How to Implement a School Districtwide Al Strategy featuring Lynwood USD & OpenAl

In this inagural episode of Scaling Success, co-hosts Jacob Kantor and Jenn Womble welcome Patrick Gittisriboongul, Superintendent at Lynwood Unified School District, and Sam Canning-Kaplan, US PK-12 GTM Lead at OpenAI, for a conversation about building and implementing a responsible school district AI strategy. Drawing on Patrick's work leading district AI planning and Sam's background in K-12 edtech and learning management systems, they connect local implementation with feedback gathered from districts across the country. Jenn Womble, Host at Jacob Kantor, joins Jacob in guiding the discussion. Throughout the conversation, Patrick explains how Lynwood Unified School District grounded its three-year roadmap in equity, safety, and ethics, beginning with an AI task force before moving into pilots and deeper implementation. Sam shares how district feedback shaped privacy protections, administrative controls, training resources, and collaborative cohorts. They also examine how AI may change assessment, support differentiated instruction, and help district leaders communicate more clearly, while emphasizing the importance of human judgment, community engagement, and age-appropriate guardrails. In this episode: [04:01] How Lynwood built a three-year AI roadmap around equity, safety and ethics [12:35] Turning department needs into practical AI use cases and a district toolkit [19:22] How district listening shaped protected access, training and collaborative cohorts [31:55] Why assessment may need to focus more on students' process than final outputs [51:57] Building coherence, deeper implementation and readiness for agentic workflows Resources Mentioned District AI Toolkit: https://districtkit.ai OpenAI Academy: https://academy.openai.com ChatGPT Foundations for Teachers: https://www.coursera.org/learn/chatgp... ChatGPT for Teachers: https://chatgpt.com/plans/k12-teachers/ Learning Outcomes Research: https://openai.com/index/understandin... ChatGPT for Education on LinkedIn:   / chatgpt-for-education   OpenAI News & Announcements: https://openai.com/news/ OpenAI Education: https://openai.com/education/ About Patrick Gittisriboongul: Patrick Gittisriboongul is Superintendent at Lynwood Unified School District. Patrick discusses the district's AI task force, implementation roadmap, staff learning, community engagement, and efforts to connect AI literacy with its long-term vision. About Sam Canning-Kaplan: Sam Canning-Kaplan is US PK-12 GTM Lead at OpenAI. Sam brings a background in K-12 edtech and learning management systems and shares how educator feedback, district cohorts, and research are informing training and support. Connect with the participants: Patrick Gittisriboongul:   / pgittis   Sam Canning-Kaplan on LinkedIn:   / samcanningkaplan   Jacob Kantor on LinkedIn:   / thejacobkantor   Jenn Womble on LinkedIn:   / jennwomble