_{Thumbnail photo: Members of Del Norte Unified School District’s AI Task Force discuss a draft policy with the Board of Trustees in this April photo. | Photo by Guiming Xiong}

Superintendent Jeff Harris was absent. Among the items discussed at Thursday’s Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting.

DNTA negotiations begin:

Del Norte Unified School District is not in a position to offer salary increases to teachers during the 2025-26 fiscal year, Superintendent of Business Jeff Napier told trustees.

Napier presented DNUSD’s first proposal for its 2025-26 contract with the Del Norte Teachers Association a little more than two months after a stalemate between the two parties concluded with help from state mediators.

The proposal offered a tiered cap structure insurance cap on the district’s contribution to teachers’ health and wellness benefits, stating that it promotes greater equity among DNTA members. However, while DNTA seeks a 5.3 percent salary increase for its members, Napier said declining enrollment and increased operational expenses means there is no additional funding for raising teacher pay.

“The DNTA proposal of a 5.3 percent salary increase equates to over $1.5 million of increased ongoing costs,” Napier said in the district’s rationale. “An increase of this amount could jeopardize the district’s ability to maintain current certificated employment levels.”

DNUSD’s enrollment is expected to decrease from 3,385 in 2024-25 to 3,277 in 2025-26, which means its average daily attendance funding is expected to dwindle as well. According to Napier, due to that decrease in student enrollment and attendance, DNUSD’s state funding is expected to have a net decrease despite a projected 2.3 percent cost of living adjustment.

“Because of the declining enrollment, we’re actually just about $30,000 less in [state] unrestricted funds for next year,” Napier said.

On Thursday, DNTA President Amber Tiedeken-Cron said the union is “ready to negotiate and get things moving.” DNTA presented its 2025-26 proposal to the Board at its May 8 meeting. Among its proposals, the union called for adjusting the salary schedule based on the 2.3 percent cost of living adjustment and an additional 3 percent increase to each salary schedule cell.

The union also proposed an increase to the district’s contribution to teachers’ health and welfare benefits.

Tiedeken-Cron said DNTA had sent the district dates when its negotiating team will be available to work on the new contract.

DNUSD’s New AI Policy: Trustees unanimously approved a new artificial intelligence policy governing its ethical use in the classroom as well as its potential risk to student privacy.

DNUSD Multi-tiered Systems of Support Program Technician Damien Richcreek and his colleague Aaron Lovejoy, professional learning and support coordinator, brought the policy before the Board for a second time. Richcreek and Lovejoy are part of an AI Taskforce that also includes DNUSD Director of Information Network Services Ryan Bahten and Jeremy Goff, instructional media center coordinator.

The group has been working with a wider committee of DNUSD teachers and staff to hammer out an AI policy since Bahten first brought up the idea of creating one in January 2024.

According to Richcreek, the new policy aims to “effectively incorporate AI into instruction” and seeks to prevent inappropriate use “resulting in academic dishonesty.”

“These were added because you guys wanted a little bit more verbose language when it comes to the district’s policy and what [its] standing is on AI use,” he told trustees.

In ironing out the policy’s guidelines for use, particularly governing vetting and approval, Richcreek and Lovejoy said they sought help from DNUSD’s Curriculum and Instruction Department as well as teaching staff.

The goal, Lovejoy said, was to ensure that the AI tool was appropriate for the age of the student cohort that would be using it.

“A teacher will first have to answer questions to see if it’s viable and meets a certain criteria and then it would come to us with that and it’ll get routed to the appropriate person,” he said. “So if it’s a curriculum and instruction type application it would go to us and our team would look at it and make sure that it’s vetted.”

The district’s IT staff would ensure that any AI tool complies with data privacy laws including the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. DNUSD staff would also vet the AI tool for bias, accuracy, reliability and transparency.

On Thursday Trustees said the policy was what they were looking for when they urged Richcreek, Lovejoy and their colleagues at their April 10 meeting to include more detailed language. One trustee, Abbie Crist, had asked for goals under the “student use” section of the policy that differentiates between grade levels.

Lisa Sedgwick, first grade teacher at Mary Peacock Elementary School, said she wanted to make sure that teachers received the proper professional development when it comes to AI.

“As a first grade teacher, I’m kind of confused as to how to incorporate AI with my students,” she said. “I want to make sure that it’s just not an optional professional development, that it becomes mandatory professional development [on] how we are supposed to deliver AI to our students. I’m getting to the age where this is not my forte and I need to be properly kept up on it.”

Lovejoy said that while it’s not required that teachers take a specific AI professional development training course, it is available. However, he said that the district’s new policy is “in no way saying that you have to use AI.”

“It’s more of a safeguard,” he said of the policy. “It’s creating structures that if these tools are being used, it’s making sure that students are safe and that these tools are being used appropriately.”