[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[March 14, 1997]
[Pages 311-314]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Telephone Remarks to Lighthouse Elementary School in Jupiter, Florida
March 14, 1997

    Dr. Joan Kowal. Good morning, Mr. President.
    The President. Good morning, Joan.
    Dr. Kowal. And good morning--I know that the President is saying 
good morning to all the boys and girls here that are gathered at 
Lighthouse. We're very pleased to at least have you on the phone. And we 
wish you were here in person, and we know you do, too.
    The President. Oh, I really wish I were there. I wanted so much to 
come and visit because I've heard so much about the school. And I know 
about the problem of growth and crowding in Florida, and I wanted to use 
the work you're doing there as a strong argument for passing this 
program in Congress to help school districts like this one and 
throughout the State of Florida to do the building they need to do.
    And I'm very grateful--and I also wanted to thank all the students 
and the educators for showing up. I know the student body president 
there, Marcy Haylett--I've been told this is her birthday. I hope you 
will tell her happy birthday for me.
    Dr. Kowal. I will tell you she also has the title of president. I 
was going to get to introduce that president this morning. And she is, 
indeed, celebrating an 11th birthday at this time. And I think one of 
the things--we know you didn't choose Lighthouse quite by accident. When 
we think of the symbol of a lighthouse and the fact that what it offers 
is a real symbol of hope on the horizon and helps navigators, and we 
know that one of the things that as you're looking for growth, that it's 
a real sense of hope for us. And we're very pleased that you've 
recognized the challenge here as we talk about rebuilding America's 
schools.
    Can you tell us just a little bit more--and let me just say, Marcy 
wants to--she had a long introduction here, but I'm going to ask her 
just to say a couple of words out of her introduction, because she 
wanted the opportunity to do that. Is that okay?
    The President. Sure, I want to hear her.
    Marcy Haylett. Hey, Mr. President. It is an honor and a privilege to 
have the 42d President to come to Lighthouse Elementary School to speak 
to us and to help us to solve our problem of overcrowded schools.
    The President. Thank you, Marcy.
    Ms. Haylett. You're welcome.
    The President. And happy birthday again.
    Ms. Haylett. Thank you.

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    The President. Hope you have a great day.
    Ms. Haylett. Hope you feel better.
    The President. Oh, I'll feel better, and I hope I get to come and 
visit you later, okay?
    Ms. Haylett. Okay.
    The President. That's great.
    Dr. Kowal. Mr. President, can you give us a few words--you are now 
on loudspeaker, and let me just mention that standing here with me is 
Commissioner Brogan, and he's grabbing the phone out of my hand. But 
I'll tell you what, he is one of the most visible commissioners we've 
had here in Florida. He just wants to say howdy.
    The President. Hello, Frank.
    Commissioner Frank Brogan. Mr. President, how are you?
    The President. I'm great. I heard you and Joan talking on the 
television a few moments ago. It was very good, and I appreciate what 
you had to say.
    Commissioner Brogan. Well, Mr. President, we are certainly sorry to 
hear about your accident. The good news is they'll have to give you two 
strokes a side in the future, I suppose.
    The President. Right. I saw Greg Norman this morning; I told him my 
handicap is going up by the minute.
    Commissioner Brogan. Well, we are disappointed, as I'm sure you're 
well aware, but I told all of the wonderful children and teachers and 
parents here at Lighthouse Elementary that I'm sure you're considerably 
more disappointed, having had the accident and not being able to visit 
this great school.
    The President. I'm so disappointed because I really looked forward 
to coming. As soon as I heard about the school and how the principal, 
Una Hukill, and all the teachers were working hard to cope with the 
growth, and I really wanted to come there because I thought that 
Lighthouse would be a symbol of what we need to do, of the best in our 
education system and how we need to respond to the growth issue.
    We have more young people in school today than ever before in the 
history of America, and we don't have enough facilities. And in many 
places, the facilities that are there are deteriorating. And what my 
proposal would do is simply say to the local community, if you're out 
there trying to do your part to build or repair facilities, we want the 
National Government to put some money aside, to lower the interest rates 
so that you can get more money for building for less effort as long as 
you're making an appropriate effort on your own.
    It's a way of using our national funds, which are more limited, to 
leverage far more money all across America to help deal with this growth 
issue. And I'm looking forward to passing it, and I just want to 
encourage everyone there to talk to the Members of Congress and the 
Senators from Florida and ask them to support this.
    Commissioner Brogan. Well, Mr. President, we appreciate that. And 
I've spoken personally with both Senator Graham and Senator Mack, who 
obviously recognize some of the overcrowding that we're facing in what 
we believe is a very special State, with 2.3 million schoolchildren who 
come to us not just from around the country but all over the world. And 
we believe that facilities is an issue for both the local and the State 
government. But we also believe because of our special circumstances, as 
do Senators Mack and Graham, that we need some special consideration 
from the Federal level.
    Your proposed visit here today has really made a statement. We're 
sorry that you couldn't be here personally, but believe me, it has made 
a statement. And we're working in Tallahassee right now, in the 
legislative session, drawing some attention to this issue of 
overcrowding. They're working on it at the local level. And we thank you 
for bringing some national attention to a very special State with very 
special problems.
    The President. Thank you. I was glad to do it. I talked to 
Congressman Foley today--he came by the hospital to see me--I was glad 
to see him. And I think if we can get all the legislators from Florida 
behind this in Washington, we've got a good chance to pass the program.
    Commissioner Brogan. Well, you take care of yourself. I had surgery 
similar to that when I was a little bit younger, and I seemed to have 
come through it. I run every day, and I know you'll be back on the golf 
course very soon.
    The President. I want to be back running soon, and that's 
encouraging. And again, I want to thank Joan Kowal and all the people 
from the school there. Please forgive me for not being there, and give 
me a raincheck. I can't wait to see you, and believe me, you've done a 
lot of good for this program today, just by the national publicity 
you've achieved. Perhaps you'll

