Jenkintown SD staff pilot ‘Magic School’ AI tools; district plans policy before student rollout

Jenkintown School District staff told the school board on Feb. 23 that a pilot of Magic School, a vetted ‘walled garden’ of classroom AI tools, has produced high faculty engagement and will inform a district AI policy before students begin using the platform.

“At this point we have 73 registered users and 59 consistent users,” a district presenter said, adding that the pilot shows an 81% conversion from registered to consistent use among staff who opted in. The presenter described four guiding priorities for the rollout: lifelong learning, efficiency, differentiation and innovation.

The presenters said Magic School and companion tools (Google Classroom, Gemini and Canva) are being used to streamline lesson planning, draft communications and build differentiated instructional materials. “AI is saving time for resource creation, freeing teachers for what matters most — they’re teaching,” one presenter said. Jenna, a classroom teacher speaking during the presentation, said the system helps teachers “level the text” and create choice-board activities so students can demonstrate learning in multiple ways.

Board members asked about professional-development attendance and how student-facing research functions would preserve primary-source skills. Presenters said the PD sessions have been optional and that attendance has varied; one staff member estimated the October sessions saw a higher turnout than recent February offerings. Presenters emphasized that the district has focused on teacher-controlled content: when teachers upload classroom materials, student queries and outputs remain inside Magic School and are visible to instructors.

A public commenter raised concerns that student use could encourage reliance on non-primary sources or weaken critical-thinking skills. The district replied that, at this stage, Magic School is being used only by faculty and that student rollout will be cautious and monitored. Staff committed to creating a district AI policy and convening a task force of administrators, board members and teachers to define approved uses, guardrails, privacy protections and equity considerations before broad student access.

Next steps outlined by staff include identifying peer “AI champions” to support colleagues, gathering examples of instructional wins to share across the district, piloting selected student use this spring in research and critical-thinking contexts, and drafting a living AI policy grounded in pilot data. The board did not take any formal action on AI policy at the Feb. 23 meeting; staff said a formal policy discussion and presentation are planned for a future meeting.

The presentation was presented during the district’s scheduled program segment and followed by a question-and-answer period with board members on staffing, attendance at optional PD sessions and how the tools will be scaffolded into classroom instruction.