Communications committee sets Oct. 21 community forum on technology, AI and state cell‑phone guidance

The Amity Board of Education Communications Committee agreed to hold a Community Forum on Oct. 21 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. focused on school technology, including PowerSchool functionality, state guidance on student cell‑phone use and the district’s approach to artificial intelligence.

Board member Jen said she will assemble a diverse panel that she expects will include administrators and teachers, and she described having teacher representatives from an internal AI initiative to field audience questions and offer short presentations. Committee members discussed striking a balance between answering submitted questions and proactively presenting information attendees may not know.

The committee set a timeline for question collection and review: communications outreach would begin Sept. 30, with reminders on Oct. 7 and Oct. 16; pre‑submitted questions were proposed to close either Oct. 11 or Oct. 15, and a small group of board members tentatively agreed to meet Oct. 17 (6–8 p.m.) to cull and order questions for the forum.

Logistics for the forum were assigned: the hour from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. will prioritize pre‑submitted questions; at 7:30 p.m. the panel will open to live audience questions. The committee identified required roles for a successful event — two note‑takers to preserve answers, a person to monitor live‑submitted questions, a designated live question asker, and a room monitor to track raised hands — and members volunteered to recruit or staff those roles.

On note taking, members recommended a concise, structured approach rather than verbatim transcription (examples cited included an Excel sheet listing pre‑submitted questions with cells for short answers and a two‑person workflow where one hand‑transcribes and another types). The committee said staff would edit notes for accuracy after the event before publishing.

The committee also discussed panelist preparation: panelists will be shown the curated question list and asked to prepare bullet points rather than scripts. Jen said she would pull available webinar or recorded materials about AI to share in advance with the community to help attendees form better questions.

The committee approved the meeting’s minutes from Aug. 27 earlier in the session; that procedural approval was recorded by a show of hands. The forum planning discussion concluded with committee members agreeing to confirm volunteers and the Oct. 17 review meeting by email.

Next steps: committee staff will publish outreach items per the timeline, confirm panelists and volunteers for note taking and live‑question monitoring, and prepare materials to share with the public ahead of the Oct. 21 forum.