 Welcome back, amazing team! I hope your summer was filled with rest, joy, and maybe a little adventure. As we step into the 26/27 school year, I’m excited to partner with you in supporting our adult learners. In my role as the Disability Support Counselor, I’m here to help set up student accommodations, facilitate workshops, and connect learners with the community resources they need to thrive. I’m truly looking forward to collaborating with you.
Together, let’s make this an inspiring and successful year!
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The AI Roadmap is finished. Here's what's in it and what it means for your classroom. After a year of task force sessions, a staff retreat, and a whole lot of your feedback, the ETCN AI Roadmap is going to the Leadership Council. You can read the full draft now.
The short version: ETCN is not banning AI, and we are not leaving it wide open either. The roadmap recommends a middle path it calls Guided Integration — AI is allowed and encouraged when it supports learning or operations, guided by teacher expectations, program standards, privacy safeguards, and human review. Read the full draft here: ETCN AI Roadmap v1.1 — Final Draft How we got here: The ETCN AI Task Force built the roadmap— teachers, counselors, classified staff, school leaders, Palomar College, and business partners including Sharp Healthcare, the Poway Chamber of Commerce, and B2 Software. Across five sessions, we coded what stakeholders actually said, researched where each member district's AI policy currently stands, and reviewed the tools we already have. The retreat added another layer of staff voice, and v1.1 integrates that feedback directly. A few of the sharper things you told us made it in unsoftened. Several members said flatly that AI has no role in counseling or student-facing advising — that language is now in the roadmap twice. Staff asked for an explicit assurance that AI is not a job-reduction strategy, rather than one merely implied. That's in there too, in writing: AI is intended to support staff capacity, not to replace teacher, counselor, or classified staff positions. And because members were split on how fast AI PD should move, the rollout is phased rather than mandatory. What actually changes in your classroom: Five things, and none of them require a new tool.
The tools stay the tools: The roadmap names Google Gemini, NotebookLM, and Canvas as ETCN's flagship AI tools, which means the tools you already have and already have PD on. Students keep their access to Gemini and NotebookLM — that's named in the roadmap as an equity strategy, not a perk. Tools like SchoolAI, Curipod, Snorkl, and Canvas AI features stay available where your district permits them and the use case is sound. There is nothing new to buy and nothing new to learn here. If you've been to a Gemini or NotebookLM session, you're already in the flagship lane. Where we're going next: The roadmap sets a three-phase arc, and we are in the middle of it right now:
An AI Roadmap Implementation Team will meet quarterly to turn the roadmap into the real plan and report to the Leadership Council annually. Thank you to everyone who completed the PD survey and Implementation Team interest form before the September 18 close — that input is shaping both the team roster and what PD looks like this spring. If you missed it and still want a seat at that table, email me and I'll add your name to the list. On the PD side, AI professional learning is planned yearly and refreshed each semester, because the tools move faster than an annual workshop can. This winter's strand focuses on checking AI-generated material before students see it — practical, one hour at a time, with morning and evening options. If you want help now: You don't have to wait for the implementation plan to start. Writing your assignment-level AI expectations takes about ten minutes once you've seen an example, and I'm happy to sit down and write them with you for your actual course — or to co-teach a lesson where students use Gemini or NotebookLM, and you watch how it goes before committing to anything.  Garry Dillard joined Vista Adult School this year as Assistant Principal, bringing nearly 20 years of experience in education. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work with students and educators at every level—from elementary, middle, and high school to adult education and university-level courses. He spent 14 years as a classroom teacher before moving into school administration, where he has served in leadership roles at both the middle and high school levels and now in adult education. Garry is also currently completing his Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership at UC San Diego.
Garry is passionate about the transformative power of education and believes learning can create opportunities not only for students, but for families and generations. That belief has made his transition to adult education especially meaningful. Outside of work, Garry is a proud father of two, an avid sports fan, and enjoys reading, cooking, movies, and ’80s and ’90s R&B. He is also actively involved in mentoring and community service throughout North County. As Gary says, "What excites me most about adult education is the opportunity to see transformation happening in real time. Our students remind us that it is never too late to learn, grow, and pursue what comes next.” By: Kathleen Porter - ETCN Executive DirectorWhat a pleasure it is to welcome you all back for a new school year! As a consortium, we have a busy and exciting year ahead, with many opportunities to strengthen the ways we work together on behalf of our students and communities. New Faces/New Places As you may already know, we have lots of new faces joining our work. And we have many familiar faces who are now in new places. Over the next several weeks in Around the Net, we’ll be highlighting these team members and the roles they’ll play across our consortium. Regional Collaboration Of course, I’m one of those familiar faces in a new place. After retiring from Poway USD at the end of June, I began a new role in July as Executive Director of our Education to Career Network. In this role, I’ll be focusing on building systems and capacity across the consortium, strengthening regional collaboration, and implementing our strategic plan. Thanks to the great work of our team at our annual planning retreat in June, we begin this year with a refreshed strategic plan and a clear direction for our work together. A significant part of our focus this year will be on timely communication, stronger regional connections, and building common understanding around our shared initiatives. To that end, you’ll notice a new format and schedule for Around the Net, the launch of our social media marketing campaign, and renewed opportunities for our job-alike groups, including data technicians, transition specialists, and career advisors, to regularly connect and collaborate. Many of our teachers will also participate in regional job-alike collaboration through professional learning communities (PLCs), and we hope to expand those PLC opportunities into additional program areas this year and in the future. Save the Dates! We’ve already set the dates for many of our consortium-wide events, so please mark your calendars:
As we begin this new year, I am genuinely excited to continue this important work with all of you. Adult Education has been one of the great loves of my professional life, and I continue to be inspired by what happens when we work together across programs, schools, and districts. The work we do truly changes life trajectories, not only for our students, but also for their families and our larger communities. I’m looking forward to all that we will accomplish together this year. Welcome back!  Our consortium hit the ground running this fall. At our recent retreat, we reviewed our Three-Year Plan and took stock of where we are and where we're headed as a region, and we finalized our AI Roadmap — a shared framework for how ETCN will use artificial intelligence thoughtfully and responsibly to support our students, teachers, and staff.
