001hey oh sorry i usually start out quiet trying to test the audio and then i just go alright hey my name is steve watson i'm the maricopa county school superintendent and it is my honor to be here uh so one of my responsibilities one of the great things i get to do uh is to help swear in our governing board members and so here in maricopa county we have an elected treasurer we have a sheriff we have a county assessor i'm the education guy and i won't go into all the details of the responsibilities of my office but needless to say one of those is just working with and supporting our governing board members and it's just an honor for me to be here uh you know kovid has created just some challenging circumstances normally
002what we do is we get together in my office at central and indian school and we just bring people in large groups and swear them in and because of actually starting a few years ago shane he's got a camera in the background he's with me in my office he's our government relations representative and max some of you might know or will get to know he's in charge of elections and bond and override and governing board elections but so shane had the idea a few years ago hey why don't we take this on the road and go out to wickenburg and go out to buckeye and go out to queen creek in chandler and gilbert and swear do some swearing things so we could have more family be available and i didn't know at the time
003which we we did do but i didn't know at the time it would prepare us for an era of covet 19 when we were doing the majority of our districts on the road and so yesterday we were in aguila if you don't know where aguila is if you are headed to vegas and you hit wickenburg instead of going north to vegas you keep going west almost to the county line with la paz county there's a district called aguila out there with about 180 kids and then we took some back roads down to buckeye and did some swearing in a buckeye and then i went home to almost the cave creek area and then today we're out here and so we're putting miles on the car and i wouldn't have it any other way because this
004is just a lot of fun and it's great to be able to celebrate our governing board members and before we get to the actual swearing-in the oath of office i do want to just take this time to just talk about what it is to be a governing board member people when we think of elected officials we think of presidents and congressmen and women and town councils and cities councils but we don't often think about school boards and our school board members are constitutionally elected officials and that's a pretty powerful word you know we talk about kind of the constitution and constitutionally elected and that's that's pretty cool to think about and i frequently get calls on the phone saying hey you're the county superintendent get rid of a school board member in district x and
005i say i can't do that because they have a responsibility to their constituents they are constitutionally elected or occasionally appointed officials who have a responsibility to their community and they get you get a job performance review every four years and that's that's just a pretty awesome thing to think about and then lastly i'll say i was at an event we had many elected officials there we had a member of congress we had several county-wide elected officials and some state legislators and we gathered all the elected officials afterward for a photograph and three of my good friends who were school board members where i used to teach and also where my kids attended were also in this meeting and before the photo was taken i said hey we need to have those three come into this
006picture because they are elected officials and in many times they've received more votes than a city councilman or more votes than a town councilman or even sometimes we're state legislature because we have some really large districts here in maricopa county and so afterward i just talked to the person who was hosting the event i said hey when we do this again i don't want you to forget our school board members because they are constitutionally elected and so i've been spreading the good news i mean you know the people in this room know this um but i just want to let you know that i'm trying to spread that that news as well and we do we have to i think more so than ever during covet 19 we've realized how important it is to um
007elect good people to our school board and i'm grateful to be in a room with five of you right now all right and with that i'd like to oh we are going to do this one at a time we've been doing this um could i have uh max do you have the oaths or the certificates with you i'll take those thank you shane all right let's start with michelle since a for anderson you can stand right there all right and if you'll raise your hand and repeat after me and now i'm going to say my name but you'll just say your name okay just it's okay it can get a little nerve-wracking at times and then just repeat after me and hold that mic nice and close okay do you want to test it out
008testing perfect all right i steve watson i'm michelle anderson do solemnly swear you solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states i will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution and laws of the state of arizona in the constitutional laws of the state of arizona that i will bear true faith will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and defend them against all enemies and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic and that i will faithfully and then i will faithfully and impartially and partially discharge the duties charge the duties of governing board member governing board member of the higley unified school district number 60 of the higley unified school district number 60. according to the best of
009my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me god oh help me god congratulations and here is your certificate and we'll um we'll call you up in just another minute to take a photo is that okay all right thank you oh christina you've done this before 12 that's a good number it's a good number all right if you want to raise your right hand and repeat after me i'm steve watson hi christina ruiz you solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that it will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution and laws of the state of arizona and the constitution laws of the state of arizona that i will bear true faith that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and defend
010them against all enemies and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic and that i will faithfully and faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of governing board member governing board member of the higley unified school district number 60 of the higley unified school district number 60. according to the best of my abilities according to the best of my abilities so help me god so help me god all right congratulations and i'll i'll give you your certificate as well and we'll we'll do another photo in just a minute is that okay thank you all right all right tiffany congratulations all right if you'll raise your right hand and repeat after me oh you you ready yeah okay hi steve watson hi tiffany schultz do you solemnly swear do solemnly swear that i will
011support the constitution of the united states that i will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution and laws of the state of arizona and the constitution and laws of the state of arizona that i will bear true faith that i will bear truth true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and defend them against all enemies and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic born and domestic and that it will faithfully end impartially and i will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties start discharge the duties of governing board member governing board member of the higley unified school district number 60 of the higley unified school district number 60. according to the best of my abilities so help me god so help me god all right congratulations thank
012you and actually tiffany if you'll stay up here and we'll just have all three governing board members come up and if you want to bring your certificates that's great and anyone who wants to take a photo now's the time and then you and i will jump in in just a minute yeah actually the best way to do it is if you open it and fold the top back over and just hold it yeah with two hands on the sides laughs all right let's let's hop in there and you guys can stay in the middle and we'll we'll go on the two sides here and after having a very tight jacket yesterday i hadn't worn it in a few months i i want more war one today with a little bit more space in it all
013right congratulations that is the the end of our swearing-in ceremony and we'd just like to invite any anybody with families who want to come and get a picture with their newly minted elected official um that'd be and i'm not talking about myself to come up and do that you