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even get more, in addition--than I heard that you would have had 
otherwise.
    Commissioner Brogan. Well, that's very possible. You know how these 
things work. I'm going to turn, very quickly, the telephone over to the 
chairman of the school board here in Palm Beach County, and also the 
principal, because I know they want to say a quick ``hello'' and ``get 
well soon'' to you, Mr. President.
    Thank you. Take care of yourself. Fly safely.
    Paulette Burdick. Good morning, President. My name's Paulette 
Burdick from the school board.
    The President. Good morning.
    Ms. Burdick. Well, we certainly wish you well. We're sorry that 
you're not here, but all the children wish you a speedy recovery. 
They're all busy addressing and making get-well cards for you.
    The President. Oh, great.
    Ms. Burdick. And we thank you for bringing a national recognition to 
the fact of school overcrowding. I've just returned from Tallahassee, 
and your visit down here to south Florida certainly has increased the 
dialog up in Tallahassee and also at our local level. And certainly, on 
behalf of the nearly 135,000 students in Palm Beach County, we do want 
to extend another invitation to come back to our glorious county.
    The President. Thank you very much. I'll try to do it without 
incident next time. [Laughter]
    Ms. Burdick. Well, okay. Thank you. I'm going to turn you over to 
our wonderful principal here, Ms. Hukill.
    Ms. Una Hukill. Good morning, Mr. President. This is Una Hukill, the 
principal of Lighthouse Elementary. And on behalf of all of our students 
and our staff and our parents, we wish you a very, very speedy recovery. 
All of our thoughts and prayers are certainly with you this morning.
    The President. Thank you. Thank you for all the effort you put into 
this visit. I'm so sorry I can't be there. I'm looking at the children 
on television now. They look wonderful. And I hope I get a chance to 
visit with you in the future.
    Ms. Hukill. Well, I truly want to extend that offer to you. Anytime 
that you happen to be anywhere near our area, our door is always open 
and welcome to you, and any impromptu time, we would be happy to have 
you here with us.
    The President. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Hukill. And have a very speedy recovery, and you'll be receiving 
packages from us very soon.
    The President. I can't wait. I'll need it.
    Ms. Hukill. I need to just tell you that we have some wonderful 
lemon cake and your Diet Coke in sterling silver waiting for you, and 
we'll keep it.
    The President.  Just save them all. I'll be there.
    Ms. Hukill. We'll save it. We're hoping that we'll be able to just 
put it on hold for a very brief time.
    The President. Hi, kids. I can see them waving on the television. 
That's great.
    Ms. Hukill. Let me give this to Superintendent Kowal who will also 
introduce to you Congressman Mark Foley. Okay, I guess he just spoke at 
you. I'll give you back to the superintendent. Thank you so much, and 
for a speedy recovery.
    The President. Thank you. Goodbye.
    Dr. Kowal. One more time we want to let Marcy, who introduced you, 
say goodbye. We really appreciate--I know when you are in pain it's 
sometimes hard to have a smile on your face, but everybody tells us you 
do right now.
    The President. Thank you. I'm doing fine.
    Dr. Kowal. That's really good. Just reechoing what the commissioner 
said, we have a school board that has been committed to doing the right 
things for children in providing the very best in teaching and learning. 
And I know that you would have liked to have seen that, classroom to 
classroom. But you're certainly here in our spirits.
    I'm going to let President Haylett say goodbye to you. Okay? Hello?
    The President. Yes, I can hear you.
    Ms. Haylett. Hi, hope you feel better.
    The President. Thank you, Marcy. I'll feel better. And you tell all 
your classmates that I'm sorry I missed them, and I thank them for their 
good wishes, okay?
    Ms. Haylett. Okay. Hope to see you next Friday in Washington.
    The President. Oh, great. I'd like that.

Note: The President spoke at 9:06 a.m. from Air Force One. The President 
canceled his scheduled visit to the school after injuring his knee 
during a visit to professional golfer Greg Norman's residence on the 
evening of March 13. The following persons participated in the telephone 
conversation: Joan P. Kowal, superintendent, Palm Beach

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County schools; Florida Commissioner of Education Frank Brogan; Marcy 
Haylett, student body president, and Una Hukill, principal, Lighthouse 
Elementary School; and Paulette Burdick, chair, Palm Beach County School 
Board.