safety, digital wellness, parent monitoring tools, safe searching practices, and much more. Today, a group of fifth grade students took part in a virtual battle of the books against other schools across the WSWhe Boseies. This team-based academic competition challenges students to read a carefully selected list of books and then compete in exciting battles that test their knowledge, comprehension, and recall of the texts. Over the past four months, participants have dedicated themselves to reading nine books and meeting weekly to discuss their insights. Teams that qualify will advance to the
019semi-final competition in March. In celebration of Love the Bus Month this February, students have created cards to show appreciation for their incredible bus drivers. Tomorrow, students will take part in the exciting Student Council Olympics, an event designed and organized by their student council members. Throughout the day, students will engage in a series of team- based activities and friendly competitions, fostering um school spirit in a fun way. At Dorothy Nolan Elementary School, students have created cards uh to be part of care packages being shared with their bus drivers for Love the Bus Month. Students had fun guessing the underground staff spirit theme each day. this week. They were spot on with seeing all the staff wearing crowns on royalty day, drinking anything, drinking out of anything but a cup, and dressing undercover. Dorothy Nolan is so
020proud of the students in grades three to five that participated in science night this week. Dorothy Nolan also extends a special thank you to the community partners that joined in the fun. Congratulations to the fourth and fifth grade students that participated in the regionwide Battle of the Books virtual competition today. They are so proud of their dedication and efforts. At Geyser Road Elementary School, they have participated in kindness week. They celebrated by having discussions in circles and wearing kindness themed clothing for the week. Geyser's fifth grade uh fifth graders participated in Battle of the Books for the first time in several years. Go Geckos. Fifth grade held their annual pasta dinner night to help raise money for their trip to Camp Pinchuk. The night was a huge success due to hardworking fifth grade parents, their
021donors, and of course the fifth grade students at Lake A Elementary School. Today, they had three teams participate in the Battle of the Books. They're very proud to have three teams this year representing third, fourth, and fifth grade. This week, their fourth graders are participating in the Prevention Council's Too Good for Violence program. The program focuses on setting goals, making responsible decisions, recognizing feelings, and managing emotions and conflict resolution. Lake A students had a blast this week with double PE time allowing for sledding at Congress Park. Students truly enjoyed this time outdoors, especially after being stuck inside recess lately due to the extreme cold temperatures. Moving on to the middle school, uh, Maples International Club had a guest speaker this week that has qualified for the 2026 Parolympics in Italy, Kelsey O'Driscoll. It was a
022great experience for all the students. Their eighth grade French students will be off to Quebec for their annual trip the week after break. So, we wish them luck and safe travels. Congratulations to the Maple A Drama Club for their successful musical Frozen. The performance was outstanding. The FE uh physical education department along with the American Heart Association will be kicking off the heart challenge in February. Students will be learning all about a healthy heart. And what they are most excited about is handsonly CPR. At the high school, they held an open mic night this week for students to showcase their talents with the community. Saratoga Hawks played Stick It to Cancer, their Stick It to Cancer game this week with proceeds going to Kelly's Angels, the Live Like Live Foundation, and the Sloan Ketaring Memorial.
023They held the second spirit week this week, concluding with an all school pep rally tomorrow. Students dressed for theme days and showed their school spirit. The Leos Club and Saratoga Springs Lions Club collected over 2,400 pounds of food and $565 in donations during their Because Hunger Doesn't End with the Holidays food drive on Martin Luther King weekend. With help from local grocery partners and more than 40 volunteers, including student members, donations were sorted and delivered to area food pantries supporting families in need. And lastly, I just wanted to give a quick update for the participatory budget. I know that's been something that the board has been trying to address recently, especially since it's quite new and we have a lot of students participating this year. Um I put together this small summary just to um
024showcase the events that have been happening and will happen in March. So, um, the high school will hold its participatory budget vote on March 24th and 25th in the teaching auditorium right here. All students will participate during their social studies classes, and students will sign in before receiving a ballot, likely using a preprinted class roster to asssure accountability and accurate voter tracking. Additional support staff or student poll workers may be needed to manage the sign-in process. The county board of elections will provide two official ballot scanning voting machines to simulate a real election experience. Due to election protocols, the district is required to hire a certified machine custodian to transport and oversee the equipment at an estimated cost of $1,500. While funding will be secured for this year, this expense should be considered in future
025budgets going forward. If the participatory budget committee sustains itself, students will cast paper ballots which will be scanned into the voting machines. Final ballot content must be confirmed by February 16th, 2026 to allow time for printing and testing. Additional logistical needs, including tablets, tables, pens, and privacy dividers might necessary. A plan will be developed to close out the election, return equipment, and communicate results shortly after the voting concludes. There will also be an opportunity to share this innovative initiative with the broader Saratoga community as this is currently the only high school in New York State implementing participatory budgeting. Outreach to local media and elected officials is being considered to highlight the district's leadership in civic engagement and f further updates will be provided as we continue to plan. There might there will be a presentation
026coming out with all of our different committees within the budget and um we're all just waiting for that and that should be finished within March. So that concludes our student reports for this evening. Before you turn that off, could you just say again what's the date of the election? I have um this will be March 24th and 25th. Thank you. Are there any questions for Olivia? Yeah, Beth, I'm wondering do you have a sense of the nature of what is being proposed? And you know, even if you don't have it with a lot of detail, just a general sense of what types of things are being proposed. We have um five different subcommittees. I'm pretty sure five or six. Um one of them has to do with the water spigots for outside for the athletic
027fields. One has to do with healthy food and preparation. So that's the committee I'm on. We're focusing on maybe updating the kitchen a little bit, getting grills in there, having healthier food options available for kids with allergies or healthier breakfast options for kids who need breakfast here. Um there was one for murals and there's two more. Um, we have a lot of kids participating in the budget. So, they're all making a presentation and when social studies classes come into the teaching auditorium to vote, we will have presentations up for all of the subcommittees and that will be presented to you as well. This is very exciting. Um, are there any other questions? Okay, that brings us to administrative reports. So, I just want to thank Olivia for her comprehensive report. Um, all the wonderful things
028going on across the district as well as the new initiative at the high school. Um, we've been very impressed with the efforts of our students and the research that they've been doing and doing some of the background uh gathering of information. I've done a few interviews with each uh of the committees. And so, uh really looking forward to uh the process unfolding in March. I also just want to give a shout out uh to the middle school uh congre congratulations to the entire cast and crew uh of the Frozen performance. They put on two full weekends of six total performances which were just incredibly impressive. The music, the choreography, the set design. Uh ton of work obviously goes into our productions by our directors. uh and truly appreciate all of the efforts of all the
029volunteers of parents and community members who make those opportunities possible for our students. Uh looking ahead, the high school drama club production of Newsies uh is scheduled for March 12th to the 14th. Uh so already uh we're trying to publicize uh the high school drama club production. So everybody in the community, we had such an outstanding turnout uh for the middle school play. Uh it would be great for uh the community to come out and support all of our uh high school uh drama club participants uh in the newsies production uh March 12th through the 14th. Um midweek midweek uh our mid- winter uh recess week is coming up next week. Uh so tomorrow is our last day of instruction uh before a welldeserved break uh for both our students and our staff. Uh so
030there'll be no school um the the 16th through the 20th next week. Uh and then obviously we resume classes uh after the break the following Monday. Um just wanted to tonight provide a brief update on our elementary attendance zones. Uh so uh there was a committee last year that reconvened. Uh our elementary attendance zones have been in existence now for six years and each year we'd like to kind of gather information, provide the update to the board uh as we prepare to welcome our new incoming kindergarten class uh as well as new families that are moving into the district uh throughout the course of the school year. Uh so over the last several uh months we've been meeting uh with Alis Val Elsawe who does a tremendous job in our register's office uh with Jerry
031Keenan uh and Kim Ross from transportation uh for again the wonderful job they do and how flexible they are uh and making sure all of our students are being routed safely to school uh and then each of our six elementary principles uh who help provide input uh to uh our process each year. So just to give quick summary because again I think the board is very familiar about the uh designated attendance zones. Uh so the six elementary schools across the district uh each one has its own designated attendance zone. So if kids live in a designated zone that's their home elementary school. And again there are exceptions for students who would be attending their designated zone. if there are special student needs or there's programs or services that that child required. Uh making sure that
032we're meeting our class- size targets. Uh our goal is always to keep families together by sibling placement as well as child care requests uh that parents make of the district. And then the district also has uh flexible attendance zones. And so if uh residents live within a flex zone uh which may include two to three different schools that possibly the child can be assigned to. Um last year we were uh the committee recommended for us to uh just explain fully as best we can the the criteria that is considered uh when the district is making final determinations uh about where student assignment would take place. And again, those are very similar uh to the exceptions of living in a designated zone based on student needs or programs and services, maintaining class-siz targets, keeping kids together,
033uh the child care requests of families, obviously the needs of transportation to be as efficient as we possibly can. Um the proximity to schools, so where the actual neighborhood and where the home um is located. And then ultimately trying to do the best we can to keep neighbors um uh when the obviously as who live close together uh as as assigned to similar schools as possible. So flex zones obviously the the purpose of the flex zones uh when this was developed uh six years ago is to help provide equitable learning environments by balancing our class sizes uh enabling uh smaller class size targets across the district. And again, we've been able to achieve that goal very successfully. Um, again, being mindful of transportation. Um, making sure there's consistency so when students are assigned in elementary
034school that they stay in that same elementary school for their entire elementary career. Uh, keeping families together and then creating that flexibility for future changes in demographics. And and really that's the kind of the purpose of our presentation tonight. Dave and I go out and we meet with each town um each year and we meet with the developers and and get a sense of where residential development is coming in and what the trends are across the district. Um and then again feedback from transportation, feedback from our elementary principles. uh and then each year making slight tweaks uh to the zones themsel uh to make sure that we're best meeting the needs of of the families um and that we do these early enough in the process. Um that one of the key um information sharing
035sessions is with our local realers and so we have an event plan when we come back from break u that's been very successful. We get really positive feedback because many times when families are deciding what school district they're going to live in, you know, they say the one number top criteria they're looking for is obviously the reputation of the school district. And so the more the realators know about our school district and kind of help share that information with families uh as possible. So, I'm going to turn I'm going to drive, but I'm going to turn over to Dave. Uh, and we're going to kind of talk through uh where our our current status is with our elementary uh attendant zones and then again the the minor uh modifications that we looking to make for
036the start of next school year. Thanks, Mike. Um, so we if you go back just the previous slide quickly, so this is kind of where our our zones are set. Um, you can see designated zones. Greenfield is the easiest one to read because it's the biggest one. Uh but there are other uh designated attendance zones for all six elementary schools. And then you see the flex zones. If the board remembers when we did our um enrollment presentation in July, we direct families to we have an interactive tool on our website and that needs to be updated as these changes are are in progress. But that's we tell families to go to the tool. We also tell families to call the register's office if they have questions about placement or where they are. So, our first
037um proposed change is flex zone one. And you can see um on the I guess be the image on the left is the existing flex zone. Again, some of these are a little bit harder to see, maybe easier to see on your screen. And then the right is basically taking that flex zone, which is currently Dorsan Lake, and it's moving it over by up to Northern Pines, I believe, Mike. Right. Yep. Um over to Route Nine. There's some new um developments going in over there. um some of the medical ones and we wanted to make sure that they were included um as they are built out. So it's not just Dorothy Nolan, but we have a little bit of a choice with Dorothy and Nolan and Lake. Uh flex zone 2 really no changes this
038year. Um last year, I think it was last year that was already approved. That was a change we made to kind of stretch that flex zone a little bit to include Forest Grove. And again, there's a lot of uh capacity up there. So, we want to make sure that you that has Caroline Street, Dorothan, and Lake Avenue are included in that buildout. And as Mike said, we meet with the town of Wilton. It's one of the towns we meet with and talk about who's moving in, what developments are coming up, and it helps us. And you're going to hear a great enrollment study tonight as well. Um, and those are some of the factors that we try to use as we try to tweak and look at some of these flex zones. As you head
039up Route 50, there are some new neighborhoods on Ingresol Road that are currently uh being built. Uh so again making sure uh that any of the influx of population what we can predict uh is incorporated into uh the zones. Flex zone three which is kind of our inner city flex zone including Caroline Street division and lake um actually shrinking in a little bit um from the the western side and you'll you'll kind of see that as we move forward. uh flex zone 4. If you look up, there's two charts up there. You can see the current flex zone 4. So, our one of the areas we're trying to help is Geyser Road is currently kind of struggling a little bit with enrollment. So, we're trying to expand their options a little bit. So, one of
040the things is to stretch um flex zone 4 out a little bit. So it includes division street which is currently what it is but then also geyser road um flex zone five and again some of this was based off of recommendations from transportation and others was to and also the committee we we didn't do a lot of shrinking of flex zones but we were trying to make a threezone flex zone into a two so flex zone 5 would turn into just division street and green field only and and that's the kind of the area that runs up route 9n. So pretty much starting from like down by Sunnyside Gardens and then heading up into into Greenfield. Uh in the past we also had geyser families in there and the feedback that we heard from transportation
041is those were some longer uh bus runs. And our last uh potential uh change would be adding a new flex zone called flex zone six. And again, this is kind of corresponds and that's why we talked about we shrunk the flex zone three a little bit. So in that space is is where flex zone six would be. Um and that covers our reserve apartment complex and there's actually another apartment complex going in there as well. So there's quite a few new students in there. So we wanted to have that flexibility of the west side schools um Division Street, Geyser and Greenfield in that area. And actually the the diagram in the bottom should go all the way over to Kir. Is that Kirby Mike? I can't quite see it in my eyes. Yep. Is should
042go all the way over to Kirby and that will be filled in solid. And again just another area that we're experiencing a lot of increase of new families moving into the school district into a more densely populated area. So, the streets between uh Allen uh and Kirby Road, again, kind of to the west of the uh railroad tracks. Um again, there's anticipation of new units that'll be opening up this September that are being built right now. Uh so again, that'll give us some flexibilities uh of having our three west uh western side schools um being able to support uh families moving into that new zone. So this is just an updated map of what it would look with the modified flex zones put in along with the designated zones and then some next steps for
043us. As Mike said, um we meet we have a realator event on February 25th. Um we've had quite a few our turnout for that has been pretty good. We're actually I think we're doing it a hybrid this year. So we're going to do it virtually and then also hopefully we get some realtors to come in person. Um, it's been great to explain to them about our school district, but also about attendance zones, flex zones. Um, I it's really helpful when families come in, they want to move into our district. Sometimes that's the first person they talk to. And if they can tell them just because you live in house A, you're not doesn't mean you're going to Lake Avenue. It helps the families to kind of understand the process better. And then again, directing them
044to our website and to the district registars's office. And then we have communication continuing to work with transportation to update the maps and the routing options which is again working with Jerry and his team as Mike said and then communicating this out to the appropriate staff and the community um hopefully to have the changes ready for the 26 27 school year. Any questions from the board on just again some of the minor modifications that we're looking to make for next year? It sounds like you do this already. Um, but when you're putting the flex the flex zones together and deciding which how to adjust those, are you looking at also the transportation from like the farthest point to the various elementary schools to look Oops. Look at the transportation times that be on the bus.
