Sunnyside Unified details phased AI training, safety guardrails for staff and students
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Summary
Instructional-technology coordinator Veronica Ortega told the board the district is rolling out phase 2 of AI guidance focused on teacher training, student safeguards (GoGuardian and terms/privacy notices) and grade-level AI literacy; 88% of staff said the overview was helpful.
Veronica Ortega, the district’s instructional technology systems coordinator, told the Sunnyside Unified board the district is moving into phase 2 of its AI plan with a focus on educator training, classroom guardrails and student-facing literacy lessons.
"AI is a machine learning model. It's not human. It's used to empower and support creativity, and it can make mistakes, what we usually call hallucinations," Ortega said as she described how students will be coached to critically evaluate chatbot output.
The phased plan includes a red/yellow/green system for assignment-level AI use (red = no AI; yellow = limited AI with parameters; green = approved AI use), teacher professional learning on tools such as Google Gemini, Gems and NotebookLM, and the use of GoGuardian web filters and teacher-monitoring tools to block inappropriate results. Ortega said NotebookLM will be used in class as a study-guide helper that operates only on uploaded documents rather than pulling live internet content.
Ortega cited staff feedback from an initial rollout: "88% of the staff that took the survey felt that this second phase overview was helpful." She said roughly half of respondents reported comfort or current professional use of AI tools and that 95% expressed interest in learning more about AI as it relates to student agency.
Board members asked how parents would be informed and whether tenured teachers would embrace the change. Ortega said the district will encourage teachers to communicate with families, provide parent resources and host demonstrations and working groups at school sites. She emphasized the district’s expectations that personally identifiable student data not be entered into AI tools.
The presentation also previewed an updated digital-literacy curriculum and plans for grade-specific AI lessons that stress critical thinking, information-literacy and ethical use rather than dependency on AI. Ortega said schools will decide locally, with principals, which grade levels will have access to tools such as Gemini for student use.
Next steps include continuing site-based training, collecting ongoing teacher feedback and scheduling parent-facing forums to explain classroom AI use.
