Medford School Committee adopts AI policy, with more changes ahead

By Sangmin Song

The Medford School Committee voted 6–1 Monday to adopt a new artificial intelligence policy for classroom use, formally approving guidelines that the district had already published in this year’s student handbook.

The guidelines don’t explicitly ban students from using AI to draft writing assignments, but any use of AI requires prior teacher approval and must be cited to avoid bias and misinformation. The policy bans students from entering personal information into AI systems and requires students and educators to document any use of AI.

The policy received its first reading Sept. 22, when committee members asked for clearer expectations when AI tools appear in student work. Committee member Erika Reinfeld said the updated version reflects concerns raised during the first reading.

“We tried to incorporate the feedback we got last time,” Reinfeld said. “This is taking into account the requested changes from students and others about natural environment, cognitive loss and the checking that it is both the students’ and the teachers’ responsibility to check this content.”

Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn noted new language tying all generative AI use to educational objectives, and highlighted the added references to critical thinking skills and the environmental impact of AI tools.

“Important for me is students should not use any generative AI tools without prior approval from educators or educational teams, and students must also properly cite all AI-generated content,” Lungo-Koehn said.

While other members raised no concerns, committee member John Intoppa cast the lone vote against the policy, saying he believes AI undermines learning.

“I appreciate all the work that has gone into writing this policy, but I personally still can’t get behind this,” Intoppa said. “Our goal is to teach processes and critical thinking, but the use of AI helps promote shortcuts that build unhealthy habits.”

He said generative AI raises significant ethical concerns and could harm creative and professional fields.

“I trust that our faculty and staff will do the right thing, but to me, I don’t see AI as something that belongs in the classroom as part of the learning process,” he said.

Intoppa also questioned the policy’s references to environmental impact, arguing the district should consider the energy required to utilize AI systems.

“A single search may seem small, but these systems rely on huge data centers that use significant energy and water for cooling,” he said. “We talk about going to a net-zero high school, but we’re not accounting for the behavior this policy could promote.”

Although Monday’s vote made the policy official, the same language has been in the 2025-26 student handbook since the start of the school year. Members acknowledged the district released the guidelines before receiving formal approval.

“I was surprised that this went into the handbook as soon as we discussed [in the previous meeting],” Reinfeld said. “Once it was in the handbook, we needed to codify it in a public forum…and I think we should vote on this tonight rather than push it to another meeting.”

Reinfeld added the policy will likely be revised. But as the handbook has already been open to the public, any updates would not appear until the next edition.

“Even if this is going to be amended, there are likely to be changes after the focus groups happen, and doing all of those together makes sense if we’re looking at a one-year review policy,” she said.

With additional changes expected in the future, Reinfeld said the task force plans to gather more input before making any updates, since the same language already appears in the handbooks.

“They want to set up focus groups with educators during department meetings, talk to the student council, a larger group of students and caregivers,” Reinfeld said. “They also want to look at what training educators need to make wise decisions about using AI.”

Sangmin Song is a senior journalism student. This story is part of a partnership between Gotta Know Medford and the Boston University Department of Journalism.