Simsbury schools unveil 3-year AI plan emphasizing student AI literacy and teacher support

Simsbury Public Schools presented a three-year plan to introduce AI literacy across kindergarten through 12th grade, aiming to prepare students for college and careers while prioritizing ethics and teacher readiness.

Dave (district instructional-technology lead) told the board the work began with an adult-focused task force to ready staff before broad student-facing rollout. He said the strategy centers on five core AI skills—prompting, bias awareness, fact-checking, iteration and ethical evaluation—and uses an analogy of a "human–AI–human hamburger": students supply the context and critical thinking, AI performs tasks in the middle, and students perform human review before claiming work as their own.

The plan calls for a K–12 progression: in elementary grades teachers model AI use and lead group conversations; middle schools use a "walled garden" approach with guided practice; high schools provide greater student independence after scaffolded learning. The steering committee has identified three physical deliverables for year 1: draft student-use guidelines across three age ranges; an "assignment expectation matrix" that labels assignments by allowable AI use; and family-facing Q&A communications. Years 2 and 3 will focus on policy refinement and classroom monitoring.

Presenter identified two primary tools for initial rollout—Google Gemini and NotebookLM—based on the district's Google environment and because NotebookLM is commonly used by college students. He also described partnership work with EdAdvance for professional development and the Farmington Valley AI Collaborative (districts including Avon, Canton, Farmington, Glastonbury, Simsbury and West Hartford) to coordinate resources and projects.

Board members asked about environmental costs, equity across classrooms, uniform expectations, teacher readiness, and whether AI would undercut foundational learning. The presenter said environmental and ethical concerns are part of the curriculum and stressed that AI is intended to augment—not replace—foundational skills. He also said teacher professional development has been ongoing for two years and will expand, and that the year-1 deliverables include guidance and support mechanisms to reduce classroom-to-classroom variation.

Supporters urged spotlighting teacher success stories (several classroom examples were cited, including an AP Euro project demonstrating citation and critical-evaluation practices). The presenter said the district will continue to report deliverables through the curriculum committee and bring updates back to the full board.

Next steps: the district will finalize year-1 deliverables (student-use guidelines and assignment matrix), communicate the plan to families in early spring, and continue curriculum-level revisions to embed AI expectations into standards and assessments. The board requested ongoing updates and examples of classroom implementation.