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Maria Ott is superintendent of Rowland Unified School District.

Early on in our work with Ball, a team from Rowland that included representatives from our administration, teaching staff, and teacher’s union went to Chicago to learn about and participate in the Ball process. At that time, we were talking about how to engage a broader audience in the district. I remember thinking that the work with Ball wasn’t going to be powerful and transformative unless there was a partnership with the teachers from the very beginning. We needed to bring everyone in to hear their voices, especially because what we perhaps thought their voice was, wasn’t really what was inside their head or their heart.

People felt professional in the Chicago meetings which began to break down the barriers that can sometimes be artificially created between the administration and teachers. If we’re going to empower ourselves to change teaching and learning, then yes, we have our roles, but we have to remove those barriers so we can discuss what’s going on with kids, and so we can release the potential of everyone in the system.

I think the protocols that Ball set up for the conversations allowed everyone to speak. The discussions weren’t top down directed. Instead, Ball was very skilled at constructing conversation questions that would draw people in. I learned personally from that because I realized that having a conversation wasn’t just about posing a topic. It was about bringing everyone into the discussion and being patient.

The conversations we had in Chicago were very colleague to colleague. I think people were surprised by that, especially the administrators who heard from people they didn’t necessarily expect to speak up. I also never felt like I was the superintendent, though I know you can never divest yourself of the title. It follows you whatever you do, and the responsibility is always on your shoulders. But the conversations never felt like the superintendent versus everyone else.

This work with Ball is not about imposing a packaged program on the district. Rather, it’s about having someone respecting who we are and what our history is, and respecting that enough to help us engage in conversation to look at ourselves, to figure out what our strengths are, what our potential is, and what our aspirations as a school district are. Then, drawing all of that out of us, and helping us to have conversations so that artificial barriers won’t prevent honest dialogue, debate, and conversation.

That to me has been a powerful transformation that’s come from this Ball work. I think it’s happened organically, because I can’t really identify a moment in time when the transformation occurred, but the way we work is different, and the way we talk to each other is different.

Still, this work with the Ball Foundation has been a risk for all of us. At times we get criticized because the work doesn’t seem to move fast enough or because it’s so time intensive. People say, “It takes so long. When are we going to get where we’re going?” The Ball Foundation staff has always pushed back and said, “You need to do it right.” Realizing the importance of carving time out for your own growth is something that evolves.

I do hope the Ball Foundation understands how important it is to tell this story about Rowland and what transpired here, so that someone down the road who wants to do something isn’t afraid to try things. I think the story will be about getting people to look at themselves, and to grow their development within their organization rather than importing it in from the outside. Ball has never imported anything in as a program. Instead, they have imported for us how to do the work. It’s the empowerment of the system that will enable us to fly.

I feel fortunate to be a part of the transformation, and to be able to facilitate it, and to hold the trust that this is good for the organization, for the system, for what we’re emerging to be.

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