The Martinsville City School Board met Aug. 12 to discuss Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) training, use of artificial intelligence tools in classrooms, and several policy updates.
Tammy Vaughan, director of academic support, spoke about PBIS training and a program that provides students with social-emotional assessments three times per school year. The program is divided into three tiers to better track student needs and allow staff to focus on those requiring additional support.
“They work with creating behavior expectations and framework and the school works in areas such as discipline and chronic absentees,” Vaughan said.
Martinsville has applied for grants to help fund the program and received $30,000 to support team leaders. The team tracks school absence data, and chronic absenteeism has decreased as a result.
Tyler Hunt, coordinator of industrial technology and head of the district’s AI team, is evaluating Magic School AI, an AI-powered platform built by educators for educators.
“Magic School AI has over 80 AI tools for teachers, especially in lesson planning and alignment of the standards,” Hunt said.
Hunt believes supportive AI tools can help address the teacher shortage. “This is one way we can improve that and improve retention because we can take the time that is required for teachers to lesson plan, analyze things, create assessments, differentiation — all of these things can be cut in half with these tools,” he said. “Educators and district admins can monitor every single piece of information that students are putting into their AI tools.”
The goal is for at least 50% of teachers to use at least one Magic School AI tool on a consistent basis. The platform also offers personalized learning, adapting to student needs, Hunt added.
The student handbook was updated with new policies for Advanced or Accelerated Mathematics, Purchasing Procedures, Student Conduct, and Requests for Public Records.
The board also recognized Rickyah Mitchell-Hairston, VHSL state champion in the girls 100-meter dash.
