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East Penn SD outlines staged AI rollout, emphasizes teacher oversight and student literacy
Summary
East Penn School District presented a year-long AI rollout combining staff training, a student-facing AI literacy video, a traffic-light classroom model, and cautious student access to tools such as SchoolAI and Google Gemini; administrators emphasized privacy safeguards and teacher discretion.
East Penn School District on Oct. 13 presented a staged approach to classroom use of artificial intelligence, saying the rollout will prioritize teacher training, student AI literacy and controlled access to selected tools.
The district’s technology director, Michael Billman, and technology coach, Dylan Peters, described a policy adopted earlier this year (policy 8.15.1) and training programs that have been provided to staff and to secondary students. Billman said the district is using a traffic‑light model that leaves final authority to teachers: some activities are prohibited (red), some allowed with teacher supervision (yellow), and others encouraged (green).
Administrators said the district has limited student access to open generative systems and is staging tools in phases. Peters said staff and leaders have piloted selected platforms and provided a roughly five‑to‑six minute AI literacy video to secondary students that explains responsible use, limitations and privacy safeguards. “The video was not created by artificial intelligence. We used artificial intelligence to brainstorm the ideas, then take those ideas and we wrote out a script,” Peters said, adding staff used a Canvas “Magic Write” tool in preparing the student-friendly script.
Why it matters: The presentation framed AI as both an instructional opportunity and a risk-management task for a large K–12 district. District officials said the work is intended to help teachers preserve academic integrity, reduce misinformation and ensure student privacy as they experiment with new tools.
Supporting details: Billman said the district based its policy on PSBA recommendations and added a public-facing family tech resource page listing authorized tools and a student FAQ. Billman and Peters said staff have piloted SchoolAI and limited teacher access to Google Gemini in a Google Workspace for Education environment; district officials described Gemini for Education as a version of the tool intended not to train models with district data.
During question-and-answer, board members raised concerns about bias, equity and curriculum integration. A board member noted an observed bias in Canva image generation—“If I don’t specifically ask the AI tool to give me back a multicultural group of people, I will always get Caucasian people back,” she said—and asked how the district will ensure diverse representation in classroom materials. Billman and Peters said examples from teacher training are used to highlight bias and teach verification practices; Peters said SchoolAI chatbots used in classrooms are teacher‑configured and moderated.
Administrators also described safeguards for student data. Billman said teachers are trained not to enter personally identifiable student records into open chatbots, and Peters said many student tools are constrained by teacher-defined parameters rather than open internet access.
What’s next: District leaders said they will continue to expand professional development, monitor student feedback collected after the literacy video and evaluate whether to broaden student access to higher-capability tools after additional piloting and privacy reviews.
