South Washington County Schools — Transcript
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Student School Board Representatives' Experiences
Use of Artificial Intelligence in Schools
Open Enrollment Parameters for 2027-2028
Preliminary Financial Results & Enrollment Update
Budget Adjustment Update & Future Planning
First Reading of Proposed Policy Changes
Superintendent's Report
Votes (2)
Use of Artificial Intelligence in Schools (Workshop Item)
The Assistant Superintendent introduced the district's resident AI experts who presented Policy 625, focusing on its purpose, the Human-AI-Human framework, definitions (PII, hallucinations, deepfakes), equitable access, and AI literacy across K-12. The policy emphasizes AI as a supplemental tool, transparency in use, and protections for academic integrity and data privacy. It also outlined an incident response plan for misuse and dependency. Board members raised questions about measuring AI benefits, parental opt-out options, surveying teacher comfort, detecting AI use on personal devices, philosophical gains vs. losses, and the district's preferred AI tools and data privacy measures for large language models.
Budget Adjustment Update (Information Item)
The Director of Business Services and Assistant Superintendent provided an update on the budget adjustment process, targeting a $13 million reduction for FY 2027-28 due to a structural deficit exacerbated by state aid not keeping pace with increasing personnel costs. The approach is program-based rather than flat cuts, distributing targets proportionally across six program areas. Initial considerations for reductions were presented across departments, schools (elementary/secondary), facilities, transportation, and student support services. The update also covered the timeline for steering committee work, staff input, and future board recommendations, emphasizing the difficulty of decisions that impact people and programs.
Notable Quotes (10)
So the policy 625 is board approved as you know it sets our why um it talks about kind of our values some guard rails around AI use and um the procedures document um that accompanies this policy is really owned by administration.
So it's really meant to enhance and support uh learning in the classroom and it doesn't author or it doesn't require the use of AI. Um, it authorizes it but it doesn't require anyone to use AI.
the idea is basically, um, that when we are using AI tools, um, that the human is really in control of that AI tool. So, it stands for human AI, human.
I am a little dubious about this, right? Um, and I don't think I mean I I just one of the challenges I have is that um I see AI like the charts that come out every year where they're like AI usage is really high during the school year and then it plummets during the summer. And um you know, my daughter goes to a university that um became known uh earlier this year for having a final that was or a midterm that was given and all the kids had like in the 90s and then uh the teacher was like the professor was like this seems implausible and so gave a written final and so many of the kids had their grades plummet.
I also would just recognize like Amber is very articulate and is this is not going to be easy. No. I you know this fight fight against or for AI is real and it's the community it's in the community therefore it's in our schools and so we just really I think we've said it a multip million times I mean we just have to educate people on it and it's a tool that they have access to right.
Do for for a program like Chad GPT or Gemini or whatever C-pilot, do we have an official program that we want to steer our children and staff toward? And how do we um how do we or do we prevent that information going out to train the LLMs of the parent company?
Yeah, I I think as far as an AI engine that does that kind of processing, the Google Workspace for Education is Furpa compliant. It's COPA compliant. And so we have data agreements with Google for that platform. Uh chat GPT we do not. Cloud we do not.
this becomes challenging is that 70% in state aids um especially where we get you know only in about not quite all of that even that we received that 2.69% um increase and we have 76% that were um looking to give steps and lanes and benefit impacts when we've seen those increases in insurance particularly in our premiums. And so that's just that challenge that we face um and kind of aligning those two.
our reduction is $700,000 net. As you all know, um with special education aid, we get approximately 80 cents for every dollar we spend. So roughly we need to cut about $3.5 million in order to get to a net reduction of $700,000.
The conversations about the next 5 years will be difficult. It it is people and programs. I think I heard 80% of our salaries and benefits are people or 80% of our budget are people between salaries and benefits. So um we become accustomed to them and we have people that we love and do an amazing work with kids. Um and so we know this will be hard.
Ordinances & Resolutions (17)
District policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Schools, previously approved in August, setting values and guardrails for AI use.
An administrative document detailing steps for implementing Policy 625 with staff and students, owned by administration.
A teacher-facing document providing guidance on how AI use plays out in the classroom, accompanying Policy 625.
Outlines explicit rules for AI use for students and serves as an annual notification for families regarding policy changes.
A document to be voted on at the next board meeting that allows the district to limit open enrollment based on specific criteria.
Student Use and Parking of Motor Vehicles, Patrols, Inspection and Searches, presented for first reading with minor legal updates.
School District Curriculum and Instructional Goals, presented for first reading with legal updates.
Curriculum Development, presented for first reading with minor grammatical, legal, and title changes.
Textbooks and Instructional Materials, presented for first reading with no proposed changes.
Early Entrance to Kindergarten, presented for first reading with no proposed changes.
Field Trips, presented for first reading with no proposed changes.
A platform identified as Furpa and Copa compliant, with data agreements, making it a safer AI engine for district use compared to others.
An AI detection tool used for writing assignments, though noted for not always being reliable.
A college application mentioned by student representative TA Alvaringa.
A report submitted to the legislature with recommendations for special education funding.
A report that has wrapped up its work, impacting future legislative funding discussions.
Request for Proposal, mentioned in the context of seeking other vendors for contracted transportation routes.