EAST LONGMEADOW — The East Longmeadow School Committee reviewed a new policy regarding generative artificial intelligence in the classroom at its Dec. 1 meeting.
The Policy Sub Committee drafted the policy over two separate meetings to create a structure that the district, staff and students can look at when handling AI.
The subcommittee’s policy focuses on how to handle AI ethically and if there is a way for staff and students to meet their classroom responsibilities while potentially using AI. Superintendent Gordon Smith said they will work with staff and department heads to create a specific outline of their expectations of content areas in the classroom.
According to the College Board, high school students who said they use AI tools for school work increased from 79% to 84% between January and May 2025. The survey, done between June 2024 and June 2025, found that ChatGPT is the tool being used most by high schoolers and 69% reported using it for assignments and homework in May 2025.
Additionally, 55% of principals reported not blocking students or teachers from using generative AI on the school’s network.
“The biggest element to this policy is the fact it’s going to need to be looked at, if not annually, often,” Smith said. “This is a fast moving arena.”
Smith said the outline of their expectations will also focus on the students who “probably use [AI] more regularly than certain staff members because this is what they’re growing up with.”
Committee member Antonella Raschilla asked Smith if there was a consequence in the policy for students using AI.
“What we’ve basically directed it towards is going back to the code of conduct, which lists consequences for cheating and academic dishonesty,” Smith said. “We aren’t getting specific in the policy as to what the consequence will be, we’re directing it off impact of the code of conduct.”
They will work alongside the town’s IT departments to create a list of the previously approved AI software. Smith said that as they’re identifying what software is currently being used, they will be confirming with IT if it has been approved.
“We need to get something out there so we can start acting on it,” Smith said. “It is going to evolve.”
Committee member William Strother, who worked with the Policy Sub Committee, addressed another concern in the policy with students using new Meta Glasses in the classroom. Strother said students would be able to wear them and mumble a question that the glasses would pick up and answer.
Smith said he wasn’t sure how the issue of Meta Glasses would be tackled, but they have been using software that allows teachers to lock the screen of a student’s Chromebook so they can only view one thing.
Committee member Aimee Dalenta, another member with the Policy Sub Committee, said that this is something that should start with communication among earlier grades to help them understand AI.
“Their generation doesn’t see this as cheating, they just don’t,” Dalenta said. “They think of plagiarism as cutting and pasting something from the internet, not looking up an idea and taking it. They don’t think it’s academically dishonest to do it.”
Smith said that Bay Path was currently searching for grant work to study a way to ethically use AI and were looking to him for partnership. He said he plans on writing a letter of support “without using AI.”
Strother said that he believed they were in the early phases of “this beast,” but doesn’t think it’s something they haven’t dealt with before.
“Everyone is just kind of shellshocked with it,” Strother said. “I think Bay Path is moving in a direction of ‘how do you ethically use it, how do you use it responsibly?’”
