Most districts facing budget pressure right now are cutting positions. Dedham created one.

As Heather Smith started her second year as Assistant Superintendent, she noticed an opportunity. Instructional technology had been reporting to the Office of Operations, a structural choice that kept it at arm's length from teaching and learning. When a retirement created an opening, she reorganized. Instructional Technology moved into the Office of Teaching and Learning and a new department was created: Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship. And Kevin Kaufman, a former middle school teacher and technology coach, stepped into the director role.

"We created and designed this position with intentionality, and feel very fortunate that Kevin is our director," Heather says. That decision to reorganize before rolling out has created a strong foundation for subsequent AI efforts in Dedham. 

Start by Listening

Kevin's first instinct in the new role was to listen. This approach was inspired by a webinar he attended on scaling innovation with Denver Public Schools. A key takeaway stuck with him: they tried to launch various initiatives, and then had to go back and listen. 

Multiple surveys went out to staff, students, and families, and the data clarified trends. Staff needed clarity and permission. Students were thinking about sustainability and the environment in ways adults hadn't anticipated. Families of younger students were paying closer attention than high school families. About five percent of the district's population didn't have reliable internet at home, a fact that immediately grounded equity as a design constraint.

Parent surveys also surfaced real concern about screen time and device use. Dedham responded by tracking digital tool use to ensure technology is used purposefully and in balance with offline learning. 

"Our surveys and initial discussions felt organic," Kevin says. "It felt like a Dedham thing. Like we're all in this together and nobody has the answers."

Building Entry Points

Before Dedham had a guidance or policy, the team created low-stakes moments for staff to encounter AI on their own terms.

In November, the district restructured its full-day in-service into a Teaching and Learning Summit, offering staff more than 50 sessions across the day. Several sessions touched on AI: Kevin ran one on a specific tool, a parent who works as an AI strategist offered a session that was very well attended, and a former MassCUE president came to present. Teachers who had been wondering whether AI was something they were allowed to explore got a clear answer: yes, and here is a safe place to start.

"It brought the temperature down a little bit," Kevin says. Teachers were excited because the day brought AI into the foreground and elevated points of opportunity as well as caution. The Summit was also an access point. When Kevin later put out the call for the AI Collaborative, some of the people who raised their hands surprised him. 

What They Built

Dedham's AI work centered on 3 interconnected structures that were laid out across a two-year roadmap.

1. The AI Collaborative brought together over 40 self-selected educators to work "from the classroom up" by piloting tools, drafting guidelines, and ensuring that technology was enhancing rather than replacing human connection. Kevin recruited deliberately across the spectrum of AI enthusiasts. He was looking for multiple perspectives. "I advertised it like that," he says. "It wasn't ‘join us because you love AI’. It was ‘join this because this is an important conversation and your voice should be heard.’" That included the skeptics, the curious bystanders, and the educators who were racing ahead and discovered they needed to pause and rethink.

AI Collaborative members were encouraged to serve as both learners and building liaisons, with direct access to resources and a clear role in getting them into teachers' hands. The goal was for the work to spread without depending on Kevin's presence in every school.

1. Simultaneously, the GROW Framework gave the district a shared language for responsible AI use, grounded in four principles. Designed by the district team, the approach centers Goals (focus on outcomes, not output), Review (center critical thinking), Originality (preserve authenticity), and Wonder (protect curiosity and deep inquiry). The framework is designed for both students and teachers, and it reflects the human-centered approach that centers Dedham’s core values.

1. The AI Task Force, forming in 2026-2027, will expand the stakeholder circle further, bringing together parents, teachers, principals, and students as an advisory body on guidance and practice decisions. Students will also have seats at the table.

Conditions for Success

Heather's decision to move instructional technology into Teaching and Learning, and to design Kevin's role with a multi-year vision rather than inherited job responsibilities, created the right conditions for this work.

Kevin's relationships made the AI Collaborative possible. He knew the tech-savvy teachers and he knew the social agents in the building. That knowledge let him recruit the right mix of people and perspectives. 

Survey results gave Dedham actual information about where their community was, what they needed, and what they were worried about. That data shaped the Summit, the AI Collaborative recruitment, the GROW framework, and the rollout sequence.

Recommendations for Other Districts 

Reorganize as a first step. Before building programs, ask whether the right people are in the right roles with the right time and authority to do the work. 

Listen before you build. Staff surveys, student surveys, and family surveys tell you where to start, what language to use, and whose concerns need to be addressed first.

Recruit for multiple perspectives. A collaborative of enthusiasts will become an echo chamber. Recruiting skeptics and curious bystanders alongside early adopters produces something more representative and more useful.

Create a shared on-ramp. A low-stakes, voluntary moment for staff to encounter AI on their own terms, without pressure or mandate, builds curiosity and reduces fear. Find your version of the Summit.

As Kevin puts it: "We have to teach into this now. And that starts with making sure everybody is getting the same skills, the same language, the same foundation."

This case study was developed through an interview with Kevin Kaufman, Director of Digital Learning & Innovation, and Heather Smith, Assistant Superintendent, at Dedham Public Schools, in June 2026. It was prepared by Cathy Sanford, Director of Communications at Throughline Learning as part of PEA2K (Partnership for Educators Advancing AI Knowledge) Cohort 1 documentation.