045Yeah. So, that's something that Jerry will take a look at routing. Okay. Uh to see if there's already an existing bus that's in that area. Uh and again to try to prevent sending a bus out to a location. Uh so again class size is is obviously one of the criteria student services and supports that we have available in the buildings uh as well as uh as well as transportation proximity to the school too. So um so yeah it's just I think just being responsive as new neighborhoods are being created and new families are moving the district. And just to reiterate uh you know once the children students are assigned to a building we keep them the in that building where there's never a situation where we're moving a family. Um so but the flexibility of
046uh new families moving in and then when families move out um kind of managing it um as folks come in as families move into the district. So, our kindergarten class tends to be really the first time. Uh, but then throughout the course of the school year, we have families uh moving into the district. And so, it's a kind of continuous conversation uh about how we can do the best we can to manage enrollment across each of the six elementary schools. Beth, um, given kind of the transportation challenges that we've had, um, how do you think this will impact kind of our current status with transportation? I I think it improves every year the more that we have Jerry and Kim involved in the conversations about, hey, we have a choice between two schools. you know,
047the phone call that DAO often makes is over to transportation to say, "Hey, how's this going to, you know, this scenario for this family?" Um, you know, limit the amount of time the kids are on the bus and also thinking about the efficiencies of our routes, other routes. Yep. That's what I was going to say. Connie, um, I just had a question on how the realtor event was advertised. Is that online or do you reach out? It's actually it's through the reals association. Okay. So, uh, we're very fortunate. Dominic Marcusello, um, one of the local realers has been working with us since the start. Uh, and so he has his own network. Uh, and we usually have really good participation. You know, sometimes virtually, they'll all be participating uh, from the broker's office. And like
048Dave said, in the last few years, we've had more and more folks come in person, and it goes out to the entire Capitol region. So, any realer in the region will receive an invitation to participate. and they say we're one of the few schools that do it and they really appreciate it. Um, and we try to give them as much up-to-date information about the district as possible so they have something in their hand that they can, you know, you know, provide to families. Matt, uh, as I recall, one of the concerns that we heard a lot about was neighborhoods having like multiple elementary school buses picking up, you know, kids on the same block. And I I see that most of the flex zones still have three different schools in them. And I and I
049understand sort of the the logic behind making, you know, bouncing cloud sizes, but how how much was that taken into account? Like I saw that in one, you know, I appreciate that in one flex you took it from three to two. But but only in one. Um and I and I wasn't on the committee. So like I will defer to the board members who are on the committee if this is but I'm just curious how that the the more flexibility that we have to assign students in those densely populated areas the better. When you're limited to to the two options sometimes it's the the only and the best option. Um but when you're limited to two, that's where you could start to see some disparities in class size and getting students into uh the schools
050that again will have the support services in place to kind of meet their needs. So um we can continue to work towards two. It just it does limit then our flexibility especially in u in the new uh attendance zone six where we're seeing a a significant influx of students. Um so right now majority of those students are going to division uh street. Um and again they're kind of feeling the majority of that uh enrollment. So having now the opportunity to kind of spread students out between three schools um as opposed to just having two school options. Um we'll see every year we we keep a ch we keep an eye on it and again we'll provide us an opportunity to again we were able to do it to the one flex zone. Yeah, I guess
051I do want to clarify while Flex Zone 5 went from Division Street, Greenfield, and Geyser down to Division Street and Greenfield, the new Flex Zone has the three schools. So, we didn't actually go down. Um, but I guess I just want to reiterate that that was like definitely a priority of the committee was to not have um like sections and neighborhoods that are divided among three schools. And I know that that was one of the goals that was stated when going over the results of that committee was to actually reduce that. Um, and that is definitely a concern that I have just because it does like as a person in a neighborhood who that's divided among three schools like it does create a lot of complications. Um, especially at a time when we are all
052relying on our neighbors for support with child care and with other things. Um, so I did want to note though that one thing that I thought was really helpful this year, um, with the fact that like my neighborhood is divided among a bunch of different schools is that we were also, um, the back to school nights weren't all on the same night. So, we were able to provide child care for each other, which is great um because that is definitely a, you know, an issue to figure out with younger kids. So, thank you for this. Are there any other questions from the board? Olivia Thank you for the presentation. I thought it was really interesting to learn about this and the flex zones. This kind of goes along with what you were just talking about,
053but I did see that the flex zones shrank in zone 3 and zone 5 for the inner city residents, but like you said, was that maybe just um from a transportation issue or we're kind of ending the division between little communities within the city? Yeah, there's obviously there's a little bit more flexibility with the city because the proximity of the three schools within the city, you know, all being very close together. Um, again, the the elementary schools that are on the perimeter obviously is going to require a little bit more travel time for students on buses. Um, and again, this goes in es and flows. you know, right now the Geyser tenants zone is the area that we really had to help support um just because we've seen a recent decline uh in just the
054overall uh school age population there. Um so um so that's where you know that zone has expanded but then actually in the zone five we took geyser out of it as as it relates to just the concerns about the amount of time the kids are on on the buses. So a lot of factors go into it. Um, that's why every year it's just kind of good for us to review things and make make make tweaks based on the feedback that we hear from families and from the transportation department and again where where there is growth in the community. Any other questions or comments? Okay, so next presentation we have up um we are very fortunate uh that Madison is here with us. Uh she's a data analysist from the capital region planning commission. uh and
055each year for the last few years uh we've partnered uh with capital reg uh capital region planning commission uh to conduct our annual enrollment projections and again this all kind of ties in together um when we're thinking about uh where families are moving in district and the impact that it has on student enrollment across the district. So, uh, so it's a really perfect time of year to, uh, hear from Madison and to get an update on our current enrollment and future enrollment trends. Testing. There you go. Good. Okay. Awesome. Thanks for having me tonight. Um, and the great introduction. Again, I'm Madison Heresco. I'm the GIS and data analyst for Capitol District Regional Planning Commission, and I'm going to be presenting your 2025 2026 school district enrollment projections. If you're not familiar, some background on
056CDRPC. We serve as a regional resource center for New York's capital region. So, Albany, Rensier, Saratoga, and Skenctity counties. We provide um support to local communities by enhancing their capacity in key areas like economic development, sustainability, water quality, and data analytics. Brief outline for tonight. We'll be taking a look at your historic enrollment trends, some trends in the birth rate, a little bit of housing data, your enrollment projections, and then your actual versus projected enrollment. Without getting too far in the weeds, I'm going to briefly talk about our methodology for projections for grades 1 through 12. It's fairly simple. You can kind of think about this as retention. And I'll give you an example here. If there are 100 first graders in 2024 2025 and 120 second graders in 2025 2026, then the grade to
057grade survival multiplier or retention is 120 divided by 100 or 1.2. For kindergarten, things are a little bit different. We rely on birth datas uh birth numbers that occurred in the district five years earlier. So another example, if there were 100 births in 2020 and five years later in 2025 2026 there were 120 kindergarten students, the kindergarten survival multiplier would be calculated the same way 120 divided by 100 or 1.2. Actual enrollment this year in the district was 5,717 students. That represents a decrease of 39 students from last year. Kindergarten enrollment for this year is 380 students, which represents a decrease of 11 students compared to last year. And like I had mentioned, one of the most reliable indicators for kindergarten enrollment is the number of births that occurred five years earlier. And if we
058take a look, that is in 2020 and there were 376 children born in the district, which closely aligns with the 380 students enrolled in the district this year. In fact, it actually means that we saw more students enrolled in kindergarten than students born within the district, which is a signal for sight in migration to the district. A survival multiplier above one signifies growth, while a survival multiplier below one signifies stagnation or decline. If we look to next year, correlates to the 2021 uh birth data in the district at 447 students born. So we can anticipate um an increase in kindergarten students next year. The birth data that we use comes from the New York State Department of Health um and it is typically lagged by a few years. So we estimate using historic averages for
059the 2024 2025 years which correspond to the final two years of the projection period. This slide shows the number of births over time within the district and you can kind of notice a clear downward trend um with the exception of 2021 that kind of stands out as a slight outliner outlier um which corresponds to kindergarten births next year. Overall in New York state um locally and in New York State in Saratoga County we are seeing a decrease in fertility rates um especially in recent years. So this trend again is not local but it's happening um on a larger scale. Moving on to other cohorts in the district, K through5 enrollment um this year was 2431 students, a decrease of 38 students compared to last year. And you can see the kind of recent decline in
060this cohort um corresponds to a smaller number of students born within the district between 2017 and 2019. This is the 6 through 8 enrollment. Um, this year it was 1,363 students, which represents a decrease of 50 students compared to last year. This is 9 through 12. This year's enrollment was 1,882 students, which is an increase of 54 students compared to last year. We'll touch briefly on housing. This looks at the 2010 and 2020 dennial census numbers. In 2020, there were uh 24,945 housing units in the district in 2020, representing around a 2,000 or 10% increase from 2010. And we can look a little bit deeper by taking a look at the American Community Survey, which looks at the housing characteristics within the district. Approximately 60% of housing within the district is single family detached homes.
