Cover Stories

• AI for School Leaders: Challenges, Champions, and What’s Next

  Compiled by Theresa Kelly Gegen

  The Journal asked leaders and practitioners about the use of artificial intelligence in their school districts.

• Responsible AI Use in School Board Governance

  By Gary Fasules

  While boards are developing policies on AI use in their districts, are they also considering how AI might affect their governance work? An AI survey for public school leaders is included. 

• A Board Member’s Guide to AI

  By Jim Batson, Ed.D.

  As public school board members, we have an obligation to ensure that the district provides a safe and effective environment in which our students can learn.

Regular Features

• Practical PR From Message Makers to System Builders

  By Patrick Mogge

  Technology is evolving at a pace where tools used today can quickly be surpassed by new products or competitors. For school districts, that reality creates both pressure and opportunity. 

• Front Page: Artificial Intelligence

  By Theresa Kelly Gegen

  Artificial intelligence will continue to evolve, often faster than policy or practice.

• Educational Equity: Today’s Digital Divides

  By Maryam Brotine, J.D.

  Educational technology (edtech) tools are widening additional digital divides that school board members need to understand to break down barriers to equitable student success.

• On Outreach & Training: The High Cost of Silence

  By Justin Caldwell, Ed.D.

  Susan Scott’s Fierce Conversations serves as a powerful manifesto for radical clarity. The central premise is simple but profound: The conversation is the relationship. 

• Resources: May/June 2026 Journal

  Resources: May/June 2026 Journal

Commentary

• When Everything Looks Real and Nothing Feels True

  By Rebecca Bultsma

  Only once leaders, teachers, and students reach a mutual understanding of how they should use AI can comprehensive guidelines be written. We reach that mutual understanding through three crucial conversations — and the first one starts with us.

• Mach Speed Learning: Values, Vision, Risk, and the AI Shift

  By Joshua W. Stafford, Ed.D.

  The districts that serve their students well through the AI moment will be those whose boards and teams understand early that this requires more than policy. It requires values, vision, and risk.