In this episode of Scaling Success, co-hosts Jacob Kantor and Jenn Womble welcome Steven Butschi, Director of Education Go-To-Market, North America at Google, and Lorne Rodriguez, Enterprise GenAI Manager at Chicago Public Schools, for a conversation about turning district AI vision into practical implementation. Drawing on Lorne's experience leading AI governance and literacy in the district he attended as a student, and Steven's work supporting education institutions across North America, they explore how clear goals, educator involvement, and ongoing professional learning shape responsible adoption.

Throughout the conversation, Lorne explains how Chicago Public Schools built its AI steering committee, developed an evolving guidebook and instructional playbook, and designed training that begins with foundational AI literacy. He shares the district's approach to school readiness for student access and its plans to measure impact through surveys, stakeholder feedback, and communities of practice. Steven discusses how district input informs Google's education tools, including guided learning, educator controls, and integration into existing workflows. Together, they emphasize keeping educators in the lead and using AI to create more time for the human connections at the heart of teaching and learning.

In this episode:
- [03:49] Why Chicago Public Schools chose an evolving AI guidebook and cross-department governance
- [11:32] Building AI literacy before introducing Gemini, Gems, Canvas, and NotebookLM
- [17:03] Taking a school readiness approach to student access to generative AI
- [25:09] Measuring impact through annual surveys, stakeholder engagement, and the CPS Neural Network
- [44:03] Three implementation priorities: existing workflows, clear district goals, and professional development

Resources Mentioned
- CPS AI Guidebook and Guidance: https://www.cps.edu/sites/ai-at-cps/
- CPS Instructional GenAI Playbook: https://www.cps.edu/sites/ai-at-cps/cps-ai-library/instructional-genai-playbook/ cps.edu
- Google AI Educator Series: https://edu.google.com/learning-center/google-ai-educator-series/ Google for Education
- Gemini for Education: https://edu.google.com/ai/gemini-for-education/ Google for Education
- Gemini Notebook / NotebookLM: https://notebook.google/ AI Research Tool & Thinking Partner

About Steven Butschi: Steven Butschi is Director of Education Go-To-Market, North America at Google. Drawing on 16 years at Google, he shares how relationships with districts inform education tools, professional learning, and approaches that keep educators at the center of AI implementation.

About Lorne Rodriguez: Lorne Rodriguez is Enterprise GenAI Manager at Chicago Public Schools and a proud CPS graduate. He began his district career as an educational technology specialist supporting student data privacy and now leads work spanning AI governance, literacy, stakeholder engagement, and responsible implementation.

Connect with the participants:
Steven Butschi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenbutschi/
Lorne Rodriguez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lornearodriguez/
Jacob Kantor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejacobkantor
Jenn Womble on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennwomble/

Podcast produced by Old Soul: aoldsoul.com

In this inagural episode of Scaling Success, co-hosts Jacob Kantor and Jenn Womble welcome Dr. 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 Dr. Gittisriboongul'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, Dr. Gittisriboongul 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/chatgpt-foundations-for-teachers/
• ChatGPT for Teachers: https://chatgpt.com/plans/k12-teachers/
• Learning Outcomes Research: https://openai.com/index/understanding-ai-and-learning-outcomes/
• ChatGPT for Education on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/chatgpt-for-education/
• OpenAI News & Announcements: https://openai.com/news/
• OpenAI Education: https://openai.com/education/

About Dr. Patrick Gittisriboongul: Dr. Patrick Gittisriboongul is Superintendent at Lynwood Unified School District. Dr. Gittisriboongul 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:
Dr. Patrick Gittisriboongul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pgittis/
Sam Canning-Kaplan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samcanningkaplan/
Jacob Kantor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejacobkantor
Jenn Womble on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennwomble/

Scaling Success is a national K–12 education and technology podcast uncovering the people, partnerships, and proven practices behind programs that are working and exploring how their success can be replicated and scaled. Jennifer Womble and Jacob Kantor bring together two sides of the K–12 innovation ecosystem: education leadership and edtech partnership. Scaling Success is grounded in a simple belief: some of the best solutions to education's biggest challenges already exist in our schools. We need better ways to find them, understand them, share them, and scale them.

Connect with Jenn Womble: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennwomble/
Connect with Jacob Kantor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejacobkantor/

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