Recently, I had the opportunity to present at the WASA Spring Conference for Small School Leaders in Wenatchee, where I shared how my district took a fresh, AI-powered approach to strategic planning.

If you’ve ever been through a strategic planning process, you know the routine. It starts with coffee and optimism, and by the end, everyone is exhausted, confused, and debating the placement of a single comma. Somewhere along the way, you realize the committee has spent three meetings crafting a generic mission statement that could describe a school, a yoga retreat, or a tech startup.

We knew we wanted to do things differently. Instead of getting stuck in wordsmithing purgatory, we focused on making the process engaging, efficient, and (dare I say) even enjoyable. And that’s where ChatGPT came in.

The Struggle is Real: Why Traditional Strategic Planning Fails

Strategic planning has a way of draining the life out of even the most passionate educators. Stakeholder input is collected—but often disappears into a mystical data void. Meetings stretch on forever, and by the time you reach the finish line, no one even remembers what you set out to do.

I work in a small, rural district with just over 300 students. We don’t have months to spend on a never-ending planning process, nor do we have a department dedicated solely to strategy. We needed a way to make every moment count while still ensuring that our plan reflected the voices of our community.

So, we decided to bring AI into the room.

ChatGPT's humorous take on school strategic planning

How AI Changed the Game

We began by gathering input the traditional way: Google Forms, focus groups, and past survey data. But before feeding anything into AI, we handed out hard copies so the steering committee could review responses and form their own takeaways first. This extra step ensured that when we did upload the raw data into AI, the key themes and patterns it identified made sense to us. It helped committee members see that AI was recognizing what they were seeing.

Now, here’s where it got interesting: 80% of our strategic planning steering committee had never used AI before. There was plenty of skepticism—how could a chatbot possibly help craft something as important as a strategic plan? But as we worked through the process, perspectives shifted. By the end, the entire committee unanimously agreed that the final product better reflected our community’s priorities and came together faster with the help of AI.

From Drafting to Done: Making the Process Collaborative and Fast

Once we had our themes, we used AI to generate drafts of our vision, mission, and core values—but with a twist. Instead of relying on robotic, overly formal statements, we fed AI real-time prompts to make it sound more like us.

We told it things like:

• "Make this more personal and unique to our school."
• "Consolidate this list by eliminating redundancies."
• "Give me a catchy variation on this statement."
• "Make this sound more inspiring, less corporate."

By displaying ChatGPT on the big screen during meetings, we were able to edit collaboratively in real time. Instead of spending weeks debating the wording of a single sentence, we’d generate multiple options, compare them, and move forward quickly.

Watching AI analyze data on-screen and respond to committee members' ideas in real time also built trust in the process. It was clear that the results weren’t just generic AI output—they were shaped by our input, making them both meaningful and accurate.

Keeping It Clear: No More “Eduspeak”

One of our biggest goals was avoiding specialized language in order to make the plan accessible to parents, staff, and community members.

Let’s be honest—educational jargon has a way of turning a simple idea into a confusing mess. If you’ve ever read a district’s strategic plan and thought, What does this even mean?, you’re not alone.

Jargon isn’t just annoying—it’s exclusionary. When school leaders talk about “differentiated instruction” or “formative assessments,” parents and community members may disengage because they don’t understand the terms. Overused buzzwords also don’t add much value. Saying a school is focused on “rigor, relevance, and relationships” may sound impressive, but what does that actually mean in a classroom? Worse, jargon-heavy language can create a barrier to trust. Clear, plain language isn’t just easier to understand—it helps build transparency and credibility.

We made it a rule: no fluff, no unnecessary buzzwords, just clear, meaningful language.

AI helped us identify areas where we were overcomplicating things, and we prompted it to simplify our message. Every draft went through multiple rounds of feedback. We engaged staff, the School Board, and our tribal community partners until we had a version that truly reflected our district’s priorities.

Four Meetings, Not Four Months

Traditional strategic planning can take months. We did it in just four two-hour committee meetings by staying focused and using AI as a tool to move things forward efficiently.

Here’s how we made it work:

• Breaking it down – We tackled one section at a time (Vision → Mission → Core Values → Goals).
• Keeping it visual – ChatGPT drafts were displayed in real time for live group edits.
• Using Google Docs for collaboration – Everyone could see and comment on drafts between meetings.
• Making decisions efficiently – Instead of endless debates, we generated multiple options and picked the best fit.

The result? A plan that actually got finished—without making people want to quit the committee.

Why This Works for Small Districts

AI isn’t about replacing people; it’s about helping teams work more effectively. For small districts like ours, this approach saved time, energy, and sanity, while ensuring that our stakeholders were actively involved in shaping the plan.

Instead of a generic, jargon-filled document, we ended up with a clear, community-driven plan that people understand and support. When the final draft was circulated among stakeholders, we got thumbs up all around. And best of all? We avoided getting stuck in the endless cycle of revisions.

Looking Ahead: Can AI Help Your District?

If you’ve ever felt a sense of dread when facing a new strategic planning process, maybe a little reimagining can help you, too. Consider how AI can help streamline the work while still keeping people at the center. Discover the power of this neutral, thoughtful digital partner. It’s not about handing control over to a machine—it’s about using technology to make the process smoother, richer, more engaging, and perhaps a little fun.

For small schools in particular, it might be the only way to go.

View Dr. Lance Gibbon's WASA Small Schools Conference PowerPoint presentation here.