Middleton-Cross Plains lays out phased plan for classroom use of artificial intelligence

The Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District on Sept. 29 presented a phased approach to adopting artificial intelligence tools in classrooms and district workplaces, emphasizing staff training, limited student access and plans for administrative policy.

District technology director Brian Miles, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Jan Chenoweth, Director of Elementary Curriculum Marybeth Pauls and Secondary Director Ken Metz told the board the district has focused this year on implementing “enterprise” AI tools, training staff and creating coaching roles in each building to support teachers.

The plan matters because district officials said they want to balance instructional uses of AI with student safety and data protection. “We have adopted the policy of utilizing generative AI tools that are enterprise tools,” Miles said, explaining those platforms keep district data inside the district’s instance so it is not used to train external large language models. The presenters also described other enterprise services available to staff, including NotebookLM and Brisk, that teachers use for lesson-generation, rubrics and other instructional tasks.

District leaders said generative AI access is currently limited to high school students. “We have made no generative AI tools available to [elementary and middle school] age groups yet,” Miles said, adding that the district will revisit that as evidence about safety and developmental appropriateness accumulates. Officials noted that students using personal devices and home Internet are outside the district’s filtering and device controls.

The district outlined a structured professional-development rollout. Each quarter principals and building technology coaches will receive materials and facilitator guides to deliver building-level training. The presenters said the approach aims to teach staff how to frame assignments that clearly indicate acceptable AI use and how to cite AI sources when the technology is used in student or staff work. “We landed on [a] scale… that tells our students at each assignment level what level AI is going to be allowed or not allowed,” Pauls said.

Board members asked about student involvement in policy design and about whether the district needs additional hires for technology coaches. Chenoweth and Miles said teachers have taken on the coaching roles so far as an added responsibility and the district is evaluating long-term staffing and policy needs. “I think when we look to the future, [involving students] is an excellent next step,” Chenoweth said in response to a board question about student advisory input.

Officials said the next stages include drafting administrative policies and guidance documents for staff and students, and building procedures that can adapt as AI tools evolve. Board President Bob Hesselbein and several board members thanked the team for its cross-functional work and asked to receive the draft administrative policy for review when it is available.

What’s next: district administrators said they will circulate the planned administrative policy and the building-level training materials to the board for feedback before final adoption.