Post by Jerry Almendarez

Yesterday, I had the privilege of spending time with Palo Alto Unified's site principals at their last meeting of the school year. End of May. These leaders were exausted. And every one of them was still fully present. We spent the session exploring how Gemini could serve as a strategic co-pilot for site improvement planning. Not to write the plan. To strengthen it. We walked through how AI can assess alignment between site priorities and board direction. How it can surface blind spots before the community does. How it can help principals communicate their plan with clarity. And how it can support both the strategic and tactical rollout. The question I kept returning to: what would it mean to walk into next school year with a plan that already anticipates the obstacles? That is not a technology question. It is a leadership question. The answer changes when principals stop treating AI as a shortcut and start treating it as a thought partner. PAUSD is building that culture. A sincere thank you to Guillermo López and Jeong Choe, Ph.D. for the invitation and for creating the conditions for this kind of learning. And a special moment for me personally — getting to reconnect with Lynette White, a former colleague from Santa Ana Unified. Some relationships follow you through every chapter of this work. That is a gift. What part of site improvement planning is the hardest to execute well in your district right now? #EducationalLeadership #Superintendent #AI #PrincipalLeadership #CFC