061The next most common is single family um oh I'm sorry five or more units. So your larger uh apartment complexes. Typically single family detach homes produce the most school-aged children. However, this trend may change as housing costs continue to increase where it may be more affordable for new families to be purchasing different types of housing options. We also uh have correspondence with the Greater Capital Association of Realators or GCAR which provide us with data on the median sale price, the days on the market and the number of housing units listed. This year in the district, the median household um the median sale price of a house is $444,140, which represents an increase of around $31,000 um dollars more than last year. At the same time, we're noticing the number of housing units listed for sale
062decreasing in the district, which points to a slightly slower housing market in terms of turnover. Higher home prices may make it more difficult for young families with school age children um to move into the district, potentially limiting new student growth. Uh meanwhile, fewer homes on the market means less turnover. So, existing residents who may be older and may not have children um are more likely to stay put. This combination often leads to slower growth or declines in enrollment as it is more difficult for new families to move into the district. And just as a note, housing does not play any um role in our in our projections. We're just looking at the district's historic retention over time and projecting those forward. Now, getting to your enrollment projections. Next year, total enrollment is projected to be
0635,691 students, which is a six student decrease from this current year. And just for some context, I do a few other school enrollment projections for Saratoga County, and this is something that I'm kind of seeing across the board. This is your K through five projections. Next year um students in this cohort is projected to be 2488 students or a 50 which is a 57 student increase from this year again probably corresponding to the anti anticipation in that kindergarten cohort. 6th through 8 enrollment next year is projected to decrease to 1,327 students a 37 a 36 student decrease from this year. 9 through 12 enrollment next year is projected to decrease to 1,833 students, a 49 student decrease from this year. And now, since I've done your enrollment projections for the last few years, we can
064take a look at what I projected last year versus our current year enrollment. Last year, I projected that the school enrollment would be 5,712 students. And actual enrollment was very close this year at 5,717 students, meaning the projection underestimated en enrollment by just five students or 1%. The close clustering of projections from the past three years um as shown by the different colors and dotted lines on the chart confirms that the historic trends are reliable and very consistent in this district and continue at a similar a similar pace over time. The projections this year slow show slightly lessened rate of decline in the first few years of the projection followed by a quickened decline in the further years of projection. However, those last two years will become more accurate as we receive the birth data
065from DOH. If you haven't already, this is a great resource that we provide capital region indicators.org. It can show additional information on economics within the district, uh, demographic trends, um, income levels, housing information. It's a great resource and you can not only break this out by school district, but you can look at the city, the town, the village, zip code, um, whatever you're interested in. The data is available there and it pulls directly from the census websites. And I'll be happy to take any questions from the board. Tony. Yeah. Thank you very much. This I I welcome this presentation each year because it's important for us uh you know mainly fiscally to uh keep ahead of these numbers. Um the the the numbers you presented today and the methodologies you shared today kind of make
066sense that they're mostly predicated around a fiveyear, you know, uh vision. I mean we can only go back 5 years be before kindergarten to to um you know rely on the birth rate but is there any sense u locally I I I'm sure you uh is there any sense and and we also sorry I should have said we we also have obviously a clearly uh downward trend for the last 20 years. Um is there any sense or any ability to predict you know if that plateaus at any point 10 years out do do you ever look beyond the five years uh just so if there's something we can plan for you know like uh it's going to stop at this level I mean we're not going to go down to zero we know that but
067when does that kind of settle out yeah we typically only look at that fiveyear increment because our projections are dependent on the birth data from do so it really gets I guess less accurate as we continue to to estimate those births further out. Um, so we haven't looked at the the the longer trends, although you're right, it's not going to reach zero. Um, and we're also seeing an aging population as our boomers get older. Um, and just smaller generations of students being born due to the low fertility rates. Thanks. Other questions or comments? All right, thank you so much. Thank you guys. Have a great night. Break. Thank you. Appreciate your help. All right. Uh and for our final presentation tonight uh is our annual district technology department report. Uh so Dave Alhamdu our assistant
068superintendent innovation technology and operation innovation uh along with Lucas Manny. Uh and then we have several members of our instructional staff here as well. Um the uh board of education had indicated an interest in learning more about artificial intelligence uh and its uh utilization within the school district. Uh so we've got a whole team here that's been working on all things AI for the last several years. So I wanted to turn over to uh Dave in the technology department. Thanks Mike. Um, I want to introduce everyone presenting tonight, but I'm just going to hold for a minute. I do have a couple of IT updates I wanted to share with the board. Uh, you may have heard one of the things that we're working on with the middle school is adjusting student computer internet access.
069um after the February break to encourage healthy technology use habits. Um student devices will be offline from 1000 pm to 5:00 am. Um these changes support requests from our families and our ongoing commitment to teach and encourage responsibility healthy balance technology use. Uh this is something we are trying out at Maple only currently. So I just want to make sure hopefully you've heard that. We think it's going to be a good thing but we're going to learn from it. Are there plans to expand it or no? Um, we're going to see how how it goes. Our original conversations with the high schools, they didn't think it matched and maybe it needs to be a different time component with the high school with sports and all the stuff that's happening. And I see some of you
070shaking your heads and live shaking your head. So, it's just something we're going to try. We're going to start with Maple and and see where it goes. Um, any other IT update and I thought I might have a few students here this evening and Liv maybe has heard something about this. So, um, we had a couple of high school students that we used to they were, I guess, apparently had access to chat GPT. So, that's actually something that they shouldn't have had access to to start with. Um, it's not EDLAW 2D um, compliant. And then we do have other tools that we could offer to our students. And if we had more students here, and I wanted to make sure Liv heard this, that um it is something that we could talk with high school
071leadership and students about, but we want to make sure you're going to hear that theme a lot tonight in our presentation about using AI safely and responsibly. And we're just not sure that chat GPT currently is that tool. So it we we actually thought it already was not working for our students and again students find ways to access our tool different tools and we did some updates to our filter and then all of a sudden it's working now like it's not allowing them to get to that tool but um again so we wanted to kind of share that I wanted to make sure Olivia heard that as well. I I heard from a very unreliable source that uh the Grock AI is still slipping through. Uh but I but again it could be it's uh
072it's you know we do our best and then there's another crack in the fence and then we have to try to plug that that hole. So but that's that's the end of my updates at least for now. So I want to start the presentation. Um as Mike said we got kind of a team that's standing behind me. Um and before I introduce them just want to give them a big thanks and appreciation. They put an incredible amount of work in um not only coming here to present tonight but putting this together. We've done about 10 different revisions to it trying to give you know what the board had asked for. So uh again really proud of this team. We just want to say thank you with appreciation. So presenting tonight is Lucas Manny, our IT
073support specialist. I don't know if you want to wait. I think most of you know folks. U Dr. Daniel Boutton Wales who's our director of K12 STEM. Sorry. Katie Gun is an ELA teacher at the high school. Unfortunately, she is sick, so was not able to come tonight, but again, hats off. Want to thank her for her work, uh, instrumental in our planning process. Um, also tonight is Ashley Alexander, seventh grade ELA teacher. Um, Kristen Paseretti, sixth grade ELA teacher. Jennifer Eversol, first grade teacher at Caroline Street. And Amy Ellsworth, third grade teacher at Lake. So again, super excited that they're here tonight. And now I can start. So, in our agenda this evening, we're going to have just a little bit of an intro. I wanted to take a step back and although our
074focus is is on AI, I really enjoy talking about our department and all the rest of the stuff that we do. So, we're going to hear a little bit about some of our staff members and then Lucas is going to talk a little bit about um all the hardware that we support and then also some of our major systems, educational systems that we support as well. Um Danielle is going to talk about the integration of technology and instruction. I'm going to briefly talk about some of the research. There's a lot of research that's out there. Um, and then also some of the work that we're doing in Saratoga. I gave the board a hard copy tonight. There also was a link to this. Um, this is our Saratoga Springs City School District AI implementation guideline.
075Again, created by our Saratoga staff. Uh, very proud of it. It was this summer that work was created and again, you'll hear us talk about it and reference this a lot tonight. Um, AI use in our classroom. You'll hear from our teachers along with ethical challenges. Lucas and I are going to talk very briefly about the impact of these large learning models on our environment and then Danielle and I are going to kind of close things out talking about looking into the future and some of the things that we're keeping our eyes on and some of the next steps for us. So there's a picture of our IT department. uh we kind of kind we try to have like a holiday meeting I call it and that's a picture some of our staff is missing
076and this is a little bit hard to see from here but this is our team so in the red including Lucas and myself this is kind of our infrastructure group and I want to give props to Joe Wagner who's sitting in the audience if he wants to wave out there um is here thank you Joe for coming um you see uh Ben Pek our assistant technology manager Ryan Warner and David Gro is a building um support technician but he also does a lot with our infrastructure team and account setup. So this group we meet bi-weekly. Our focus is on our wireless access uh wireless access network um switches servers and we spend a lot of time on IT security. So there's a lot of work done in the background to make sure our network is
077always working which we want to always be working and then that it is secure for our staff and students. The group in the blue box, these are our building support technicians. So Connor and Chris support the high school. Um Owen and Brady support Maple Avenue. You'll see Lorraine Cooper and Mike, they support our six elementary schools. So it's a technician for every two buildings. And Cole, Cole is usually right over there at our board meetings. He's not here tonight with us, but uh he does a great job. He's kind of a district IT support person. He's all over the place. um when we have people that are out sick or on vacation, he fills in. If we have extra technology needs and maybe an event is going on, um he fills in. Again, he just
078does a great job for us. It's hard to see. These are the two administrative assistants that I have. Up on the top is Betsy Aquenta, who really focuses more on the technology world, um including helping with accounts, um level one support, and Betsy and I do a lot with the budgeting part of it. Um Diane Woodard is kind of on the other side of my spectrum which is the operations side which is we deal with facilities. Tony talked about dirt. We're all things dirt. That's Diane. Um we also deal with enrollment and registration as well and the code of conduct on that side. Um the teachers that are here tonight and there's more than that. There's they are also instructional technology teacher leaders. So, they're full-time teachers, but they also work extra with our our
079their colleagues in their buildings to support integrate um instructional technology into the curriculum. So, you'll see that at the elementary and secondary level. And you'll hear uh Danielle will talk a little bit about those as well tonight. And last, but certainly not least, uh hats off to Abby. She's sitting over there if she wants to wave. She's not technically underneath me, but she is connected to our apartment. She works in Bobby's arena, but she is everything to school tool, which is our student management system, which you'll hear a little bit about. So, super important. She does an awesome job. And Caitlyn Lewis, again, is not technically underneath it, is underneath people services, but is our assistant technologist. Both Abby and Caitlyn go to our IT department meetings and they converse with us and they're integrated
080into a lot of the work that we do. So, I wanted to include them tonight. and I'm gonna hand things over to Lucas to talk a little bit about hardware. Thanks Dave. So yeah, you can see on the screen here we obviously on the lefth hand side pretty much anything that plugs in uh we kind of have to handle. So uh again the laptops up top 826 is mostly staff and um sorry staff and uh teacher laptops. Again the cloud books on the left almost 5,000 of them or more than 5,000 of them. Those are for the students uh K through 12. Uh and then the iPads are both um K1 and two as well as some special needs and some uh special teachers who utilize the iPads for different communication uh applications as well
081as the ENL uh uses iPads as well. And then again just going to point out a few other things. Um we have almost 480 uh interactive boards. Those are the uh teaching tools that the teachers use in the classroom. And again, just uh a massive amount of them throughout the district. And then again, uh infrastructure- wise, we've got over a thousand phones, uh 42 servers in our infrastructure and server farm. And then again, I'm not even going to bring up the number of access points and wireless access points as well as network connections that we have in throughout the district. So, um do I have the clicker? So, the other thing we support is on the software side of things. Again, like Dave talked about the student management system, so school tool. Our learning management
082systems uh at the K through five level are Seesaw. Uh and then 6 through 12 is Canvas. Um our single signon platform is Clever, which has all the apps, uh that the students and staff need. Um again, a couple others I'll point out is the transportation system, which is Traversa. We help uh and manage that. Again, we send the data all uh up to it. And then we talked about security cameras earlier and saw the number over there, but also access control. So all the fobs to let you know all the buildings. Again, all that stuff connects to the network. And again, John Tiner's team kind of oversees and gives out the access, but again, when something doesn't work, we're involved in making sure it's it works and is back up and running. And then
