Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) delivered remarks at the kickoff ceremony to begin construction on a new Arkansas School for the Deaf and Blind.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning. Please rise, and we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance, or the National Anthem.
00:07Excuse me.
00:08She does pledge first.
00:09Oh, yeah. Pledge first?
00:10This is actually the National Anthem first.
00:12Go ahead.
00:13You're going to start with the National Anthem?
00:14Yes.
00:21So you don't hold the microphone, it's just there.
00:23Okay, there you go.
00:24You're good.
00:26Oh, say can you see
00:32By the dawn's early light
00:39What so proudly we hailed
00:44At the twilight's last gleaming
00:49Whose broad stripes and bright stars
00:54Through the perilous fight
00:59O'er the ramparts we watched
01:04Were so gallantly streaming
01:09And the rocket's red glare
01:14The bombs bursting in air
01:18Gave proof through the night
01:22That our flag was still there
01:27Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
01:37For the land of the free
01:42And the home of the brave
01:58Can I start?
02:00Yes.
02:01I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
02:09and to the republic for which it stands,
02:12one nation, under God, indivisible,
02:16with liberty and justice for all.
02:19Good job.
02:22Way to go.
02:53Good morning.
03:05Thank you all so much for taking time today to join us.
03:08What a celebration.
03:10It's been a long time coming,
03:11and we're so excited to have this honor to demo today
03:15in celebration of our new building.
03:17We are so grateful to our governor
03:21for providing the ability for us to have a new building.
03:25So many of our students are dealing with buildings in disrepair,
03:29and we are just so grateful to be able to start a new chapter
03:33in the history of education for deaf and blind students
03:37across Arkansas.
03:39Without further ado,
03:40I'd like to introduce our chairman of the board of trustees,
03:44Mr. Robert Fagan.
03:51Thank you very much, Ms. Walsh.
03:53It's a beautiful day in Arkansas, isn't it?
03:56Yes.
03:58So if it's okay with you guys,
04:01I'd like to kind of speak to the governor for a minute.
04:04Governor, two Valentine's Days ago,
04:07you gave the students of Arkansas who are deaf and who are blind a gift,
04:15not only a gift of monetary, but a gift of a plan, of a vision,
04:22no pun intended.
04:26And after 13 months later,
04:28we are now starting to see these plans and this dream, this vision,
04:33come true.
04:35So on behalf of the board of trustees, Dr. John McAllister,
04:40Ms. Carrie Smith, Mr. Jerry Ballou, Mr. Philip Hale, and Ms. Holly Mott,
04:47we thank you very much for your vision and your dream
04:53of a state-of-the-art facility for blind and visually impaired students
04:57and deaf students in the state of Arkansas.
05:00So, governor, again, on behalf of the board of trustees,
05:03thank you so much.
05:27Hello everybody and good morning.
05:29I want to welcome everyone today to the Arkansas School for the Deaf campus
05:32and I want to give a little bit about my backstory. I actually grew up in the
05:36dorms and I lived right over here and my father came to the Votek building and we
05:42actually had a body shop at that time, body repair, painting, and getting
05:47everything fixed, brake pads, all that sort of stuff. And my mother added dining room
05:53tables to the school as well and in our carpentry class we did that. It was an
05:58amazing experience back in the day when I was a student here. And so now this
06:03building is going to be demolished, but that's okay. We know that the history
06:07still stands and that our deaf community still supports us and we're going to
06:11grow and continue to improve our education for deaf students. Wow, it is
06:16fantastic. Thank you so much to the governor as well as our superintendent
06:20for all the support they've given to us and the deaf community and all the
06:24updating and renovation they've done. We are extremely appreciative of all the
06:29growth and the expansion that the school is doing for our deaf community. We know
06:33that this dream is coming and we are excited to see it fulfilled. Thank you
06:37all. Thank you. And now introducing Secretary of Education Boliva.
06:43So I'm gonna do my best here. Good morning. Did I get that right? You have to
06:59back me up. So my name is Jacob Boliva.
07:07Okay, I took a couple lessons to prepare for today. So as Mr. Boliva stated, my
07:15name is Jacob Boliva. I'm the Secretary of Education and I get the great
07:19responsibility to work with the young scholars all over the state. So to the
07:24students that are here today, this is why we do what we do to support you and make
07:30sure that you have the right resources and learning environment to help you
07:33succeed in your goals in life. About three years ago, Governor Sanders became
07:40governor and asked you, actually just over two and a half, going on three years,
07:43asked me to join her in improving education in the state. And we worked on
07:47some bold reform initiatives like Arkansas Learns. We're working on
07:51initiatives called Arkansas Access. And when she gave us that commitment or that
07:57charge, it was to make sure that every student in this state is on a path to be
08:03successful. And when she said every student, she meant every student,
08:07including the students that attend the school right here that we're sitting on
08:11in this campus today. So we went around the whole state and stored schools all
08:16over and we even toured this school and we work with school districts to make
08:20sure that they have the right resources, have all the right best teachers, the
08:24best leaders, working with students every each and every single day. And when we
08:28toured this school, it was not a different conversation. We came back and
08:31said it's time to make a large investment. And she was able to work
08:35with the legislature, work with the leadership here, with the board, and said
08:39we're going to make sure that we make this campus state-of-the-art. And not
08:45only just the showcase flagship campus for students in the state of Arkansas,
08:49when we do this, we're going to do it so well that every other state is going to
08:54be jealous of what we're creating here and want to come and see the magic
08:58that's happening. So we're very excited to be on this journey along with you to
09:03lead up to this monumental event where action is starting to gonna take place.
