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Unlocking Efficiency: Leveraging AI in Public School District Operations

Presented by Krestin Bahr, Kris HagelConference SessionFor AASA NCE

Unlocking Efficiency: Leveraging AI in Public School District Operations

Superintendent Krestin Bahr and Chief Information Officer Kris Hagel presented this session at the AASA National Conference on Education (NCE) on February 13, 2026. The presentation walks district leaders through a practical progression of AI capabilities — from foundational prompting techniques to advanced agentic workflows — showing how Peninsula School District has moved from basic AI use to operational transformation.

Key Takeaways:

  • Prompting Progression — Good to Best: The session demonstrates three tiers of prompt quality: a vague request ("suggest ways to adjust the budget"), a better-scoped query (specifying state, context, and format), and a best-practice prompt that assigns a role, attaches data, defines constraints, and requests structured output with ripple-effect analysis.
  • Socratic Prompting Unlocks Reasoning: Breaking complex requests into three steps — a theoretical question, a framework question, and an application question — activates deeper reasoning in AI models and produces significantly better results than single-prompt approaches.
  • Privacy as the Foundation: Data privacy determines what you can do with AI. PSD's AI Studio is a custom-built, district-hosted platform on AWS that provides staff access to frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) in a secure environment — open source and available at github.com/psd401/aistudio.
  • Augmentation Over Automation: When principals wanted to use AI to write teacher evaluations, PSD deliberately built a tool that refuses to evaluate — instead helping principals code observations, organize notes, identify gaps, and prepare coaching conversations. A leadership decision expressed as technology.
  • Deep Research for Community Engagement: PSD uses AI deep research capabilities to analyze diverse constituent groups and generate tailored messaging strategies — turning complex community dynamics into actionable communication plans.
  • Legislation Tracking at Scale: What started as a single prompt querying Washington's legislative feed has evolved into a scheduled assistant that monitors bills, assesses fiscal impact, and is expanding to include bill-specific research and auto-drafted testimony.
  • Agentic Skills — The Next Frontier: Agent skills go beyond prompt chains by incorporating reusable code, resources, and system integrations. PSD demonstrates real workflows: RedRover absence management, Freshservice ticket handling with brand guidelines, and automated morning briefings that synthesize data from multiple district systems.

Actionable Insights:

  • Start with Voice: Enable dictation and simply talk to AI about what you need. Ask it to write its own prompt based on your goals — this is the fastest path to quality results for non-technical users.
  • Build Your Own Platform: Districts don't need to rely on third-party AI vendors. PSD's AI Studio is open source and available for any district to deploy, providing secure access to frontier models at 90% cost savings versus individual subscriptions.
  • Use Prompt Chaining for Complex Tasks: Break multi-step operational challenges into connected prompts — each building on the previous result. This applies to financial analysis, strategic planning, and policy development.
  • Invest in the Skill Layer: Agent skills create reusable, system-integrated workflows that compound over time. Start with high-frequency operational tasks (attendance, tickets, briefings) and expand to instructional data and board reporting.

Looking Ahead:

PSD's roadmap includes instructional data integration, weekly board report automation, social media scanning, expanded training for cabinet and operations staff, Schoology skills for teachers, and skill integration directly into AI Studio. The trajectory is clear: from individual prompts to organizational intelligence — where AI doesn't just answer questions but actively surfaces insights, connects systems, and supports decision-making across every level of district operations.