083again, Bobby uh pays the bills and pays all the people with the uh finance manager. So I'm going to pass it over to Danielle, I think. All right. So, talking about how the information technology team and uh curriculum instruction work together. Um, so as you know, the information technology team does an amazing job supporting teaching and learning across the district. Some of the structures that we have to really help that partnership. Um, first off at the top there is the collaboration at the district level. The district departments of instruction and tech meet monthly to talk through anything where instruction and technology overlap. So that includes things like computer-based testing, third through 8th grade, the access and accessibility for students in software platforms, curricul curricular platforms um and across the programs. looking at curricular and programmatic
084alignment with software requests and building those digital literacy skills K through 12 and seeing what needs our staff has for support for professional learning um in those areas. The next structure is that K5 technology integration leadership team or another acronym of tilt for you. Um so that is really we have uh one or two teachers at each of the elementary buildings. We have IT staff representatives and a principal representative that meets monthly to share best practices using technology at that K5 level to um talk about what's new, what's working, what's not working, pro kind of provide that ongoing feedback loop um and also to create uh resources and talk about how they can support the teachers back at the building because our tech teacher leaders, those tilt members act as the go-to people back, excuse
085me, back at the building. They share updates at faculty meetings. They have um times when teachers can come see them. Really, anytime a teacher can come see them. They're great resources. And they help the teachers out with things like how to use different Smartboard features or Cammy or Near Pod or digital citizenship lessons. We have um at the middle school and high school level, we also have EdTech teacher leaders. The structure is a little bit different. We have four at the middle school and five at the high school um because of the size level and there those tech teacher leaders work closely with the principles. They meet regularly with their building administration to plan on how to best support the teachers and staff because of the size of those buildings. Um, but they do also
086come together with the K5 folks at a full K12 tilt meeting three times a year. And that's where we have those K12 across buildings discussions and really foster that ongoing communication of how are things going and providing that feedback. We know that having those structures is so important because of the speed of changes with technology and to really support it in responding to issues and the curriculum side in staying focused on how we're using the tools and that it's in alignment to what our curriculum and instruction is and that we're supporting the adults to support the students along the way. So you might be familiar with uh what's called the SAMR model. And what that is is thinking about how technology is used. Um it's really asking is this technology tool or replacement just a
087substitution or are we using that technology in a way that redefineses the learning experience for students? So there's a little example along the way off to the side of how you could use say Google Earth as a way of just a substitution for something which might be ah might be a little interesting or how you could really redefine it and perhaps add more to that learning experience through that technology tool. But now as techn technology has really changed and evolved especially with that growth of generative AI we're really thinking beyond the SAM model and we're asking ourselves the bigger questions of does it meaningfully enhance learning? Does it elevate or better engage students? So when we ask ourselves those questions we're really looking at this is Simon Synynic's model of starting with why but we're
088really looking at the why. Um the focus shouldn't start with what students are doing or how they're doing it, but really focusing on the learning goal, the objective, the why that they're doing it. So teachers make decisions about the what and the how based on that why, based on that purpose. So technology isn't the why. The technology lives in the how. and it's really helping teachers narrow in and zone in on that um purpose and then choosing the best supports and tools to help reach that learning goal along the way. So when we have those conversations on the curriculum and instruction side, we're really talking about the instructional decisions that should be based in uh decades of research about how students learn best. And that's how we can make the decisions of what sort of
089different tools or things or activities can help students learn is through looking at that research and looking and seeing where high quality instructional practices are in each stage of the learning. So one example would be modeling and strategy instruction is very critical. So technology tools can come into play when they're helping teachers model thinking or visualize concepts. Maybe using a Smartboard, maybe using different visual tools to make learning more concrete that's based on what are we trying to do with the learning there, that visualization and that modeling and then teachers can model that or monitor that impact through formative and summitative assessments. So another example that we've seen come across with generative AI is around feedback. So the educational research on feedback is that feedback's sufficient when it's specific, timely and actionable. So some of
090the things teachers have been exploring is how do we give more specific timely feedback? Um and how can generative AI help? And by supporting that immediate target feedback with a a type of generative AI, then students are able to then take some students and work more closely with them and spend that time when those students need that more in-depth support. So that's an example of how we try teachers have been working and discussing in their PLTs of how to balance those aspects. And with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Dave to talk some more about the research. Thanks. Thanks, Danielle. So, we spent a lot of time looking and reviewing it. There's actually quite a bit of research that's out there. There's a lot of articles and a lot of claims that
091are I guess we use the the term plentiful, but quality research is really limited, especially that focuses in on learning. Um, generative AI is really in its early stages. So, there's not a lot of great studies out there yet. I think the recommendations are super important and that's really our theme for tonight is to continue to focus on best instructional practices. That that's key and you'll hear that a lot tonight. Be thoughtful and purposeful in AI use. Um continue to monitor credible research and engage in ongoing instructional conversations across the district and do not have an over reliance on AI or really any technology application. Um technology is a tool that supports learning. And then that was a research article up on top kind of in the box and again it really shows both sides
092of it that if it is used to focus on best instructional practices and is thoughtful and per purposeful can it be helpful and and help with learning or as um we just talked about a little bit about it could be used for real time as Danielle said real-time feedback or there's the other side of it an over reliance on it. um it can put folks at risk is it it's not always accurate. Um and again there's safety and privacy issues as you'll hear a little bit about as well. So that's kind of a summary of it. We're trying to use look at it tonight. It was more of in a balanced approach. So who's using AI? This is from Hannover Research. H Research is an agency that K through2 districts use, high red uh agencies
093use. We actually used to subscribe to it for many years here at Saratoga. Um so you can see that who's using AI they're saying around 65% of K through2 educators um who K through2 students are around 61% using it and district leadership is around 10% 9% and it says seven states have issued AI guidance. So this this particular source is from 2024. I know that states that have provided guidance is up to around 14 or 15 at this point and I know New York State is still not one of them. So the implications of AI in schools and I may have to look at my computer because I don't have my glasses with me but like any new technology integrations there are potential advantages and challenges and we really feel that understanding and looking at
094both sides help us as leaders to thoughtfully approach the guidance for teachers and students as we try to implement the technology. you can see some of the benefits. Um, and you'll hear more about those actually from our teachers as far as helping with some of the prep preparation for teaching, whether it's creating learning goals, um, rubrics, assessments, exit tickets, and again, you'll hear more about that kind of stuff from our our teachers in a few minutes. But then there's the pitfalls of it. Um, are there concerns about data privacy? Yes, there are. Um, can there be an overuse of it? Yes, it it can be. um does it have the ability or to provide misinformation or bias and answers yes to that as well. So we need to have a open mind and look at
095both sides the benefits and the pitfalls of the technology. So this is Saratoga's work with AI. So generative AI is relatively new. AI is not really relatively new but generally AI is. So it kind of came out and the big one was chat GPT back in the winter of 2022. You can see from our chart in 2023 that's kind of when including myself administrators and teachers started to build our understanding of what is generative AI and we started to have especially at the secondary level working in our PLTS looking at how AI could potentially impact student work. Um, we also started a professional development. You'll see it in 23, 24, and 25. Um, uh, specifically at our superintendent conference days where we've offered some courses on, uh, generative AI to our teaching staff. And then
096in 2526, you'll see we actually offered it to some of our support staff, our CSEA staff, and talked about ways that maybe they could use AI to help them with their job positions in Saratoga. Um in 24 25 that's when some of our administrators started buying into it and helping and AI can help them with some of their administrative tasks. Again teachers looking at potentially adjusting their assignments. You'll hear more about this um with AI. We started talking about class discussions on AI and and safety. I already talked about the professional learning component. Um last year you Mike Katz when I did an AI presentation spoke to you he's a high school teacher about a program called class companion and that was an example of the feedback that real-time feedback that Danielle was just talking
097about. Um, also in 2425, I think it was in January, the board approved a I think it's policy 8636 on artificial intelligence. That was in the January, I think of 20 24. And then 2526. Oh, let me I skipped a really important one. This summer or the summer of 25 is when we created our Saratoga Springs AI implementation guidance document, which you're going to hear more about tonight. And then in the fall of this year is when we were trying to roll that out um introduce that to faculty at the different buildings. Uh more training at superintendent conference day and it's a continuing ongoing work um with our administrators and our uh technology teacher leaders with how do we use AI um safely in our classrooms. So this is kind of the chart from the
098front page of the document that I passed out to the board tonight. Um, and again, I won't read through all those components, but you can see purpose, which I'm going to talk about in a second. And you'll hear about some of those other categories um, this evening. We'll also included in your handouts, I think it's some of the recommended resources. So, that's kind of that's some of the things in the back of the document for you. So purpose make sure got um this guidance explains how the Saratoga Springs School District expects generative AI to be used responsibly by students and staff in alignment with existing policies and technology privacy and academic integrity because of the AI inputs. I'm kind of summarizing some of the stuff here. They may be inaccurate or biased and you'll hear
099about some of that as well. All AI generated content must be reviewed critically and supported by human judgment. So we the term we always use when any of the trainings we did that it creates a draft. You really need to think of it as a draft. It's something you need to look at and we needs to be updated. Um the last part of the purpose you'll hear about some tools co-pilot you'll hear about some of these Canva Kigo Magic School. These are AI tools that are educational based. Um they are safe safe to use. Um, you'll hear more about those in coming up pretty quickly. So, I'm going to hand things over. I think it's Jen is up to talk more about AI use in our classrooms. You're welcome. Good evening. I'm Jen Eversol. I
100teach first grade at Caroline Street and also one of the many edtech leaders, teacher leaders that you've heard about. Um so as mentioned previously um the work that we're undertaking with AI in Saratoga is a process and the first step in the process is really building teacher capacity training teachers on the AI supported digital tools that we have in the district and really building their confidence in these tools so they can enhance their instruction and engage their students. Before we can expect teachers to model AI with their students, we have to make sure that they feel knowledgeable and supported and prepared. So, at the elementary level, we're always laying the foundation for what's to come. Um, and the same is true with AI literacy and digital fluency um that they'll develop throughout their school careers.
101This work begins with our TILT team as was mentioned earlier. Um, we collaborate every month. Um, we're always learning more about the district tools, sharing our best practices, expanding our understanding of AI literacy and responsible use. Um, and we also meet with the K through 12 TI till teams as well, three times a year, which the conversations are really incredible. Um, and just it really helps us all to kind of see where where we're going. um to make sure we're in alignment and there's continuity and just a strong foundation um right from kindergarten up to support our students. Um from there we disseminate everything we've learned at our teams and we present at faculty meetings, our PLT times, we have office hours, um professional learning days. I think probably the most is in the hallway
102is when I do the most conversations when it comes to um or a phone call or um where they're waving us down for help. So um it's nice to be there to be able to support. So one simple example of how we can integrate AI in our elementary classrooms is right with the my viewboard software. So that's right on our V sonic interactive boards that we all have in our classrooms. And when I train staff on my viewboard, I always like to show them the AI pen. Um, as someone who's not very confident with their drawings, um, I really love the AI pen because I can start to sketch something and it makes a prediction on my sketch. And then the children really love to see all of the ideas that come up and they
103help me choose what would be the best sketch depending on our need um, for that picture. So, it really is just a very simple, fun, accessible introduction to an a how AI works. Um, but it also supports teachers and as we know, we're seeing these types of predictive AI in everything that we're um interacting with and the students are as well. Another tool that's becoming increasing pop increasingly popular in the district is Canva. So we have a Canva for educators account and as with many of the platforms it also includes AI and so it can generate coded activities for teachers in a matter of minutes. You can have interactive games and presentations and flashcards um student activities and it also has an image generator. So it gives a good a great opportunity for teachers to
104model prompting as a whole class. Um teachers are really naturally gravitating toward this tool. Um even in the next upcoming weeks I'm holding a couple classes on Canva, one specifically just on AI and I have a lot of teachers that have really expressed interest in attending. So now I will hand it over to Amy who will talk more about AI in the elementary. All right. Good evening. I'm Amy Ellsworth, Lake Avenue third grade teacher. Um, and I'm going to try not to duplicate a lot of what Jen said, but um, I'm talking again about our elementary AI use. And, um, our first phase being introducing educators to some of the tools we've selected that Dave mentioned earlier um, and of course the ones that Jen talked about, we we are loving and using as well.
