Kenai Peninsula school board reviews districtwide AI policy proposals

Data Rules and AI Use

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District teachers would be barred from feeding student data into artificial intelligence platforms the district has not approved, under policy proposals the school board reviewed for the first time in July.

The proposals came from an AI committee the district established last year. Virtual learning coordinator Amanda Adams facilitated the group, which used the state Department of Education and Early Development's AI framework as its starting point. Rather than write a standalone AI policy, the committee is folding AI language into existing policy.

The largest change rewrites the academic honesty policy to define acceptable AI use and set consequences for misuse. Other language would subject AI use to the same guidelines that already govern social media.

District staff already have access to MagicSchool and Google Gemini, along with training on both.

Board Debate Over Clarity

Board member Mica VanBuskirk said the academic honesty language does not tell teachers or students where the line falls. "I think it's really important that we let teachers say, 'This is acceptable in this situation,' 'It's not acceptable in this situation,'" VanBuskirk said.

Kari Dendurent said strict parameters could force frequent revisions. "If you are putting such strict parameters, it may really limit where we're going to be continuously changing the language," Dendurent said.

Next Steps

Administrators said they hope to have the policies in place by the start of the school year.