Everyone has a story.
Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person–someone who is well-known, influential, or successful, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
Early in 2016, Jason Rowland was “at the highest point in my career.”
The then principal of Airline High School, and the Bossier Parish School Board, had fought off a challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. The ACLU accused Jason and the school board of violating “legal mandates by invoking God, prayer, and Christianity in school publications and on school grounds.”
Jason, Airline, and Bossier Parish were thrust into the national spotlight. That led to Jason being invited to Washington, D.C., to sit on the Watchman of the Wall committee, where he shared with thousands of people his and Airline’s story.
“I come off this high, and there’s a superintendent job, and people are telling me, ‘You need to apply. You need to apply. You need to apply.” I listened to everybody except the one I should have listened to.”
Jason applied. He didn’t get the job.
“It was a very humbling time. I was broken professionally.”
Soon, Jason would also be broken personally and spiritually. He tore the achilles tendon in his left leg playing in a church league dodgeball game. That led to four (three in three months) surgeries. The active, former college baseball player was limited to riding a scooter.
“I had to rely on painkillers just to survive.”
But there was more.
“In ’18, there was another attack made on us, and then there were family attacks. Satan was attacking our family . . . . I was in a bad place. I was in a dark, dark place, Tony. But that’s where I had to go.”
That’s where Jason had to go to get to where he is today. Last month, Jason was sworn in as the Superintendent of Bossier Parish Schools. He was the school board’s unanimous choice. Quite a rise from his fall — a rise Jason credits to God.
“He was preparing me over the past seven years to be the leader he wanted me to be at the time when he needed me to be the leader, because he didn’t need a 46 year-old that thought he could walk on water. He needed a 53 year-old where now wisdom comes way before passion. People mean more to me now than ever before. Sharing my faith is the most important thing I can do.”
Jason told me his story over lunch at a place of his choosing, Cantina Laredo. However, Jason didn’t eat. Not even a chip. More on that, later.
“Route 1, Box 66” in Heflin, Louisiana, is where Jason proudly grew up. One of three children (brother Johnny is the school superintendent in Webster Parish), Jason learned early the meaning of hard work.
“We lived on an acre-and-a-half of an old hay field. In the summertime, Daddy would leave to go to work, and leave the lawn mower sitting out with the gas can. He would say he wanted (the hay field) mowed by the end of the day. That was a little Craftsman push mower. It took all day to mow that hayfield with a Craftsman push mower.”
At Sibley High School, Jason developed into a pretty good baseball and basketball player. Once he concentrated on one sport, it was obvious his dream of playing college baseball would come true. Jason went to Pearl River Community College in Mississippi for two years, then went to the University of Arkansas-Monticello for two years, before graduating the following year. But after growing up being “drug to church” twice on Sundays and every Wednesday night, Jason had lost his way.
“I went off to school and got distracted. Satan used baseball to distract me from my faith. (Baseball) became the priority.”
Until Jason saw a sign on a UAM dormitory, which read:
‘Main Event. 9:03.’
“One night, I went because I didn’t know what the Main Event was. It was a Christian devotional prayer time, led by one of the campus ministers.”
The minister took a personal interest in Jason.
“One night in my dorm room, he slept on the floor beside my bed to make sure I was saved.”
The minister, along with a young lady who would become Mrs. Rowland, found the lost Jason.
“The Lord was working all that together, because (Marla) is a strong Christian. She made me better. She held me accountable. She helped me grow, then allowed me to get in front of her — once we were married — to be the leader of our home and our church. The Lord placing her in my life was critical.”
So was the Lord placing Jason, a then 25 year-old with just two years of coaching experience, in Bossier City. In 1995, he was hired to be Airline’s head baseball coach.
“I knew about Airline. Growing up in Sibley, Airline was this iconic, majestic place. As you came across I-220, this massive complex would reveal itself between the interstate pillars and this open area. I always had this majestic ideology about Airline. ‘Man, those guys must be lucky to go to school there. What a privilege it would be to go to Airline.'”
Jason coached the Vikings six years, including an astounding 90 games his first year (freshman, junior varsity, and varsity teams.) But as time passed, Jason knew quality time with his family was passing as well.
“I saw the picture of my wife dragging two kids everywhere we went. The Lord began to lead me in a different direction.”
That direction pointed Jason toward school administration. From Airline, Jason became assistant principal at Benton High School. That led to positions as assistant principal and then principal at Airline, assistant superintendent of Bossier Parish schools, and now, superintendent.
“The educational piece has been an evolution. The focus has been to make a difference in people’s lives. The education is the conduit in how I do it, but the focal point is to make a difference and a change in people’s lives.”
In 2021, Jason made a change in his life, which leads me to why Jason didn’t eat during our visit.
Jason practices intermittent fasting. He has just one meal a day, in the evening. Jason fasts not so much for his physical health — he exercises “religiously”, and looks as fit and trim as a 30 year-old. But he fasts for his mental health.
“There are a lot of things in your mind you have to overcome to rationalize the idea that I’m going to eat one time and that’s it. Or to be able to sit in front of somebody as they eat something I would love to eat, but not have any desire to eat it. That piece has strengthened my mind to where it has really helped me in my ability to do my job. The pressures, the anxiety, the feeling of being overwhelmed, is real and prevalent.”
So is Jason’s belief that he doesn’t do his work alone.
“The reason I have the job is because HE chose me to do this job, and I am humbled by that. If HE has chosen me to do it, if he has brought me this far, he’s not just going to drop me off at the door and say, ‘You’ve got it. Good luck!’ I just trust him.”
By now, considering Jason oversees 20,000 students and 3,500 employees, I was certain he needed to get back to his office. So, I asked my final question. As always, what is it about his story that can be influential to others?
“If you want to really have a greater depth and understanding of life, first of all, a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way in my mind — I do not understand how people live in the world today and do not know the Lord . . . . If you want to see things happen in your life, study the word of God and he will show you what he’s doing in your life. The many nights crying about, ‘Why, Why, Why,’ well, now I know ‘Why?’ It just took seven years for me to see what HE was doing.”
Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com