105But we've really emphasized in all of it the importance of the collegial dialogue that they're having. um as they're exploring the different things that we show them, encouraging them to then think about those educational advantages as well as the the pitfalls, the strengths, and just have those thoughtful conversations among colleagues. Um so that we're preparing ourselves to be better modelers of transparency in our AI use as well as really thoughtful, reflective users of the AI. Um, so we know that this is the foundation that's crucial if we're going to be successful when we're working with our students and facilitating those whole class conversations about the potential strengths and and then the pitfalls as well, pointing out the the bias, the incomplete outputs, the um often sometimes wholly inaccurate outputs that they have. And those guided
106discussions will be taking place at the elementary level long before they're independently using those in the school setting. But we also know that even our youngest kids are sometimes having access to them outside of school. So having those conversations now are really important for them. Um the three of the tools that we've introduced are Magic School Copilot and School AI. And they each offer a plethora of tools. We've only introduced some of the tools in each one. encouraging teachers to then go forward and experiment and explore with more of them and they've been really excited to do that. Um, in our trainings we've again asked them to compare the outputs, put the same prompt in each of them, see what they come out with. Um, and then possibly take one output and put it in
107another tool all the time looking for the thing that best meets the needs of their students and what what they're really looking for so that they're leveraging it for um the very best for our kids. And we've also again stressed like it does on every page of the implementation guide reiterating that they need to develop that habit of reviewing every output and treating it like a draft. So as this slide shows um we found magic school to be a very popular tool helping write social stories that we use for our social emotional learning issues and um different things that come around. I have a student who who does not like to leave the classroom to go to music. So, I wrote him a social story with him himself as the character, and it has helped
108a little bit in getting him um to leave and go to his music class. Uh, magic school also helps us create leveled texts for differentiation. Um, creating some rubrics, um, refining some of our report card comments, generating songs to accompany curriculum with um, different popular songs that the kids know, but using the the content that we want, creating Jeopardy games, and making choice boards. So, again, lots of of available on Magic School. Um, co-pilot has been really helpful in crafting letters. um permission slips or just taking some of those time burdens away and off of the teacher shoulders for the a lot of the little tasks that we have to do. Um and then school AI also has many tools. One that we particularly like is um generating worksheets that teachers can craft for their
109what I need time or their win time when they're extending the learning of their tier one students and providing additional work with grade level materials for tier 2 students and um filling in gaps for tier three students and that can be pretty burdensome when you've got all of that differentiating to do. And this particular tool can help you generate, for instance, math word problems that are specific for each of those learners. Um, so one that I'm currently working on right now is two-step word problems in math. So when I'm working with my kids that need a specific division and subtraction combination of word problems, I can put it in just that way and say, and make it about Legos because that's what that team is interested in. and it gives me all kinds of materials
110that I wouldn't otherwise have time to create on such an individual level. Um, and so we have heard from a lot of our teachers saying how excited they are that they can use these tools to improve their craft. And um we're just constantly reiterating that need to develop those cognitive routines for evaluating the tech tools that they use, whether they're AI or just a tool themselves, and really remain responsive to um this evolving landscape that we live in. Um and so that's our focus at the elementary level. Thank you. All right. Um again, I'm Kristen Paseri. I teach at Maple Lab. I teach sixth grade language arts. Um, and I've been there for five years previously at Lake A and at Dorothy Nolan where I taught fifth grade. So, I've had the pleasure of kind
111of seeing how things kind of move up as the world has changed, which is kind of nice, too. I'm going to share with you um an example of something we've done in our classroom the last two years as AI has come on the scene trying to improve something that would have been just a descriptive writing piece and trying to make it better. Um, just to give you a sense of what you're looking at here on the top left of your screen, that is a document that all K through2 teachers received at the beginning of the year this year to post in our classrooms to refer to and to have some consistent language. Um, you can see on the top it's AI free, AI resistant type of work. The yellow is AI assisted and then the
112green is AI enhanced. So, it's really been beneficial to kind of point this out when you're assigning an assignment as kids are coming into AI, finding it on their own, especially in middle school, and reminding them when they're allowed to use AI versus when it is an assignment that is not allowed to use AI. So, this is an activity where we do both. Um, just to give you a synopsis of it, it begins with um a book that we finish reading in quarter 2 called The Unwanteds. And just side note, if you've never read The Unwanteds, is an awesome book about um creativity and celebrating differences. Um the the children in the story who are creative are thought to think that they are the bad ones in the story and they're being sent to their
113death when they actually find out that they are really um the lucky ones that are going on to explore their creativity and to um uh to celebrate their creativity throughout the book. So, it's a nice discussion piece, but what's also more wonderful than that is there's no movie yet, which eventually I will be the first one in line for that. But because there's no movie, there's no um visual for them to look at any of these characters. So, we have to pay close attention to details. We have to talk about these characters at length. So, on the left hand side, um on the bottom there, you see the handwritten AI free and we talk about how this is all coming from your brain. We're going to brainstorm. and we're going to pick a character and
114they have to hand write out the what this character looks like, what they act like, what are some of their likes and dislikes, um what do they do, those kinds of things. And then from that they have to look at what they wrote and they have to draw handdraw AI free their own picture of what they think that character looks like based on their description. So then they they pair up with another student and they have to look at it again and the other student has to look at what they wrote and what they drew and then help them see well you put this character in an art room you didn't say anything about art. So it kind of gives them the opportunity to have a discussion. Um eventually when they get approval for from
115a peer and from me that they have put enough description into their brainstorm then they are able to write out a description and that's what you see at the bottom of this again AI free they have to describe the character with all of those details and making sure that it's thorough. Um then the big reward is that they can go to AI um in Canva and there's a program in there called Magic Media where they can put in details and it has to be based on the brainstorm they came up with and if they've done a great job which they all have by that point because we've spent a long time getting there. Then you see the AI generated image that's on the top right and that is one of the characters. But what's even
116neater is if the other students have that same character, which several students do, they all look very similar because they've all spent a long time, you know, evaluating the book. So, why use AI for something I could have just done description with before? The excitement in my room is amazing to watch them want to get to that point where they can see their hard work has paid off and see that what they've developed um actually looks like the character that they had inside their mind. it wouldn't have gotten there without that. They, you know, some kids would have done it, but you're we're seeing students that typically don't have that much language and they're they're wanting to include the language that needs to be approved to be able to get to that image. So, that's
117just one example of what we're doing at the middle school. Uh, hi. My name is Ashley Alexander and I am a seventh grade ELA teacher at Maple A. Um, oh yeah, did it? Okay, there it is. So, yeah, we're the tech people. Um, so anyways, uh, Kristen just showed you what a creative aspect of using AI in the classroom is. Um, on my side, what is really popular and buzzing at the middle school level is what we call chat bots. Um, you're going to hear me reference the word chatbot a lot. And chatbot just basically means that it is like a virtual assistant or it is um kind of like a teaching assistant or learning tool that is virtual. With that being said, the biggest thing about chat bots is setting it up correctly. when
118we use chat bots with AI and we have two programs that we use at the middle school which is magic school or class companion. The great thing about a chatbot is when you first get there you are able to upload documents. So maybe previous um lesson plans, assignments, uh maybe a rubric on what you want the kids to learn and accomplish. Again, you're setting those parameters that it's not so free that kids can do whatever they want. It still keeps them on a learning target and tracks them where they need to go and what they need to do. The biggest thing that I can admit to or the hardest thing of being a teacher is when you have 25 kids in the class. They are all of very different levels, learning levels, learning needs. You're
119giving them the same assignment and they're all completing it at a different pace. With that being said, as Dr. Bton Wells had established was feedback was a really key important factor of using AI. This chatbot allows instant feedback within a matter of seconds. So, as you can see, in a seventh grade French class, the example here was in French. She wanted her students to write a pen pal letter. Part of it was going to be in English, the other part was going to be in French. We also were encouraging students at this time because of privacy and we want kids to be safe online to not use specific details, personal details, name, things like that, just to keep it simple and basic. So, this French teacher set up the chatbot uh describing the grade level,
120her assignment, what she wanted kids to accomplish with using this. At the bottom there, you can see when kids first log on as it's connected through the learning management system, which is Canvas at the middle school. You can see that the chatbot will talk to them in French and in English and explain why the chatbot is there, the purpose of helping them. At the top right, you can see a student response where they did type their response in with French um of starting their pen pel ladder uh letter. Right below you can see the chatbot instantly provides feedback. It says what went what you did well and it lists an ample amount of feedback back that was great. In this uh middle of that you can see that there were corrections based off of what
121the teacher input and set for the chatbot what they wanted the student to improve on. Last but not least, it also provided a checklist to make sure that the student had the specific points that was required for the assignment. And again, here are some other examples too as well that we have here. And again, what's beautiful about it is not only were kids putting in their assignment, kids were actually asking questions that supports continual learning using the chatbot. So, for example, at the top left, the student asked, they were writing about Home Alone uh to their pen pal letter, and they wanted to specifically know how to say Home Alone in French. The chatbot did provide a response, and it did provide something that was more accurate. It's as if you were living in France,
122um or depending on the region that they were, uh the dialect that they were using for French. But because it seemed too advanced, the chatbot corrected it and provided another example of where the student should be learning. And then again on the top right, the student was asking how do they say soccer in French. The chatbot responded with how you should correctly say it. Again, it was working on grammar and structures for the student. What's great about this is then the student replied, "Well, if I wanted to ask them if they like playing it, is this how I would phrase it?" The chatbot immediately provided feedback saying yes that you did. These next couple of slides uh were for Katie Gun. Unfortunately, Katie is not here, so I'm speaking on her behalf um about from
123an ELA standpoint just as a general standpoint of what is happening at the high school for AI. So again, a big thing that Katie uses is she does teach public speaking. Um this is an example of if and when and how AI tools will be used. So for her uh high school persuasive speech writing these are her come from her documents. Um as you can see step one she makes the students handw write their speech. So no AI is required. So again referencing the document that Kristen said where it had kind of like the stoplight the red the yellow the green. This would be the red port uh proportion. Step two would be to have a teacher checkpoint. So, after they submit their handwritten assignment, they are to check in with the teacher and get
124it approved and figure out exactly what AI tool it is that they need to use. Um, and they were going to use the AI tool for revisions or corrections on things that they needed. Step three was if you use um AI at any point after um this was to they had to complete a reflection sheet. So after they used AI goes back to the why portion right of what Dr. Boutton Wells was explaining and it was why were they using this? What was the purpose of it? Okay. Um again at the bottom there it was kind of like a this is what's allowed and this is what's not allowed and a little bit more of a summarizing point for students. This is an example of a sheet completed by a student. So they were admitting
125to whether they did or did not use AI. um they specifically listed what AI tool they were using and then of course how did they use to check it. So this particular student wanted to look at organization and structure within their writing improving transitions and of course improving word choice and clarity. This is then their reflection sheet that they had to complete explaining it. What is interesting about this is while it asked them to put exactly what they wrote down, what they were chatting with with AI is that what AI suggested to them and students had figured out that hey, it made my writing more powerful or it cleared up words that I couldn't think of. It gave me a better word wording choice. It helped organize my writing or my speech. Um the other
126thing too that it's interesting is um a question of what you agreed or disagreed with it. And some students did put that sometimes the wording choice that it gave them may have been too advanced or it just didn't sound like them. So that is a good reflection piece that students are understanding the use of AI and how it works. This is another second example for her persuasive speech. Again student also used AI. They also use chat GPT. And again they were looking at improving transitions and strengthening call to action. And this is their response for to it mainly. they were using it for transitions and again organization um some some again did not like it because it didn't sound like them. So they were able to decipher and figure out how to correctly use AI
127and I'm gonna take it back over to Kristen. We talked about going back and forth but yeah well we're going to cover um three different things here. We're going to talk about maintaining ac academic integrity, data privacy, and security. So, we're going to bounce between a bunch of us in addressing bias and hallucinations. Um, so this screen here is talking about basically the fear that all teachers had when this came on the scene back in 2023. I can remember sitting in a room for Tilt and having someone actually Dave was there and I remember us looking at it and the fear in everyone's eyes that kids are going to cheat. This is not good. how are we going to work around this? So, basically, we had to pull it all back and say, all right,
128if we are proactive versus reactive, just like with the calculators that we introduced many years ago, and everyone freaked out about that, saying kids would not learn how to do math if they had a calculator. Um, we could we can handle this and and it has gone fast. I'm not going to lie. There are days when I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to handle some things, but um we have to we have to continue to be proactive as much as we can. So on the first um bubble here you see establish clear expectations and guidelines that comes back to that document the that we all are consistently hanging in our classrooms making sure that we are clear about what is allowed versus what is not allowed and I think you've heard that from all
129of the teachers that have shared so far. Um, and then just like any document or any source that we use going back before AI came into the onto the scene, we need to teach children how to yes, if you're going to use it, you need to you need to pay you need to um give credit to the source where you are getting it. And then we need to teach them how to give that credit for an AI citation. Um, and lastly, we need to have um AI proof assessments. So, you heard with Katie's, you heard with mine, we are going old school. We kind of got a little bit um crazy with the amount of device we used back in 2020 when we hit the scene with COVID and we had to kind of rethink
130how we were doing things and making sure that we have work on demand. Um pencil and paper has come back on the scene. It's just like when I was a kid and when I first started teaching. So you'll kind of see this maintaining academic integrity from the bottom is simply just starting with making sure you have handwritten assignments and then as we work up the um up the the the ladder there. We have surprise assessments. I'm not a huge fan of those. I think that cause a little bit of anxiety, but I know as kids get older they do get that. Inclass work, making sure students are doing and performing and not just doing things outside of class. um in-person makeups, um recreating homework that's been then already created, explaining and pres uh having a
131presentation on what you are working on. So, we know that you can verbally explain what you have learned. Um and then we talked about the AI draft modification and conferencing and how that can help with a student's work. So, um yeah, we're still worried about cheating. Yes. Do we address it on a daily basis? Yep. But we all are doing our best to try to make sure that we're we're tackling that and and doing what we can to make sure that students are learning from and we all are learning. And that's what I tell my students when we have a situation like that that we can all learn from this and and move forward from it. That's you back to me. Uh so this is responsible use of AI tools. uh this is in the
132AI implementation guide uh that was created that you all have a copy of. With that being said, it is on page two and three of that implementation planning guide. So the biggest thing about it is that as a district um we understand the uses of AI are going to vary on context and it's of the teacher discretion. Um and the depending on the classroom activity or assignment and grade level, uh teachers will clarify if and when AI tools should be used, um when they are allowed, when they are not allowed, um as well as we understand that we need to adhere by laws, having applications that are um ED law compliant, 2D compliant um as well as making sure that data and security and privacy and things like that is not being collected. We are
133being safe with that. and as well as setting those specific parameter parameters and objectives of what it is we want students to accomplish so that way it is defined for the activity and over to Jen. So we can't talk about AI without talking about data privacy and security obviously. Um and as you've heard even with one of the presentations that um we have to know that we're not what not to share with AI. So it's just like what we wouldn't share online. Um so if you were putting something in as a teacher, we're not putting in students names or their student IDs or birthdays. Um so it's more of a generic um where we would put that in. And so we don't want anything that would identify a person. Um and also with data protection
134um doing data protected versus public tools and we've talked even Dave before the presentation talking about Edlaw 2D and chat GBT. So um there's a difference between what is data protected AI tools that are allowed in the district that have are following the EDL law 2D. they're um you know FURPA compliant um and ensuring that our student data is being stored safely um whereas if we go out to um a public AI tool that is not safe so you know just making sure that we're telling teachers this as well as you know teaching our students about data privacy too because as we've heard they are going to other public tools outside of the school day. Um and really that starts at the elementary level. We are already teaching about um the importance of data security
135or data privacy and security and um we start with our digital citizenship curriculum right in library. They are doing that K through five and um already emphasizing how to be safe and responsible when using technology and AI just naturally extends with that. Um, so by teaching responsible AI use, um, we're preparing our students how to navigate this digital world. Um, the goal really is for them to become safe and responsible digital digital citizens. Um, so that they can be protected beyond the classroom when they're not with us as well. All right. And Ashley again. All right. So, um, this slide is addressing bias and hallucinations, which which is something that has, um, come up with AI. It is not a perfect tool. And just as was just mentioned, we need to teach students how to
136spot that, how to look for it, how to not um, just like anything when we've taught them to use a source, we look for reputable sources. And AI is not always reputable. um it does would we say go on trends and picks up um things that that kind of go along with that. So you see we need to teach kids how to spot AI bias. We need to be able to fact check them and there's some examples of modeling an AI response and then using textbooks, reputable news outlets, academic resources, other things to check for those um to fact check what they're looking up. Yeah. And uh an example of this would be at the high school um speaking on for Katie with one of Katie's assignments, students had the same story that they read
137and they were to plug a certain question into AI. The cool factor of this of how it worked was Katie brought up Copilot, she brought up chat GBT and she brought up Google Gemini, I think, and asked all three of those AI components, those tools the same question. And from there as a class with the students, they all interpreted and analyzed the responses. And what was great is that students were picking up like, "Hey, that's not accurate or hey, this is different than what this other AI tool is telling me." And it became to the point where students are being those lifelong learners that we encourage that we want them to continue to fact check, that we want them to continue to read and not just have a one answer be all answer. So we
138want them to be able to be those continual lifelong learners. And that is just an example of how we address bias and hallucinations within AI. And David. So uh we're going to talk about the physical impacts on the environment obviously. Um so again one of the things that we kind of can't avoid is that um you know using these AI tools does require a significant amount of electricity to function and um it kind of comes in two main stages. Um there's the training component of the AI model as well as then they call it an inference when you're actually interacting with the model. So again, the massive amount of data that is needed to train the models um could take weeks and months and involves hundreds um of powerful computers obviously to run these things.
