W-JCC school board, parents wrestle with technology

School board votes down using artificial intelligence to practice writing. Moms show up at school board meeting to express concern about too much screen time for kids.

It’s May 21. Today we’ll cover school board concerns about artificial intelligence in class — “it’s like kudzu”, one board member complains. York County supervisors vote to give the next board a pay raise. And York tightens up its data center ordinances.

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Is it OK to let students use artificial intelligence to practice their writing? That issue gave the Williamsburg-James City County school board pause Tuesday night.

The subject came up when board members were asked to approve a six-year, $375,246 contract for AI-driven programs that would allow students in grade 6 through 12 to practice English writing.

Earlier during the meeting, a mother told the board she was worried about how technology is being used in schools and how screen time is impacting children socially and academically.

A second mother, whose son is a 5^th grade student at Matthew Whaley Elementary, also sent the school board a statement about problems he encountered since he transferred from a private school that used no technology to attend W-JCC schools.

“I gathered after a while that a good portion of Paul’s day was spent looking at the screen with computer-based instruction,” Claudia Kessel said in her statement. She said her son was also allowed to play Minecraft or other games as a reward for completing his work, even though she did not allow him to play video games.

Her son became addicted to the games, Kessel said, adding “ I found it backwards and fundamentally wrong that it was the public school that had introduced him to computer games.”

When the six-year contract with HMH for the English program came up for a vote, Jamestown Board Member Ty Hodges questioned the use of AI in the program, known as Writeable.

Assistant Superintendent Catherine Worley said the tool was recommended by a staff committee to give students more practice writing. Teachers grade the final work, but the tool points out such issues as subject/verb agreement, punctuation, and spelling.

“Students become stronger writers with more frequent feedback,” said Robin Ford, the director of elementary curriculum.

Roberts representative Daniel R. Cavazos noted the concern expressed by the mothers, adding “why do we need to introduce more electronics into the system? Literacy is taught by a human to a human.”

Board Chair Andrew M. Donnor said she thought AI was acceptable in this case, because it helped students focus on the content of essay and its structure without worrying about proofing.

Keever said if the program does not work as advertised the schools would stop using it, but they would still be stuck paying for the six-year cost.

Donner said the cost is “not even a rounding error.”

Hodges replied his concern was less with cost and more about introducing technology that is evolving rapidly, as more studies point to negative consequences when AI is integrated into education at various levels.

“It always escalates...it’s kind of like a weed,” he said. “ AI is like kudzu.”

Hodges said he’d prefer to wait another year to see if the program performs as advertised elsewhere.

In the end, the board voted 4-3 to turn down the program. Donner, city representative Amy Chen and Powhatan representative Kimberly M. Hundley voted in favor of it.

Donner asked Keever to bring back more information “helping the board to get more comfortable” with AI and the use of technology in the classroom.

Keever said he would be updating the board on review staff performed of student screen time at the board’s June 2 meeting. The July 7 board session will be reviewing artificial intelligence, which he said he hoped would “assuage the concerns.”

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