Kirkwood R‑VII starts small AI pilot with Magic School and Flint; closed systems and training prioritized

District technology and instructional leaders told the Board of Education that Kirkwood School District is piloting artificial-intelligence tools in classrooms on a tightly controlled, small scale and that the district plans to prioritize closed systems, training and privacy protections as access expands.

Director of Technology Kevin Rich Miller said teachers have access to AI on district teacher devices but student access on district devices is blocked except for a micro pilot: "all of our KSD teachers currently have access on their core board devices to access AI ... our students, on Kirkwood devices are blocked. The only exception to that is we have a micro pilot" that provides student access with permission.

Miller and other presenters framed the pilot as intentionally small and people-focused. The district has adopted a board policy governing AI use and corresponding administrative procedures (referenced in the presentation as board policy EHBD), formed a KSD AI committee of teachers, administrators, librarians, counselors and staff, and ran a micro pilot this school year with six educators representing K'12 grades and roles. The committee selected two closed platforms for the pilot: Magic School (elementary-focused examples were used) and Flint (examples shown for secondary English classes). Miller said closed platforms allow teacher and administrator oversight that open tools do not.

Pilot design and safeguards: The micro pilot required parent permission slips and specific student training. Miller emphasized data-privacy and legal compliance concerns and noted the district will avoid inputting personally identifiable or confidential student information into open/public AI tools. He cited federal privacy frameworks by name when discussing requirements and said the district will ensure tools comply with data-protection rules. The district also expects to provide annual AI training for students and staff (the presentation said teachers will complete initial AI training before the next school year).

Examples and classroom use: Presenters showed sample interactions from Magic School (a guided, iterative poetry-writing example for fifth grade students where the tool asked scaffolded questions and provided feedback) and Flint (a secondary example that uses structured prompts to help students develop persuasive-speech content and critique sources). Miller and the committee described the tools as "guides" that do not write students' work for them but instead provide formative feedback, scaffolded prompts and targeted supports. Teachers on the pilot can download activity transcripts or PDFs showing the interaction history to document student work.

Questions from board members covered parent communication (a suggestion to provide parents context and training about AI use), the need for ethical and philosophical instruction alongside technical skills, academic integrity and plagiarism detection (presenters said Turnitin and other practices are part of the response but are not foolproof), and whether the district expects to use closed systems going forward. Miller said the district's direction is to prioritize closed tools and that the current pilot partners (Magic School and Flint) are the platforms being tested now.

Next steps: The presenters said next steps include continued professional learning for staff, expanding the pilot for 2025'26 beyond the initial six teachers, broadening committee membership to include families and local business voices, and building a student-training plan. They said districtwide student access would be phased and that any broad rollout would require clear assignment-level expectations (examples discussed included a red/yellow/green rubric to indicate permitted AI use for particular assignments). No formal board action was recorded; the presentation concluded with the district's intent to continue a slow, measured rollout with an emphasis on ethics, privacy and teacher-led classroom design.