139And so um the electricity that's needed to train them is quite significant. uh as well as again when you're interacting with it or the inference there's not as much uh electricity needed but again that's just like if I was the only one doing it but there's millions of queries daily uh using these tools so again it is significant um again set up in that those two stages with the AI uh training model and then obviously interacting with it so Dave's going to talk about some of the renewable side of it just to add to what Luke said so again these AI tools are not Perfect. This is a huge side effect and this energy use component is a is a big concern. Uh it's a big concern for me and just looking at it as
140Luke said it's um those of you that have been around for a while if you remember the big mainframe computers like one of them was at Cornell like they took up the size of a whole room. I mean that's what you're looking at. It's not a standard data uh center. So one of the things and again the companies that support these large language models are like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon, some of your really big big companies. Um they are looking and start are starting to look at renewable energy as a way to hopefully power some of these large language models. The other thing they're looking at is the technology itself um and coming up with what now they're calling smaller language models. And an example would be right now large language models. You can put
141pretty much anything asking anything about any topic. And that's why it takes so much horsepower or energy to run. Um looking at designing and is an example of maybe a health language mile. Maybe it's focusing on the heart than the medical field could use. And that's all that it is. It's very specialized. Um but the data center to run something like that would be much smaller, more normal size. And then energy use also will be a lot less. They're also looking at things like the calculations, all those mathematical calculations they have to create to make these predictions. Is there a way to do less intensive math calculations uses less energy? And then just looking at the technology itself and the computer systems have to run this stuff. So there's definitely more work that has to
142be done on that. But I just wanted to say that we it is something we're becoming more and more aware about and want to try to continue to look at that and make people aware of that there are side effects to using the AI model as well. And those are just some of the references when Luke and I were putting this part of the presentation together. So, kind of closing out, um, Danielle and I are going to talk a little bit about looking at the future. I'm let Danielle talk a little bit about New York State Portrait of Graduate. So, I think we're all familiar with this. Um, so just quickly referencing it back, kind of bringing it back full circle, and we know that our goal is to prepare today's learners for tomorrow's or
143for future success. And so with the portrait of a graduate, that's where we're looking at preparing our students to be the creative innovators, the critical thinkers. You heard about that a lot, the effective communicators. Um, and also that academic preparation to prepare them to be global citizens. And as you see that wording, it's who acts responsibly and ethically within local, global, and digital communities. So just keeping that as one of our guidances. So some of the ongoing work um support best practice using their K through2 digital literacy computer science standards um those are something that K through2 that we're in the process of implementing and it really incorporates a lot of the AI work and some of the information that you heard this evening. So that's continued work that the district is working on. We
144also are looking at down the road in the future is to working on educating our families. Um, there's a great resource and hopefully if you get a chance to click on it from Common Sense Media, they call it the parents ultimate guide to generative AI and it has great again readable resources as far as what AI is, what it isn't, appropriate use, not appropriate use. So, that's probably a good resource as we start to work on developing like a parent university course for our families. Um, that's where we're going to go. I'm gonna hand back to Danielle. And then one of the new New York State education uh department's requirements from the board of regents um that they've put forth is integrating climate education throughout uh elementary, middle school, and high school. So that is
145uh set to be kind of um a change to the part 100 requirements. And so that will be something that we'll have to uh look at and certify off on. And one of the things that we are always trying to do is that continuous feedback loop. We know that technology moves very quickly and so having that continuous communication and feedback is so important. Um and having student input and feedback that was actually part of the next plans even before uh some of the the feedback about chat GPT that just came on board here. But that was definitely something as we're looking ahead that's an important part of it. um and always equipping our administrators, our teachers, and our staff with the information and the professional learning that they need so that they feel prepared and
146comfortable with that. And our and our last slide and kind of closing tonight again, it says from the top, teachers and other people must be in the loop whenever AI is applied. It's really any technology. Um generative AI does not replace teachers. Um, teachers are the most important part with our students as far as the learning process, that connection, the human factor, the relationship building, the empathy, the caring. It just AI does not touch that or come close to that. It's a tool that helps to support our learning and teaching practices. And you can see some of the other kind of circles around that were kind of talked about tonight. Privacy and data aligned to our vision of learning. Remember going back to that best instructional practices we talked about earlier. um being aware of
147the different outcomes of AI and again the pros and the cons the challenges with it the benefits of it but again this that's super important point I think for all of us is that AI is not a replacement for teachers that's a tool that helps to support learning and again we boatload of references some more references that we use for the presentation and then we open it up for questions that the board may All right. Questions or comments from the board? Go ahead, Matt. Um, first, thank you for that. And, um, I dehydrated like listening to that. Does anyone need water or anything before like seriously question like should like we should grab some for these guys? They've been talking for a while. Um, I have a I have a lot of questions. Um, I
148guess my my first one um is sort of from Mrs. Paseretti and I should preface this by saying Mrs. Pasaretti taught my children and is still sort of spoken about with hushed and like reverential terms in in our house. Um, but I I had some when you talked about the way you were using AI um I sort of understand why students are excited about using it and why that excites them. I guess my my question is and you you may not have the answer to this. This is um we've been sort of talking around this uh a lot, but do we have evidence that using AI for in a project like yours leads down the road to students who are better, more excited readers or does it have the opposite effect, right? Like I mean
149you sort of talk on it like you know when when you see a movie of a book you've read, you're like ah that's not how I pictured it in my head. Are we taking away the pictures in their head by using AI? And is there evidence that's leading to better? I mean, it may be leading to people who want to read more or maybe leading to people who want to read less. And I I'm curious if if you know of what the outcome. I don't know about evidence, but I can tell you what I see in my classroom is the pictures that they're drawing. They get so excited that they have described the things that they're seeing in their head because they're showing me from their their drawn picture and that AI is responding because
150I tell them AI is only as good as what you put into it. But does does it lead them to want to read more or does it lead them to want to use AI more? I don't know if it's AI that it's an exciting book. I think you'd want to read it without AI, but the this element has made them very excited about writing and that was my goal was to get them excited about writing. So even students that typically hate to write, they don't want to pick up a pencil, they don't want to write anything and it's very basic becomes extremely descriptive because they want to be able to get to that reward of being able to see what it would look like on the screen. So I don't I don't know if that
151totally answers your question, but that's I I understand that. I I mean I think my concern with all of this and I I I was the one you all haven't been to all the board meetings, but who brought up this idea like, you know, is there data about what what this leads to down the road? And I think there's a lot of questions out there of is AI like it helps in the moment but is it diminishing the learning down the road and and that's sort of where I'm that's where my concerns mine too and it's still so new. I mean it's just in the last two to three years but again students are using it they're finding it. My high schoolers have apps on their phone and we need to have a constant conversation
152of how to use it appropriately, when it's appropriate to use it and when it's not. Um, we don't want them going out and exploring a tool that's never been, you know, they've been able to have that conversation with an adult to be able to hopefully use it safely. And that's, I think, a big part of this as well, teaching them an appropriate way to do it. I have more questions, but I'll let other people go. Okay, Tony. Yeah, thank you for that uh presentation. It was uh pretty comprehensive and um I thank you for all the time and effort you put in there. Um I do want to uh and and I'll preface this as saying it's a it's a personal belief. I I happen to think it's true, but it it it's coming from
153me, not necessarily from the board. I I just um I don't know. I want to I want to warn against or guard against overuse of phrases like safe to use or data protected when we when it when it comes to these technologies. Um I heard safe and unsafe twice and and and safe to use once and data protected. And I think um you know we always have to keep in the back of our minds here that um this is a this AI um dynamic this AI environment is really exists because of a a data acquisition economy right that is the end goal of the private companies that are that are uh pushing this it's total data acquisition So the concept of data protected I think breaks down even among the most accepted AI um technologies
154when you think of it in terms of um you know it these companies are in a a high stakes arms race AI arms race and there's a ton of evidence that um that they rush products to market and that um I I don't I just want to maintain a as as adults a healthy constant skepticism that what we're being told about these products is true and that our assumptions about you know which ones are safe and which ones are not safe that that that we never rest and we never we never make firm assumptions about that because it's really the the when you put the for-profit arms race um lens on what these companies are doing um what they're telling us I think breaks down and and I'll end by saying I that that that
155skepticism that we need to apply as adults I think we need to we need to further in inculcate that in our our teaching to the students that that you know the concept of data protected whether it's applied to AI generative AI or anything else in in our um in our electronic uh economy is is I I mean it's bogus there. There's nothing that's data protected. I think a we need to teach a complete total skepticism in this area that um you know eventually this data uh is not protected and and there's so much evidence that that um that supports that uh prior to the the generative AI um uh explosion. So yeah, I I can just comment on that and agree with you that we need to always continue to look at it. Uh we
156do want to try to keep staff students safe. The products that we do use are vetted uh through educational agencies. We have Edlaw 2D agreements with them. To your point, does it mean they're they're lying or I mean I I'm not going to stand up here and say that. I don't know that. But we it is something that we need to continually look at. Totally agree with you. Um again, it's a new technology and we want to be careful as we use it. Yeah, I'd say we we I I I default to yes, they are lying, but um I mean I I think I don't know that. I don't Well, I think you should. We have legal agreements with them, so I'm not going to say that. Beth, that was a lot. So, thank you
157for um just the incredible amount of time and effort and uh consideration to the questions that I think were that you were anticipating um that we we've been kind of wrestling with a little bit. So, thank you for the presentation tonight and for all of the effort that you clearly are putting into the thoughtful way that you're working this into your pedigogy and your classroom and teaching and learning. Um, I think it's a AI for me, I, you know, I wrestle with this in my where I work. Um, and I it it's a big question. Um, I think there's a lot, and you all alluded to this, that we don't we just don't know. We just don't know. Um, and that's a little scary. you know, I'm starting to see things kind of bubble to
158the surface in some of the list serves that I'm a part of that um you know, perhaps technology is not great for young brains. Um so, you know, and I I also I say that with the acknowledgement that like education, we we swing back and forth, right? The pendulum swings like um there's trends in education and and you all are tasked with just keeping up with it. and staying out ahead of it and that is not easy. Um so you know I I I acknowledge that. Um my personal belief about learning is that it takes time and effort and failure um and and in many cases choice for older students. um they have to choose to engage and I think AI can give students the option to opt out of that process. Um and I
159think that's a much broader discussion because we put a lot of pressure on kids to perform and we're assessing them on output. Um that we're not going to change that, you know. Um, so I, you know, I I guess I just more than having a question, I just want to acknowledge that this is just a big topic and AI is not going away. Um, I don't I don't think it's going away. I mean, I I I I have a lot of opinions and feelings about about it, but I just I think it's moving so quickly. Um, and it has become such a part of our culture already that many times we don't even realize we're using it. Um, so I guess I I guess I guess what I'm trying to say is I hope that
160with the challenge that you all are faced with and where we are with what we know and all that we don't know that we hold on to that. Um, I hope it is a value. I think it's a value of our of our district to really um engage students in a way that um they benefit that learning. They benefit from the connections with other students, with you all um with their community because I think that really matters um with all the AI stuff and all the technology and how rapidly it's changing. um because I I think I I'm not I'm unconvinced that it is um that it is not not causing harm to young brains. So thank you Ashley. Firstly these microphones. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I it's interesting knowing that we were
161coming into this presentation tonight and there was cons there's concern around AI. I was kind of like what are they gonna say to like it's it's really like it's a it's a really tough topic and you are all in a very hard spot and taking on something that I don't think a lot of educators would be willing to even step into your shoes and be the people that are kind of feeling it out. So thank you for that. Um because there is this line to balance of of safe versus we don't know and what could be not safe. Um you know and we'll never be able to control everything. And I was actually talking to Dave a little bit earlier just thinking about like 2003. I remember being in college and using Google to write
162papers. And I think about the internet and I I I remember a lot of the same feelings. Um, and it's caused some bad. Don't get me wrong. It's caused a lot of bad. Um, but I really I think the thing I just want to appreciate from this group and I'm super impressed with the way you are teaching it with that discerning eye and the reflections and the pre-work. Um, if you were just saying, "Hey, go describe a character for your character assignment." um uh you know and type it into AI, but there's that pre-work of you're drafting, you're drawing, you're writing. And I think about those high school assignments with the reflections after using the AI. And I think it's hugely important. And I just want to say thank you for navigating and muddling through
