Superintendent Dr. R.J. Gravel is spearheading the creation of a new committee of teachers, student support personnel and administrators to continue exploring the use of AI across the district.
“The committee will meet three to five times this semester to develop a districtwide framework that provides greater clarity, consistency and shared expectations regarding the use of AI across the schools,” said Dr. Maria Vasilopoulos, associate principal for teaching and learning.
According to Ryan Bretag, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, Glenbrook High School District #225’s AI guidelines emphasize evidence based critical thinking, creative thinking and collaborative approaches. The district wants students to leave with those skills and does not want AI to replace student growth in those areas.
“I don’t want to fail our students by not having the exposure [to AI],” said Bretag. “I also don’t want to fail our students by overexposing and [creating] the opposite problem.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that Alpha School, a for-profit private school network that uses AI software, opened a location in Chicago on Sept. 8, 2026. Alpha School has opened other locations across the country.
According to Vasilopoulos, “Education is deeply personal, and … what works for one student won’t necessarily work for all … It’s having different [educational] models available so that students have some choice.”
The Chicago Tribune also reported that Alpha School students learn core subjects in two-hour sessions using adaptive AI for personalized learning. The school does not have any teachers and uses adult “guides” to assist the AI software in teaching the students.
According to Bretag, “I see the teachers still in the lead and the technology serving as a copilot.”
The teacher-student relationship is a mentorship that AI cannot create at this point, Bretag said.
“We know AI exists,” said Bretag. “We know [students are] using it … but sharing how you want to use it, sharing how you are using it, engaging with your teacher on it, those are so important.”
According to social studies teacher Robert Gallivan, in the Academic Resource Center, tutors are always encouraged to work within the parameters of AI policies and are not there to report suspected use of AI, and tutors are encouraged to ask students about sourcing and their writing process if something appears to be work that is not their own.
According to Meghan Bargar, assistant principal of the deans, there have not been any incidents of academic dishonesty related to AI that have been reported to the Dean’s Office this year as of Oct. 16, but there were reports last year.
According to Vasilopoulos, when adjusting to the evolution of AI, the most important piece is when a student lacks the ability and the critical thinking to question and just relies on AI as an accurate source of information.
“You can’t keep AI out of schools,” Vasilopoulos said.
There are a lot of parallels with the introduction of the graphing calculator and how things are going to evolve with AI, Vasilopoulos said.
“You adjust,”said Vasilopoulos. “You adapt. You figure out you have to maybe think about assessing differently and sometimes do assessments without that tool, sometimes with that tool.”
“Sometimes that tool is helpful in assessing because you can’t do the assessment without the help of that tool … It’s going to be a learning curve,” Vasilopoulos said.
According to Gallivan,“You have to figure out the best use for this technology, and then move forward. I think right now we’re in that discovery phase.”
According to Bretag, there needs to be energy put into understanding AI.
“We shouldn’t be afraid of [AI],”said Bretag.“We should be understanding it, exploring it and finding out a way to keep humans in the lead right now and define where it works.”