We're also celebrating new leadership across the network. Please join us in welcoming David Guzman as Director at Poway Adult School, Sara Kende as Assistant Principal at Escondido Adult School, Garry Dillard as Assistant Principal at Vista Adult School, and Kathleen Porter as Executive Director of the consortium. Each brings deep experience and a real commitment to adult education, and we're fortunate to have them stepping into these roles as we begin the year. To every student, teacher, counselor, and staff member across our six districts — thank you for the work you do. There's a lot ahead this year, and we're glad to be doing it together. If you tried to draw the ETCN team's weekly route on a map, you'd end up with something that looks less like a bus schedule and more like a living thing — expanding here, contracting there, always bending toward wherever the need is greatest that week.
That's by design. ETCN shared positions don't sit in one building. They move. Mornings and Evenings, Every Month For Matt, our Digital Learning and Professional Development Coordinator, the month begins with a promise: every school, morning and evening, at least once. VAS, PAS, and EAS anchor that rotation—the early shift, when teachers are still setting up their rooms, and the late shift, when adult learners are just arriving after a full day of work. Two very different buildings, sometimes in the same twenty-four hours. From there, the schedule opens up. RAS and SMAS get visits based on need, as does Palomar. A new EdTech rollout or update, a teacher or staff member who wants to think through an EdTech or AI tool, a site lead who says, "Can you come sit with us for an hour?" — those requests reshape the calendar, and that's the point. A Set Schedule That Still Flexes Julia, our Disability Coordinator, works from a set schedule — students and staff need to know when she'll be there. But a fixed schedule isn't a fixed ceiling. When a school's caseload spikes, when a difficult accommodation question surfaces, when a team needs her in the room rather than on email, Julia finds her way to that site. The schedule is the floor, not the limit. Partnership, One Building at a Time Laurie Zamora, our Partnership Coordinator, aims for every school every month — and beyond that, she comes whenever she's asked. A school leader with a community partner idea. A staff member with a question about a referral pathway. No request has to clear a threshold. If you want the meeting, Laurie will be there. Data, and the People Who Live In It Tan Stowell, our ETCN Data Coordinator, works the same way: a monthly presence at each school, plus an open door for any leader or staff member who wants to sit down and talk numbers. Tan also joins Data Dialogues when invited and meets with our data techs on a regular cadence—and again as needed, because data questions rarely arrive on schedule. The Common Thread Four roles, four rhythms, one operating principle: demand drives the calendar. The baseline is a monthly presence at every school. Everything past that baseline is yours to ask for. So ask. Email, call, grab someone in the hallway. If your site needs more of us this month, that's not an imposition on the schedule — it is the schedule. The problem we were trying to solve
Ask a teacher at any of our schools what's happening across the consortium, and you'll often get an honest answer: I know what's happening in my building. That's not a criticism — it's the nature of the work. Our schools sit across North San Diego County, serving adult learners on schedules that stretch from early morning into the evening. Staff are busy teaching. Information that lives in a meeting agenda, a hallway conversation, or someone's inbox tends to stay there. Around the Net exists to close that gap. What the newsletter is for The name is the mission. ETCN is a network, and a network only works if the strands are actually connected. Around the Net is how we make sure a teacher at one site knows what a teacher at another site is trying, what supports are available this month, what deadlines are coming, and who to call when they need something. We hold ourselves to a simple filter: does this help staff do their work, or help them get what they need? If yes, it belongs in the newsletter. If it's noise, it doesn't. Our aim is not to tell you everything happening across the consortium — it's to tell you what's important and what's actionable. That means you can expect:
Why we moved to bi-weekly We made a change: Around the Net now publishes every two weeks. The reason is timing. On a longer cycle, news arrived after it was useful — an opportunity had already closed, a deadline had already passed, a support had already gone unclaimed. A two-week rhythm keeps the newsletter close enough to real time to be genuinely helpful, while staying far enough apart that it never becomes one more thing clogging your inbox. Shorter, sharper, more often. That's the trade we chose. It's your newsletter Around the Net only reflects the whole network if the whole network contributes. If something is working at your site, if your team has a win worth sharing, or if there's a question you think other staff are quietly asking too — send it in. We'd rather run your story than write around it. We're all doing one job across many buildings. This is one way we stay one network. There are great stories happening every day across ETCN, and Around the Net is where we share them.
Around the Net highlights the students, educators, programs, partnerships, and accomplishments that make adult education such an important part of our communities. Here you will find stories from across the ETCN network, including:
From the Newsletter to the Web Many of the stories you will find here first appear in ETCN’s Around the Net newsletter. The Around the Net blog gives those stories a permanent home online, making it easier to discover what is happening throughout ETCN, revisit past highlights, and share the accomplishments of our students, staff, and programs with the broader community. Every program has a story. Every student has a journey. And throughout ETCN, there is always something worth sharing. Welcome to Around the Net. |
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