School leaders need an answer to AI for their students and educators, but AI advancements are moving faster than you can keep up.
Unfortunately, that means too many districts are defaulting to apps, while watching educators disengage and students fall behind.
We work with your team to gather input, test new approaches, and build a shared strategy you can put into practice.
Technology Is Moving Faster Than Your Schools Can Keep Up
You Deserve A Roadmap AND Hands-On support
I know you didn't get a roadmap for this. You're being asked to lead through one of the most complex moments in the history of education — while managing burnout, budget pressure, and a board that wants answers yesterday.
Designing Schools partners with district leaders to build human-centered systems using design thinking and AI integration — so your approach to AI is built around your community, not someone else's playbook.
The AI Power Circle is a 6-month immersive partnership that takes school leaders through the Innovation Cycle in 45-day sprints, using design thinking and AI integration to build the culture, structures, and systems that lift every educator and student at once.
This is co-designed with your leadership from day one — because the best solutions to your district's challenges will come from the people who know it best.
Introducing
Innovation Cycle
The Innovation Cycle is a three-phase process built for school leaders navigating difficult decisions that impact the future of their schools and the success of their students. Whether you’re building an AI strategy from scratch or pressure-testing one that is already in motion, each phase has a clear purpose, question, and output to get us one step closer to finding the AI approach that's right for you.
Culture
Before anything else, we get honest about whether your district has a shared foundation to build from. Do your leaders, educators, students, and families understand why you’re here, what you believe, and the future you’re trying to create together? Would they give similar answers about the role AI should play — and how it connects to your district’s values, priorities, and graduate profile? Culture creates the shared language, trust, and clarity people need to feel grounded in what matters and confident about what comes next. You can’t design a strategy people will follow if they don’t share the vision behind it.
Are we aligned?
Conditions
Good ideas fail without the right conditions behind them. In this phase we assess whether your district has created the time, permission, leadership, and support people need to turn ideas into action. Are there clear approaches to privacy and tool selection that give people confidence without shutting down thoughtful experimentation? Most importantly, is learning shared — can people test ideas, talk honestly about what worked and what didn’t, and build on each other’s progress? Conditions make redesign feel possible and ensure promising ideas make progress instead of depending on a few enthusiastic people doing extra work.
Are we supported?
Competencies
Competencies are the curiosity, judgment, creativity, and agency people need to make thoughtful decisions and create meaningful improvements. Can your educators understand a problem, consider the experiences of those affected, and improve an idea through feedback and testing? When AI could be useful, can they evaluate what it produces, decide whether it adds value, and explain the reasoning behind their choices? This phase assesses whether your people have what it takes to redesign lessons, assessments, and workflows so they actually work better — not just use new technology to do the same things in a different way.
Are we capable?
Then, We Repeat
Most districts run two to three design thinking cycles in their first six months. Each one builds on the last. Over time, the process becomes second nature to your team and becomes a part of your culture when navigating complex change.
Every AI Power-Circle Package Is Built Around Your Team
Here’s What We Can Include:
Step-By-Step Rollout Plan
A strategy is only as good as the plan behind it. Most AI initiatives fail because nobody designed the rollout around the people expected to carry it out. Your rollout plan is built with that in mind. It sequences every step of implementation, assigns clear ownership, and gives your educators the context and the confidence to adopt the approach. The result is district-wide alignment that doesn't require constant reinforcement to maintain.
Fully-Custom AI Strategy
Over six months, we work alongside your leadership team to build an AI strategy that reflects your district's specific reality — what your educators actually need, what your students are ready for, and what your community will get behind. By the time we're done, you have something no other district has: an approach that was designed for you, by you.
Live In-Person Facilitation
Need to bring your whole staff into the work? Sabba can come to you — facilitating a live session or delivering a keynote to build buy-in across your district. Available as an add-on.
Resource Library
You’ll receive our full resource library of facilitation guides, templates, video training, and resources your staff can access on their own time.
SPARK Framework Training
Your team gets full access to the SPARK prompting framework and hands-on training for using AI as a thinking partner. This is a practical skillset your staff can use immediately and build on over time.
Frequent Check-In Calls
We meet regularly to review progress, remove obstacles, and work through the sprints together.
Research & Interviews
We run empathy interviews and discovery surveys with your educators, students, and families to understand what's actually happening in your district — not what we assume is happening.
Design
Sprints
I’ll personally walk you through six months of guided work through the Innovation Cycle - done in 45-day sprints to keep your team on track.
Step 01
We'll talk about where your district is right now, what's getting in the way, and whether the AI Power Circle is the right fit. If it is, we'll map out your first sprint and get started.
Schedule a Call
step 02
Each sprint moves your leadership team through one phase of the Innovation Cycle to tackle challenges, real decisions, and build systems to support you long-term.
Work Through 45-Day Sprints Over 6 Months
Step 03
By the time you're done, your whole team has been part of the process. When people help build the approach, they follow it. You leave with a strategy your district owns and the alignment to make it stick.
