Dr. Matt Kuhn, Volusia County Schools

08/22/2026

Please help us get these forms done. 

📚 Back-to-school forms reminder ⬇️

Families, please take a few minutes to log in to the Parent Portal and complete all required back-to-school forms for each student. Keeping this information current helps our schools provide the support and services students need throughout the school year.

📸 Important Information About the Student Information and Media Release Opt-Out Form: Please review the media release options carefully, as your selections determine how your student's name, photo, and other directory information may be used.

🚫 Do not release any of my child's directory information.
Selecting this option means the school cannot release your student's directory information or photographs. This includes:
▪️The annual yearbook (including name and photo)
▪️Playbills for school productions
▪️Honor roll and other recognition lists
▪️Graduation programs
▪️Sports activity sheets
▪️District and school publications, websites, videos, and social media platforms

📘 Do not release directory information except for yearbook publication.
The same restrictions above apply, except your student's name and photo may appear in the yearbook. Students with this option selected cannot be featured on social media or in other school or district communications.

🎥 Do not allow community organizations or news media to photograph, record, or interview my child.
Selecting this option means outside organizations and members of the news media may not photograph, video record, audio record, or interview your student. Permission for school or district photos, videos, and social media posts depends on the parent or guardian's other media release selections.

Please log in to the Parent Portal today to review your selections and complete all required forms.

Thank you for helping us keep your student's information and permissions accurate and up to date. 💙

08/15/2026

08/14/2026

The best part of this event was the fantastic students who gave such inspiring messages to us all. 

08/12/2026

Last night, I was asked to give an on-air interview with WESH 2 News on AI in Volusia County Schools. Take a look at:

More kids are using AI in the classroom than ever before, and Volusia County Schools is talking about how it's being implemented.

08/06/2026

I’m flattered to be featured in this article but I want to emphasize the leading role our Ed Tech Department, lead by Dr. Melissa Carr, takes in developing our staff and the strong emphasis our Superintendent, Dr. Carmen Balgobin puts on all in Volusia County Schools to exhibit an innovative mindset. Also, I want to credit Brandon Nelson and the rest of the AI agent project team.

Innovative Leader Award - Matt Kuhn of Volusia County Schools shares how his district has implemented AI for use by students, staff, and leaders.

07/25/2026

Are you concerned about screen time in schools? See my take in this article.

The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids’ Learning—and How to Help Them Thrive Again by Jared Cooney Horvath offers a timely and often-needed challenge to the assumption that simply placing technology in a classroom will improve learning. The book is strongest when it questi...

07/14/2026

Have you signed up for ParentSquare yet?

All school, grade-level, and classroom communications—such as dates and times for open house, meet the teacher, and more—will now come through ParentSquare and be translated into your preferred language, whether by email, text, app, or web.

To get the most out of ParentSquare, we encourage you to download the free mobile app, available for iOS and Android.

App Store: https://k12.vcsedu.org/ParentSquare-Apple
Google Play: https://k12.vcsedu.org/ParentSquare-Google

07/10/2026

ITS as providing technology and training to make sure this school is a success! 

Coming this fall to Volusia Pines Elementary: 𝚃𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚝 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚖 💻💡

🔹Hands-on learning that sparks curiosity from day one
🔹Tackling real-world problems in the classroom
🔹Developing teamwork and collaboration skills
🔹Fostering innovation and adaptability for the future
🔹Preparing students with essential 21st-century skills

Follow the link below to learn more!

🔗 https://k12.vcsedu.org/magnetprograms.

Zoned students who are enrolled do not need to apply.

07/01/2026

This was truly a giant team effort by the whole district to meet even higher standards this year to become an “A”district again. Great job Volusia County Schools!

➡️IMPORTANT A-NNOUNCEMENT

We’re thrilled to share that, for the second year in a row, VCS is an “A” rated district!

This is the result of a true team effort.

Our students, teachers, staff, and families are the heart of this success, demonstrating every day what can be accomplished through hard work, perseverance, and a commitment to excellence.

We're also grateful for the support of our School Board members, VCS Partners in Education, elected officials, community organizations, and volunteers who help strengthen our schools and support student achievement.

An accomplishment such as this takes an entire community working together, and that’s exactly what Volusia County does best.

Visit https://www.vcsedu.org/news/~board/district-news/post/volusia-county-schools-earns-back-to-back-a-district-grade for more details and a breakdown of school grades.

Dr. Carmen Balgobin, Superintendent Volusia County Schools
Dr. Julio Valle Jr., Chief Academic Officer, Volusia County Schools
Florida Department of Education
Heartland Educational Consortium
Panhandle Area Educational Consortium
NEFEC

06/30/2026

This research proves exactly why we are trying to implement AI for learning the way we are. We’re not trying to create answer generators; we’re creating differentiating tutors that enhance our students efforts to learn at a greater pace. 

The same AI model made one group of students worse and another group better. The only thing that changed was its design.

In a randomized trial of nearly a thousand high-school math students, an unguarded chatbot helped during practice, then left students about 17% worse on an exam they sat alone (Bastani et al., cited in a sharp new preprint by Brcic and Frljic, 2026).

Rebuild that same model to withhold answers and give designed hints, and the harm disappeared.

That reframes the whole debate for me. The question was never allow it or ban it. It's about where AI belongs inside a lesson.

Brcic and Frljic break learning a single idea into six moves: Prime, Probe, Point, Attach, Strengthen, Test. Two are protected. The first hard attempt and the final unaided check belong to the student, so AI steps back there. The messy middle is where guarded AI earns its keep, with hints, examples, and practice.

As the authors stated, "if letting AI in makes the task feel effortless, it is in the wrong place" (p. 5). Effort on the real skill is the point. Busywork is effortful too and teaches nothing, so let AI clear the looking-up and stay out of the building.

This is the same trap I flagged in Fan et al.'s metacognitive laziness and in the cognitive offloading research. The tool sharpens the product, and the thinking goes soft underneath.

I'd add one caution. The AI evidence here is young and partly preprint, so read it as direction, not magnitude.

Place AI well and it scales the patient one-to-one attention most students never got. Place it wrong and it does the learning for them. That choice lives in the lesson, not the policy.

Link in the first comment!



References
Brcic, M., & Frljic, S. (2026). The effortless trap: Productive struggle, AI, and the illusion of learning (arXiv:2606.26181). arXiv.

Bastani, H., Bastani, O., Sungu, A., Ge, H., Kabakcı, Ö., & Mariman, R. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning: Evidence from high school mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(26), e2422633122.

Fan, Y., Tang, L., Le, H., Shen, K., Tan, S., Zhao, Y., Shen, Y., Li, X., & Gašević, D. (2025). Beware of metacognitive laziness: Effects of generative artificial intelligence on learning motivation, processes, and performance. British Journal of Educational Technology, 56(2), 489–530.