AI can help school leaders save time. But saved time is only valuable if leaders know where to spend it.

This week on AmpED to 11, Brett is joined by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, founder and dean of the Leverage Leadership Institute and author of Leverage Leadership 3.0. Paul has spent twenty-five years studying the habits, systems, and leadership moves that help schools improve, and his answer keeps returning to the same place: the moments when leaders are directly helping teachers get better.

In this episode, Paul brings a grounded perspective to one of the biggest questions in education right now. If AI can reduce the administrative burden on school leaders, how do we make sure those recovered hours go toward coaching, observation, feedback, and the kind of instructional leadership that actually changes outcomes?

The conversation explores what makes teacher development different from evaluation, why excellent practice needs to be seen before it can be replicated, and why AI tools trained on the average of everything may not be enough for schools trying to become exceptional. It is a thoughtful, practical episode for anyone thinking seriously about AI, leadership, and school improvement. Rebecca is away this week, so there is no AI Tip or News segment.

Listen to the full episode to hear how AI could help leaders refocus on the work that changes schools.

Rebecca hosts solo this week for a timely conversation with David Bowman, cybersecurity director for one of Utah’s largest K-12 districts, a member of the State of Utah Cyber Commission, and chair of the Statewide K-12 Cybersecurity Council. David brings a clear, practical view of what student data privacy really means inside schools, beginning with a classroom exercise where he showed students just how much information about them could be gathered, connected, and exposed. From there, the episode moves into the recent Canvas breach, the third-party analytics tools quietly embedded in EdTech platforms, and the difficult questions district leaders need to ask before trusting vendors with student information.

At the heart of the conversation is David’s argument that the greatest threat to student data is not always the outside hacker. Often, it is the company already inside the district’s ecosystem, collecting more information than schools or families realise. Rebecca and David discuss how districts can create stronger privacy expectations, build data protection into procurement, communicate more clearly with parents, and hold vendors accountable when their practices do not match the responsibility of serving children. David also explains why privacy cannot sit separately from teaching, leadership, or purchasing decisions, and why schools need the confidence to “vote with your data” as well as with their budgets.

Tune in for a grounded, accessible conversation about cybersecurity, student privacy, vendor accountability, and the leadership choices that shape trust in K-12 education.

What are today's superintendents actually facing, and why AI alone won't fix it.

Brett Roer sits down with Amy Dujon, VP of Education Brands at ARC Network, who sees patterns across hundreds of districts. With 27 years in education, from classroom teacher to principal to district leadership, Amy brings a rare vantage point on the unprecedented challenges school leaders are navigating right now.

Key Topics:

• The simultaneous, interconnected crises superintendents are holding (mental health, teacher retention, chronic absenteeism, AI adoption)
• Why leaders aren't lacking ideas about AI, they're lacking time, policy cover, and bandwidth
• The critical shift: using AI to reduce operational friction so humans have more space for connection
• What must stay human: relationship building, mental wellness, and the connections only educators can provide
• How district leaders can adopt AI thoughtfully without replacing the heart of education

If you lead a school, district, or education organization, this conversation reframes the AI debate and offers a clearer path forward.

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