09:08So we wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't support of the people in the
09:12school, the community, the legislature, and most importantly Governor Sanders who I
09:17have the privilege of introducing up as our next keynote speaker who came here
09:22in person because this is so important to her to make sure that we get this
09:25right. So please, please, please join me in welcoming our 47th governor of the
09:30state of Arkansas, Ms. Governor Sanders.
09:40Good morning. I'm not going to attempt to take on what Jacob did. I'm going to leave
09:50it to you, the expert to interpret for me this morning, but I want to say thank
09:55you so much for joining us and I want to give a special thank you to Secretary
10:01Oliva who's doing a fabulous job making sure that every student in the state of
10:06Arkansas has access to a quality education. I also want to thank and
10:11welcome Superintendent Nicole Walsh who has not been here that long but has
10:17already hit the ground running and is doing a fabulous job leading here as
10:22well as Board Chairman Robert Fagan who I've had the opportunity to get to know
10:27over the past couple of years and not only a tremendous leader but what I
10:33really love is that he tells it just like he sees it and doesn't hold back in
10:39the slightest bit and I think it's pretty refreshing to have him leading
10:45the effort and doing such a fabulous job and also to Jerry Ballew who has
10:50such an amazing story here at this historic institution and is doing a
10:57great job on the board and I want to thank all of our board members for the
11:01dedication that they have to ensuring that every single student here is
11:06getting the education not only that they need but that they deserve. We also have
11:11a number of our state legislators that are here today. I know I saw Speaker
11:15Evans who has been instrumental in the reason that we are all here today and so
11:21a special thank you to him as well as all of the members of the legislature
11:25who have worked so closely with us to ensure that we have the ability to be
11:31here but the most important people that we are here to celebrate and recognize
11:36that make this place so unbelievably special are our teachers, our parents and
11:41of course our students. We were lucky enough to have a group of students from
11:47the third through sixth grade at the Capitol this week to sing in the rotunda
11:51and it was a perfect reminder of why this community is so unbelievably
11:57important to the state of Arkansas and today is an enormous day for this campus
12:02for every blind and deaf Arkansan and for our entire state. Back in late 2023 I
12:10toured this school for my first time as the governor. We talked with some great
12:14educators. We saw students thriving in an inclusive accessible setting and we heard
12:21from alumni and parents who have so many great memories and feelings toward this
12:25historic institution but I also saw the other side of the school that day. The
12:31hundred-year-old buildings, the crumbling walls, the leaky ceilings and the drafty
12:37halls. It became clear that day that Arkansas had made a commitment to our
12:42blind and deaf kids and we weren't living up to that promise so we got to
12:47work right after that tapping into this amazing community that supports this
12:52historic establishment and just over a year ago we announced a generational
12:57investment in this campus and today that project officially begins and this
13:04project sends a message that Arkansas supports every student of every
13:10background in the state. Through the planning process I've gotten in touch
13:15with some of the tireless advocates who have pushed for today for many years. One
13:20of them is Kerry Smith whose son Griffin has been a student at the school for the
13:24blind and visually impaired since he was two and a half years old. Like most
13:29everyone else Kerry wants this project started as quickly as possible but she
13:34also appreciates how intentional the planning process has been. We've had
13:40blind and deaf architects, we've even included the kids in the planning
13:45process as well because we want them to have a say in a place that many of them
13:51refer to as their second home. In the meantime we've already started to make
13:56major changes here on the campus. We've improved the safety to keep the kids
14:01safe and secure. We've started sharing services between blind and deaf students
14:07and blind and deaf kids have started eating meals together, practicing
14:11wrestling together and even competed in an inaugural turkey trot together this
14:16fall which we're very proud of. I've also gotten to know Philip Powell who like
14:22Kerry serves on the school's board. In his home state of Alabama Philip attended
14:27public schools where it was rare for him to run into other deaf kids but here in
14:32Arkansas he sees an opportunity to not just build better facilities for
14:37Arkansas's blind and deaf students but to create as he puts it a shining light
14:41on the hill. Thousands of Arkansans drive by this campus every day and they look
14:48up from Markham and see the hundred-year-old buildings. He wants
14:52those people instead to look up and see a beacon. He said he wants other Arkansas
14:57parents to see the school and be jealous that they can't send their kids there
15:02and that's what we want to Philip. That's the vision but now it's time to get to
15:08work. It's time to get started building this school and delivering on Arkansas's
15:13promise to its deaf and blind students. Once again thank you to all of those
15:18who have played such a big role in this project. We would never be here if it
15:23weren't for you and your commitment to these kids and to this community. This is
15:28a great day of celebration in Arkansas and I'm so honored and proud that we get
15:33to share it with all of you. Thank you for the work you're doing and let's get
15:36this project started and finished so that our kids get the great education
15:41they deserve. Thank you so much for being here.
15:50Are you ready to tear it down? You ready? Okay so we're