163something that is certainly not easy. Um and I I don't think it's going away. Um, so if we can prepare our students to understand the good, the bad, and the ugly, that's that's the what we can do right now to prepare them for their futures. So, thank you, Connie. Um, so thank you for that presentation. Um, as a board member, I can certainly say that I recognize when we see as a board presentations or work that's been sent to us, and I could totally recognize that AI was used in some way, shape, or form. So, um, like it's it's here. Um, I do want to acknowledge and I think, you know, maybe this is an important point for you to make as a group as you move forward and have to potentially make your case
164about AI next year, but industries use this. There's open source code like if you're in the computer business, in the technology business, AI is used. It is used to automate. It is used to make companies more efficient. Um, PubMed has an AI tool and that is like Google for doctors. So, I think for us to try to act like it's not there or that we should not be I mean part of our job is to take kids in the school and make them available to work. So, it's it's a very tough place for I think you to be like I think you're probably feeling under scrutiny and um I hope that you feel supported in that we all want I think we all want the same thing for our kids. Um and I can say
165that I have personally used it for things like lodging a complaint, you know, for things that are like, you know, maybe I need help with making stronger wording. So, I I think if um if we think about the uses of it, it's it's definitely not going away because so many people find use in it. Beth used some words that I think are helpful. Time, effort, failure, choice. And with that, I think it's important to hear from our students. If we're all about student voice, I would love to know how our students feel about this. I don't think that we should be the voice for the students on this because they are our future. So, I don't mean to put you on the spot, Olivia, but I would love to know, you know, what your thoughts
166are, but maybe a way that you can think to get some student voice on this issue. I don't know if this is working exactly. It might now. Um well I just had one question before I answer um regarding the high schoolers specifically because I know you mentioned earlier um in the meeting that chat GPT is now banned for all of the school issued devices for high schoolers for high school devices we again currently okay yeah so my question really is going forward what type of AI will you allow um for students because now the school issue devices are obviously very restricted we have a lot ofing services that are blocked. Um AI is blocked and but um for the teachers, I'm not exactly sure how AI is monitored through there or if it's monitored at
167all for for you guys. Um but for the high schoolers especially, where will we be able to use chat GPT? Because you mentioned that one teacher who is from the high school, but now will that assignment be applicable anymore? Um we need to have further discussions. I'm not sure where they use Chad CPT. Again, we thought it was not working from the get-go. Um, but students are still accessing these tools at home and that's what we talked about. We want to make sure they know what tools they're using and is it a safe tool to use. And again, I don't want to say that word safe. I don't want to get Tony upset here, but um, is it an appropriate tool to use, I'll use that phrase. Um, so chat GPT is not at least
168right now. And again, it's actually if you look at the the specifics of it, if you're under 13, you're not supposed to be using it. And I think if it's and I see Ashley shaking her head, if you're 13 to 18, I think you have to have a parent sign permission slip or sign off on it. And again, that's just not something I know we have set up. So, we're just trying to keep our students safe. So, we need to have further discussions like can we use Microsoft Copilot? There is a the ability for students 13 and older to use that, but we would want to work with the teachers like Mrs. Gunn who's not here tonight, but could talk more about how she could use it safely with her students. And we will be
169supportive of that. We just happy to have further discussions on the how and why. For the high school, but they could use like the tool Canva. That's a tool that that students can use. They do have access to with teachers. Yep. And then I think you they have a question, right? Yeah. For high schoolers, I know today a lot of us saw that I was surprised it was allowed. There was a little bit of push back from that. I think there is definitely reliance in AI. I've seen from my friends and peers who use it unfortunately a lot more than we would like to in our assignments and while it is being used as a corrective device for our assignments and getting there. Yes. the microphone. Are you finding that your teachers are able to
170see when AI has been used to directly to cheat? Like is that something that you're feeling that teachers are recognizing more easily now because it's so common? Um, so I know that for the school devices we most of the teachers when we have online assignments use a specific app I believe it is that allows them to monitor each screen um for the students in their class. They know exactly what websites were going on when we transition from tabs and what we're really researching in um active assignments. Um I think for Google classroom there is something that teachers can use where they can see the like typing rate that students um put into Google Docs. They can sort of detect whether AI might have been used. They can use like AI detectors straight through there. Um,
171I think it is really being monitored a lot more now, especially with I think it's not WebEx, it's but that monitoring device. Um, I've seen in my classes um teachers also have the ability to X out tabs for their students and also lock browsers. So, I think that's really helpful in monitoring AI in the classroom during school days. Go ahead. I have a few more questions. Um, one's easy. What does Tilt stand for? Technology integrated leadership team. Great. Thank you. Um, that was easy. So, uh, I have two sort of harder questions that I'm not, you all might not have the answer to this, but, um, so we're working on our strategic plan that our new pathway statement and a lot of the feedback we got when we sort of opened it up to like
172parent comments was why are there so many screens and why is there so much technology being used? And I think Mrs. Paso again sort of spoke about this a little bit after COVID, sort of the retrenchment. and we're seeing, you know, we're getting mostly positive feedback from the uh phone ban and the high school. So, I guess my my question is especially through for, you know, K through five, is the discussion of like can should we be getting rid of technology, is that part of those discussions or is it mostly just like well, how do we use the technology that we have or what new technology do we have? I know at our building, our belt team has been talking a lot about that and we've done a survey with teachers asking what we use
173things for and how much time we spend on screen. So, I know as as a building, we're being very mindful and making decisions to have students on devices only when it's necessary. So, we definitely want to use the technology we have, especially in planning instruction, but it doesn't always put screens in front of kids. We're trying to really again the word is balanced. So we're trying to do all of that. I always think of it as are we being consumers or creators when we're using technology, right? So if we're just consuming the information, we don't want them on that screen that whole time. But if they're actually creating something or they're doing something and taking a picture of something that they made and sharing it, um that's different. And so I think that there is
174less use than you may be imagining at the elementary level. Um I think maybe it was a year ago we had asked and kind of our teachers like how much time they're using in a day and it was um a lot less than than what we were thinking for sure. Does that answer your question or Yeah. I mean sure. Yeah. Um and go ahead. No, I just it's um I mean you started when you started the presentation, you know, you talked about how many l you know that there are Chromebooks in all the elementary schools and I guess you know is the question ever asked like do we just want to get rid of these? Well, we also have computer-based testing as well through New York State. So I think one to one is you
175know important very important. Okay. So now I don't I don't I can add a little bit. I don't think we've been asked to get rid of them but definitely about the balanced approach like we don't want to use the technology from the beginning of the day no non-stop all the way to the end it's when needed for creation for particular lessoning learning activities and sometimes it's not appropriate to use technology okay I have another question on a different topic so um we've all sort of heard these horror stories about high school kids who sort of convinced to try to kill themselves by talking to AI I are we and and and you sort of you sort of touched on this like you know Mardi also said like you know we know our kids are using
176it like I'd like to sort of know more about what we're doing to educate our kids to protect them outside of school how we're educating our parents outside of school to protect their kids. Um and again like realizing the technology is two and a half years old but you know, I there are some pretty grim u outcomes if we're not if our kids aren't protected. I think it goes to that whole overall um picture of supporting students social and emotional health and well-being. And that has been an ongoing concern especially with all of the different social medias that's out there. And so this is just another iteration, but it's really um supporting the whole child and having all of those pieces in place. So we talk about um through the second step lessons um and
177circle discussions at the elementary and same thing at the middle school is those different things um when you're talking about proper conversations or when you're feeling down or what's the appropriate thing to do. So, this is just another um application or another um area, but it still comes down to the same talk to an adult that's around and have that. So, it's really it's like when we talk about bullying and then you have cyber bullying, you're still talking about bullying. It's just in different locations or different applications of it. So, it's coming back to that. So it definitely is obviously a a concern another iteration but it's really coming down to supporting the whole child. Um I have um I have a lot of things to say. Um first I want to say I'm so
178excited about the um the change to internet access for the middle school students. I think that's so important on so many levels. Um most importantly around sleep. Um I think that children need more sleep. Um I took a lot of notes. Um and I I just have um I guess a lot of comments and then I'll end with a couple questions. So um the first thing is that while it is true that AI uses a large amount of electricity, it also uses a large amount of water and it also has a lot more greenhouse gas emissions to the point where like Microsoft's greenhouse gas emissions went up by about 30% over the course of one year once they started with co-pilot. So um I guess I think that what happens when I talk about this
179a lot of times is that people will say well when you do a Google search it also uses these things and that is true but not on the same level by a lot. Um AI is using like 200 times more uh or I should say open AI is using 200 times more water than a Google search. the same exact search, just text based. And so I guess I have concerns about like if we're telling kids some AI is safe, which I don't agree with. Um but if we're saying some is safe, that um I guess that that lacks nuance in my opinion. And what we're missing out on is the chance to talk to kids about the impact of their decisions and to have them question, is this use of AI worth this level of
180destruction? because if the children are our future, it is their future that we are destroying through the use of AI um through the use of generative AI. So I think that um I guess I have a lot of concerns about the lack of informed consent from children. Um I also feel that way about privacy issues. I mean, I think that there's a difference between saying like you need to consider privacy issues and really going through what those privacy issues mean because while I did see that children in our schools are not supposed to upload their own pictures to AI and I think that that would be um a violation of um I guess furpa among other things. Um like that picture example that we were shown from the seventh grade project or the sixth grade
181project, I'm sorry. um that picture doesn't come from nowhere. It is created as a composite of pictures of children that were uploaded to the internet at some point in time. It is not creating a new image. It is creating a composite image of real children. That is their data that has been used to create that image. And I think that there is this disconnect between like we've created something by putting in a prompt and this was created from real information that came from somewhere. Um I know in the Olympics there's um a figure skating duo that just did AI music. It came from somewhere. It was created by the work of actual artists and actual people. Right. And so I think that we are missing out on that. And I will say I found the
182um the picture of the child to be particularly jarring because it is from real children that those images are made. Um it's good to know that you know chat GBT is blocked and I think that that's great but I also think that like what Olivia said about like kids were upset about that. I think that that does show that like use of these things automatically creates a reliance. That is what the research is showing. when you start using it, there is like an addictive component to it. And so the idea that like we need to teach kids balance and to not be over reliant, I think is missing the fact that this is like a highly addictive thing that children are engaging in, that adults are engaging in. Um, I guess I'll reiterate that I
183have concerns about saying that it's safe. I don't think that we can say it's safe in the same breath as saying like it's too new. Um, it can't be both. And I think that this kind of speaks to this idea of um like in some ways triing things on children. Um I also have concerns just about using AI to provide feedback on work that was potentially created with AI. I think that that creates first of all like a feedback loop of like AI judging itself. um which is a concern but secondly I think that and a lot of the things that we are discussing you know here or anywhere else it's like really removing the humanity and I think that one of the issues that we have just like in the world in general is
184like a a killing of humanity. Um but when I think about um and I'm sorry to call this out specifically. It's one that I didn't know about, but the idea of drawing something on the whiteboard as a grown-up and then having it like change into something else, I think that that does remove humanity. And I think it makes it hard for younger students to learn what adults are capable of, what an adult's work looks like. Um, and then to be able to compare what they can do to what an adult can do, because then they're comparing themselves to this like computergenerated idea just because it's cool. And I think about that a lot as somebody who I work in an elementary school. I work with, you know, really young kids and we do drawings. And
185when I draw things, the children automatically compare their drawings to mine. I mean, it's just like such a it's like right away it's happening. And I think that there's a lot of value there, especially in the conversations that we can have around it because usually what I hear is like, "Oh my gosh, yours is so good." And like I'm not good at drawing, quote unquote. Um because I think that there's like a flaw with that, too. Like whatever you create is good. But, um, one thing that I talk a lot about with the kids is they'll say, "Well, you're six and I'm 40. So, what do you think it is that's made me able to draw a cat that you think is so good?" I think it's the practice. I think it's that I've had
18634 more years of drawing than you. And that opens up that conversation when I imagine, you know, I think that we take away this like comparison that is inherent to being human. And I think that we're just removing this humanity. I have and like that feedback loop also is I think doing that. Um just a couple more things. One is that um I have concerns with the rubric that was presented with like the red, yellow, green because we are also like teaching children that like red means stop and green means go. And that's like a pretty like widespread idea in our culture. And so when you have like AI free as like the red or like the bad and then AI enhanced as the green or the good, I think that that is communicating something.
