Committee updated on staff transfers for new schools and district AI training plans
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Summary
District administrators reviewed planned teacher transfers to new schools (about 16 moves, many voluntary), onboarding events (PD March 20; friend day June 4) and described an existing AI literacy initiative (CSPI) that provides professional learning, micro-credentials and tool guidance but faces budget limits for paid platforms.
Administrator (S6) told the committee that the district has begun staff-transfer planning for school reconfigurations: roughly 16 general-education teachers are being moved to different elementary buildings, nine of whom indicated openness to transfer via earlier surveys. Most transfers keep staff on the same grade level; special-education and some unified-arts moves remain pending as staffing and budget details are finalized.
The district has scheduled an off-site professional-development day on March 20 for staff assigned to Barnum and New Norton and a student "friend day" for incoming students on June 4 (rain date June 5) to support transitions.
On artificial intelligence, the administrator outlined the Cheshire Strategic Planning Initiatives (CSPI) work: district leaders have hosted faculty sessions, keynote training and quick-bite tutorials on tools (including Google Gemini), and some staff have earned AI micro-credentials through partner providers. The district is focused on pedagogical approaches (“keeping the human in the loop”), preventing AI bias and designing durable assessments that are not easily gamed by AI. Budget constraints mean the district will rely primarily on free Google-platform tools this year rather than procuring paid platforms with stronger guardrails.
Next steps: staff will complete transfers and finalize onboarding logistics; CSPI will map grade-level AI literacy skills and continue teacher training, with further discussion as budget and environmental concerns (energy use of AI) are evaluated.
