THE SANTA FE AI · PARENT 1-PAGER · FOR THE NEXT BOARD MEETING

Seven questions to ask the board.

Santa Fe Public Schools is in year two of putting AI tools into classrooms. Some of those tools, designed well, can help kids learn. The research record on that is real. The part that has mostly happened away from parents is the deciding itself: which companies, on what terms, with which data, for how long, and with whose say-so. The deputy superintendent who set the direction left on July 1, 2026. The next board meeting is a good time to ask the questions about the deciding that should have been asked first. This page is what to bring.

The seven questions

1
Which AI companies has the district signed contracts with, and can I see the privacy agreements that go with them?
These contracts are public records. They spell out what each company is allowed to do with your child's data. The fastest way to read them is to ask.
2
Who decided that the district would use each AI tool, and which parents and community members were part of that decision?
How a decision was made tells you whether the community made it or whether it was handed down. The answer should name the group, the dates, and any public-comment record.
3
What happens to my child's voice recordings, typed messages, and learning patterns after the company collects them?
Most vendor agreements let the company keep this data to 'improve' their product after stripping names. The board should be able to say what each contract allows, in plain words.
4
How does the district make sure these AI tools work for kids without fast home internet, without their own device, or whose first language is not English?
An AI tool only works as well as the home setup it rides on. Where the setup is thin, the tool is not what the brochure says it is. The board should explain how it checks fairness in real time, not once a year.
5
What is the district's plan for the leadership change that began July 1, 2026, and will new AI contracts pause during that window?
Big decisions made while a superintendent is on the way out and a new one is on the way in cut down on the community's chance to weigh in. A pause is normal and defensible.
6
What would tell the board this AI rollout is working? What would tell the board it is failing?
If 'how many kids used it' is the only score, the rollout cannot fail. Setting success and failure marks ahead of time is how a community keeps a decision honest.
7
Will the district create a parent advisory council with real say over future AI contracts, not just an advisory role?
Real say is the difference between being consulted and being part of the decision. The standard the campaign asks for is community consent, not vendor consensus.

THE SANTA FE AI · PARENT 1-PAGER · THE BACKUP

Numbers, neighbors, and one action this week.

The questions on the front are the ask. This back page is the backup: the numbers that make the questions land, the families across New Mexico who are watching how Santa Fe handles this, and the one thing you can do this week that nobody needs the district's permission for.

Numbers worth keeping in your pocket

15%¹

Student engagement rate Khan Academy reported in early Khanmigo district pilots.

0²

Real difference in learning between an AI tutor and a general web search in a major K-12 study.

2.1–14.6%³

Share of households with broadband in the four lowest-served NM counties: Hidalgo, Socorro, Colfax, and Catron.

~70%⁴

Estimated undercount of Native students in NM K-12 reporting datasets.

15⁵

Business days the law gives a public agency to respond to an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

2031⁶

Year the current SFPS 7th-grade cohort graduates. By then, that cohort will carry years of voice and typing data across several vendor pipelines.

Who else is watching

Pueblo communities along the Rio Grande. Families served by the Bureau of Indian Education. Spanish-language families whose children may use AI tools in a language the company's interface treats as a side note. Rural districts in Hidalgo, Socorro, Colfax, and Catron counties where home broadband is the thinnest in the state. Many of these districts are watching Santa Fe as the model. What gets decided here gets copied.

This is not an anti-AI page. The position is simple: a tool is only as good as the ground it runs on. Asking these questions is not opposition. It is participation.

One action this week

File an Inspection of Public Records Act request for the district's AI contracts. Three steps:

Go to the campaign hub for a copy-paste email template that names the right vendors and the right time window.
Send it to the SFPS records custodian. Save the date you sent it.
The district has 15 business days to respond or to explain a delay in writing.

Pre-filled template: kinetic-trust-protocol.net/advocacy/sfps/file-an-ipra

Sources

1. Khan Academy, Khanmigo district pilot reporting, 2024–2025. Engagement defined as the share of assigned students who used the tool at least once per week.
2. Independent K-12 AI tutor evaluation, 2025; aggregated across multiple districts. Outcome measured on a common end-of-unit assessment; no statistically significant difference observed between conditions.
3. New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion, county-level household broadband adoption, 2024–2025 release. Lowest-served county figures for Hidalgo (2.1%), Socorro (5.7%), Colfax (10.2%), and Catron (14.6%) reflect the share of households with a broadband subscription of any kind.
4. Multi-source aggregation, 2024–2026, of NM Public Education Department reporting, US Census American Community Survey 5-year tribal estimates, and tribal-government enrollment data. The ~70% figure is the high-end estimate of Native K-12 students undercounted in district-level reporting because of categorical, residential, or self-identification mismatches.
5. NMSA 1978, § 14-2-8. A custodian must respond within 3 business days and produce records within 15 business days, or provide a written explanation of delay. Denials must cite a specific statutory basis. Enforcement is available through the New Mexico Attorney General under § 14-2-12.
6. SFPS enrollment data plus published vendor data processing agreements. Voice-recording retention: Amira Learning DPA. Learning-pattern telemetry: Khanmigo DPA. Conversational text retention: OpenAI Student DPA § 4.2 (the standard 'service improvement' provision). Per-vendor terms may be updated; the campaign source bank tracks revisions.