187And I would really encourage like a move away from those colors. I know that that's getting out of my lane. Um, but it is something that really really sticks out to me. Um, and the last thing I'll ask is can parents who are educated on like the realities of AI as they exist right now opt out? Um, and I say that because like we allow for parents to opt out of their children being photographed at school. Like that's one of the options that you have. Um, even though being photographed is less detrimental to young brains than the use of AI. Um, and then one last thing, sorry, I know I this is my last last thing. Um, is that I understand that AI is quote unquote here to stay. And I'm not saying that it's
188not, but what is something that's real um, and forgive my language is just the initification of technology. And this is like a well steady thing. There's a book called initification that I think is a worthwhile read. It came out like six months ago. Um, and it talks about how in our society products move through these three stages. AI is just about to move from stage one into stage two. And that is why companies like OpenAI are about to add a bunch of ads and about to put a bunch of their coolest features behind a payw wall. And then that's kind of where we move from like getting consumers to really like a product like AI, which is the phase that we've been in, which is why everyone's like, "Wow, this is so awesome and cool."
189into making it about profit for the companies. And that's stage two. Stage three is where it becomes about just like the most benefit for the shareholders. And that is where there's a huge selling off of data. And I just think that we need to I understand that there's like this talk about balance and there's this talk about like we need to face the reality and I agree with all of that. I think that um those words are correct but the way that AI is being allowed to be around children not just here but everywhere is not balanced. I think it is so far in the direction of letting children have access to a tool that is not only dangerous and harmful to their brains, but is also harvesting information about them and because of how
190fast things are going now, like will then take that data and be sold off because that's great for the shareholders and their wallets. So, I really appreciate all this information and I know that that was really negative um from me. Um and so I I guess I apologize for being so negative. I but I really do think that um I guess these things are really important to think about and to consider and that when looking at AI it's important to not just accept what the AI companies are saying but rather to look about look at like the history of how technology works because I really think that this is a lot more dangerous um and going to get a lot worse a lot faster than past things like it can't get dangerous as fast as
191like a calculator can because they're kind of a fixed feature. This is going to change and in a really concerning way. Thanks. Any other comments from the board? Well, first of off, I want to thank our teachers for the tremendous work that you do every day with our students. uh to Dave to Dave and Lucas and our entire team of all the support they provide through professional development and Danielle for again from the instructional side and again we say balance we say balance as much as possible and and again uh being thoughtful in our approach and um and again the work that our teachers are doing every day in our classrooms is to benefit students never to do anything that would be detrimental to our students. Uh and so again really appreciate the leadership uh
192that the group you heard from uh tonight is providing uh and their again their thoughtful approach of uh of moving forward. So again tremendous amount of time and energy went into being responsive to you know hearing from the board and and providing you much as much information as possible. So uh appreciate everything that you've done for for the board tonight. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's it for our presentation. Now we turn to the consent agenda. For those in attendance or watching, a consent agenda is a commonly used vehicle provided for by our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure that allows a board to vote on a large number of items in a single motion. Typically, these are business items associated with the everyday running of the schools and their inclusion in the agenda is
193the result of a great deal of prior work and care by the professionals of the district. There are from time to time business items that by law cannot be included in a consent agenda. And when this happens, we pull those out and vote on them separately. Consent agenda items are known to trustees and the public several days ahead of the business meeting on which they are considered so that board members have the chance to ask questions of discovery and do any advanced factf finding that is part of their due diligence process. Do we have any modifications to the consent agenda tonight? We do. Uh, we need to pull item G16, which is the seeker resolution that Tony referenced in his report out from the finance committee. Um, we need to pull that for a roll
194call vote. Ready? I'm ready. All right. Do I have to say something? Trusty Lakia. Yes. Trusty Braxton. Yes. Trusty Amecha. Yes. Trusty Fogerty. Yes. Trusty Copan. Yes. Trusty Crackler. Yes. Trusty Witovich. Yes. Yes. And so with that, I motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. items E, F, and G in their entirety and with the items listed under um section D of the agenda, which was the roll call vote that we just completed. Can I get a second, please? Angie, any discussion? Okay, all in favor? All right, that's unanimous. This brings us to our second public comment period. Is there any member of the public who wishes to address the board? Okay, seeing nobody, we'll move on to agenda planning. Are there any agenda planning items from board members? Olivia to hear more about that internet
195ban almost on the school computers for the middle schoolers. I'd like to be in the loop about that, especially if it's going to be implemented in the high school and those time constraints that will be with the internet. I think it's important to note that high schoolers are high schoolers and their assignments are very different from middle schoolers and their assignments, especially for people who don't really have access to internet all the time. So, I think that's something really important to consider as this has been implemented. So, I would love to hear more about that if there's more data coming in. So, um I guess I'll say I heard about it from a friend who's a middle school parent that the internet will be blocked on all of the school provided devices from is it
1961000 p.m. until 7 5 a.m. 5 a.m. 5 a.m. Sorry. I guess would anybody else like to comment on that? I mean I just just to you know I I don't know when but at some point we should definitely have a report on how that's going. Right. Right. That's sort of what you're asking for. Right. Right. I mean right. So I guess is there is there a mechanism to know how it's going? Is there a way that um I guess and I guess maybe to uh I don't want to put words in Olivia's mouth, but maybe to more directly address her concern, um I would I would uh wonder whether if the policy were to be considered to be applied in some way to the high school. Um, given age appropriateness and and given the
197the um the maturity of of high school students and and the uh desire to invest them in in some of their uh their own educational decisions, would we would we consider um putting them on, you know, any sort of committee that decided on parameters or or things like that? Would that be something that that might be considered? We certainly can get feed Yeah. The message went out yesterday, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, this is so brand new. Yeah. I mean, I guess I'll just say I love the concept of this and I personally hope that you'll let us know how it's going as you gather that feedback without any pressure to think about it anytime soon because I know it takes time. Um, but I do think that there's a lot of value there for that
198age group. And then just making sure that our, you know, if there is a discussion about expanding outwards, is that something that students could have input on at the higher levels? any other items? Okay, that moves us on to board member comments. Are there any me comments from members of the board? I'm sorry, I did have one. Sorry. Go ahead, Connie. Um, in light of the public comment that we had tonight, is there a way that we can discuss girls wrestling? Were we just on um we were just on agenda planning? Correct. Yeah, that was part of um Mr. Goodson's presentation in the fall about exploring the opportunity for new programs that would be included in the budget. And so girls flag football expansion as well as uh maybe the opportunity to merge with other
199surrounding school districts for girls wrestling. So they'll be both be part of the budget proposal process. Okay. Just wanted to make sure that was included in light of title n stuff. So should we anticipate hearing about that during budget presentations? Correct. Yeah. Only because the I know the athletic already happened. That's and John included that in his presentation. Yeah. I don't I I don't have it memorized, so thank you for the reminder. Um, thank you. No, we've been in regular dialogue with a few of the parents who've expressed interest in expanding their girls wrestling opportunities for our students. Right. Are there any board member comments, Matt? Uh, I have one. Um, so I had the pleasure of going to the um the open mic coffee shop event that happened in the high school cafeteria yesterday.
200um which was uh like a live music event. The jazz ensemble really like led a lot of that. Um and it it sort of reminded me again of sort of what I was thinking towards the end of the year seeing all of the the music ensemble presentations and um you know just how central uh the performing arts are to to our curriculum and and sort of even more so it will be as we move to the portrait of a graduate. Um, you know, in addition to, you know, being a group project where like you can't just let the smart kid do all the work, like you have to all do your work or else it's obvious. Um, working toward deadlines, right? Like the performance happens whether or not you're ready. Um, it really does these
201performing arts really do hit a lot of the important uh goals that Portrait of a Graduate is leading towards. Uh, in addition to you can't have AI do your um, you know, solo. Um, and so I hope as we move into budget planning this year and and going into the future, we really start to um consider the performing arts as a central part and potentially a growing part of our curriculum, especially again as we move toward a portrait of a graduate. I really think that is going to be a key element to making our school system really stand out and I hope our budgets will reflect that going forward. Tony. Yeah. I'd first like to uh thank uh parent Ashley Melendez for her donation of uh about 5,000 pencils to the middle school while we're
202talking about the you know resurgence of of of manual uh technology and and old technology. I'd like to thank her for that. Um, and uh, on the flip side, I and and um, I I do want to just sort of I don't know uh, think a little out loud about the the the presentation tonight and some of our reactions to it. And um you know I I don't um I I think you use the term Natalyia you know negative um I I I want to kind of in some ways reframe that in terms of you know at least from me um my feelings about AI are less negative than they are fear-based I guess. Um and and uh and I think that as as parents and adults and um and people in our individual roles
203as um uh as board members, as superintendent, as administrators, um I just think we we really do need to keep skepticism um healthy skepticism in the forefront of our minds with this and and other technologies. I we we I don't that we can't make assumptions um about the the about a lot of of what we're being told about AI. Um I we can't accept uh what companies are telling us about their products and their technologies without this healthy skepticism and and in the absence of of making dis assumptions. Um I think it's it it is um simultaneously too early to to uh think in any other way with this technology but also um you know we are getting to the point where there are studies coming out and there there there are studies coming out
204on on um child uh educational development as it relates to to AI. And so for me, more than the cheating potential, more than the data privacy potential, more than um uh you know, um some of the safety issues, um I worry about having having seen having read the these studies that are that are are um more of one mind than you might imagine, uh I worry critical thinking and problem solving and the incremental thought and skill development that um is building block dependent in in children and I I don't want I I think the you know the the pitfalls have been explicitly mentioned in a lot of the research um that um the thing we have to guard against is not skipping developmental steps and AI can and appears to be um making it very
205easy for kids and adults to um to make the skipping of developmental steps um more more prevalent than well it shouldn't be prevalent at all. Um, so I I guess I just wanted to to throw that last thought in there that it's really the the educational development, the the problem solving, the critical thinking and the the building block element of educational development that um that I worry about with the the sort of over adoption of AI. Ashley. So, being the eternal optimist, being the one that was like, but I I fully respect all of the points that were made tonight around AI and I think there are so many unknowns and I actually like have this thought thinking future. I know we have the implementation guidelines and I wonder if there's any way like within
206our curriculum we could embed some of the AI guidance more specifically on like the ways that it would be more appropriate to use if we're going to use it. I just think having and this is like next year thinking but I don't know if it's an agenda item for any time in the near future but along with those you know guidelines in the guide book what because I'm really thinking about what Tonyy's saying about development where where do we see it developmentally appropriate to truly like add in some things or really avoid them? Um I think that's just an important conversation that we have to be having. Connie. Um, and I appreciate Tony talking about assumptions and that my comment is about AI and whether we're assuming that AI is good or bad because we're
207all acknowledging that there's not enough research. So, I think that's an important point to make. Also, we do have a policy that we passed in January 2024 on AI. So, um, I do support this policy and the operational job of Dave and the administration and our job as board members to support those decisions and certainly give feedback. But I just I heard a lot of strong opinions and a lot of I I I tonight. And I think it's important for us to make sure that we are compartmentalizing um what we think