Roll Out Your AI Strategy
Real results from school leaders like you
ted alejandre
superintendent |
san bernadino county
"Dr. Quidwai is a dynamic and insightful presenter who has worked with districts across the country to bring AI integration to life. Her expertise, combined with the SPARK framework, empowers leaders to move beyond surface-level AI adoption and into real transformation. She creates an engaging, future-focused experience that helps teams rethink strategies, develop clear action plans, and confidently lead AI initiatives. Her sessions leave a lasting impact, blending inspiration with practical, immediately applicable insights."
Stacy kratochvill
coach | san mateo USD
"The AI Teams experience was an incredible investment! Sabba is amazing, and you'll learn so much more than just AI. I expected to learn AI tools and tricks, but I'm also learning to be more reflective, identify my strengths and values, and become a better leader. After completing the course, I went on to create and lead a 6-week AI literacy program for my district, filling a gap where no AI training had existed before. I'm on my second round of watching all the videos and doing the activities, don't miss this opportunity."
jerry almendarez
superintendent | santa ana USD
“Designing Schools partnership with the Santa Ana Unified School District has been pivotal in designing an AI integration plan aligned with our mission and values. Dr. Quidwai’s expertise in design thinking and innovation has empowered our staff with the tools to rethink strategies and implement solutions that directly benefit our learning community. Her sessions blend professionalism, empathy, and actionable insight, leaving a lasting impact on our team’s growth and readiness for AI integration.”
Real results from school leaders like you
ted alejandre
superintendent |
san bernadino county
"Dr. Quidwai is a dynamic and insightful presenter who has worked with districts across the country to bring AI integration to life. Her expertise, combined with the SPARK framework, empowers leaders to move beyond surface-level AI adoption and into real transformation. She creates an engaging, future-focused experience that helps teams rethink strategies, develop clear action plans, and confidently lead AI initiatives. Her sessions leave a lasting impact, blending inspiration with practical, immediately applicable insights."
Stacy kratochvill
coach | san mateo USD
"The AI Teams experience was an incredible investment! Sabba is amazing, and you'll learn so much more than just AI. I expected to learn AI tools and tricks, but I'm also learning to be more reflective, identify my strengths and values, and become a better leader. After completing the course, I went on to create and lead a 6-week AI literacy program for my district, filling a gap where no AI training had existed before. I'm on my second round of watching all the videos and doing the activities, don't miss this opportunity."
jerry almendarez
superintendent | santa ana USD
“Designing Schools partnership with the Santa Ana Unified School District has been pivotal in designing an AI integration plan aligned with our mission and values. Dr. Quidwai’s expertise in design thinking and innovation has empowered our staff with the tools to rethink strategies and implement solutions that directly benefit our learning community. Her sessions blend professionalism, empathy, and actionable insight, leaving a lasting impact on our team’s growth and readiness for AI integration.”
Have Questions About If AI Power Circle Is Right For You?
IS THIS RIGHT FOR US?
The AI Power Circle is built for district leaders — superintendents, cabinet members, and executive principals — who are responsible for setting direction for their whole community and are ready to build a real strategy, not just adopt a tool.
No. Most districts come in without one. That's exactly what we're building together.
That's a common starting point. We begin by understanding where you actually are — not where we assumed you'd be — and build from there.
THE PROCESS
Expect one focused session per month plus check-ins between sprints. We work in predictable cycles so the time commitment is manageable alongside everything else you're running.
Staff resistance is almost always a design problem — it happens when people are handed something they had no say in. The Power Circle is built to bring your educators into the process, not push something down to them. Plus - we may decide AI is not the right approach for your school. If that’s the case, we’ll decide that together.
Most professional development is one day, one tool, one trainer. The AI Power Circle is six months of guided work built around your specific district. Your leadership team is involved from day one. Your educators help shape the approach. That's why it sticks.
AFTER THE ENGAGEMENT
A fully custom AI strategy, a step-by-step rollout plan, a Design Council, and Innovation Cohorts running across your sites. Everything co-designed by your team and owned by your district.
Districts who want to stay connected can continue with community access, monthly updates, and on-demand coaching.
INVESTMENT
AI Power Circle is designed around your districts’ specific needs. Please schedule a call to request a custom scope.
That's worth weighing against the cost of getting it wrong. A district-wide tool rollout that nobody uses, educators who disengage, and a strategy you have to redo in 18 months — that's expensive too. We're happy to talk through what's possible at different investment levels.
Within The First 45-Days Sprint, You Will
Have a data-backed picture of where your district actually stands on AI — based on conversations with the educators, students, and families you serve.
Identify the specific barriers holding your district back — whether that's staff resistance, board pressure, equity concerns, or simply not knowing where to start
Have a defined challenge statement your whole leadership team has seen, discussed, and agreed on
Know exactly what your community needs from an AI strategy — with a concrete direction, a shared framework, and the confidence to move forward
Have something to bring to your next board meeting — not a vague update, but a clear picture of where you're headed and why
Walk Into Your Next Board Meeting With An Answer To AI
(& A Partner Who Understands Your District)
Instead of rolling out an app nobody uses, you walk into your next board meeting with an AI strategy your whole team helped build. Your educators will enthusiastically adopt your approach, and your students will stop outsourcing their thinking to machines.
In the end, you’ll have a district where every student graduates equipped to design their future in the age of AI — and a leadership team that didn't just respond to change, but shaped it.