Sanders Announces the August Face of Arkansas

CAVE CITY, Ark. - Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders today announced the ninth installment of Faces of Arkansas, a monthly series highlighting Arkansans whose portraits and stories are displayed at the entrance to the Governor's office as a reminder of who the Governor and her team serve every day: the people of Arkansas. The series was launched to keep the focus of public service rooted in the individuals and communities that make the state what it is.

Each month, a different Arkansan is featured through a written profile, portrait photography, and a short video, with their framed photo hanging inside the Capitol. Selections are based on individuals who make Arkansas function - whether by serving as the heartbeat of their local communities, overcoming obstacles to achieve their dreams, or playing an essential role in their industry.

This installment features Carlee Qualls, a fifth-grade English Language Arts teacher at Cave City Elementary, who brings classroom lessons to life through unforgettable experiences that leave a lasting impact on her students.

Carlee Qualls, fifth-grade English Language Arts teacher at Cave City Elementary. Photo credit: Will Newton.

Carlee Qualls - A Walk Through History

On an October afternoon in Cave City, something unusual is happening. Fifth graders wander through colonial America, bringing words on a page to real life.

What began as inspiration from a student describing a ghost tour during a trip to Washington, D.C., quickly became a spectacle bringing the community together. Qualls started looking around town differently, and piece by piece, Drifters Coffee becomes a Boston tavern where founding fathers meet to discuss their plan to freedom. The cave that gave the town its name becomes part of the story. The Headless Horseman joins students for lunch in the park. Molly Pitcher loads cannons outside the Pinkston House while local business owners, parents, and volunteers step into history alongside students. In Cave City, that's simply what neighbors do. For fifth-grade English Language Arts teacher Carlee Qualls, that's exactly the point.

"I feel like, yes, kids are going to remember their teachers," she said. "But I feel like the memories when you create those experiences for them that are out of the ordinary and kind of absurd-those memories are going to last longer than what I taught them in my classroom on the day-to-day basis."

Nestled in the rolling hills of north Arkansas, Cave City is perhaps best known across the country for its world-famous watermelons. Every summer, thousands of visitors travel from across the nation-and even the world-to attend Cave City Watermelon Festival, celebrating the crop that helped put the small town on the map. But if you ask the people who live there what makes the community special, they'll likely point somewhere else: to those willing to answer the phone whenever someone needs help.

"Whenever we need something," Qualls said, "all we have to do is make a few phone calls."

When her sister-in-law began raising money to build an inclusive playground after her son was born with spina bifida, Qualls volunteered alongside others at the Watermelon Festival, serving slices of Cave City's finest to help raise funds. Today, families across the community enjoy a playground designed so every child has a place to play.

That same spirit has carried Cave City through difficult seasons as well. After devastating tornadoes swept through north Arkansas in March 2025, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders traveled to the city to survey the damage firsthand, later securing disaster assistance and recovery funding to help families rebuild. Investments through the Arkansas Economic Development Commission have continued strengthening infrastructure and public spaces across communities like Cave City, reinforcing what residents have always known: small towns are worth investing in because of the people who call them home.

For Qualls, there was never much question where she wanted to build her own life. Early in her career, she taught in a large school district. While it offered opportunities, there was a puzzle piece always missing. She knew she wanted her son to experience the same close-knit community feel that she grew up with. Her husband, a Cave City native, already understood what made the town different. So they moved.

Today, Qualls wears more hats than most realize. She teaches fifth-grade English Language Arts, but also serves as preschool director, coordinates English as a second language services for the district, and coaches peewee basketball, filling whatever role her students and community need next.

"I'm excited to represent teachers in Arkansas," she said, "especially in small school districts that wear many different hats. I'm just one of many."

Teaching now comes easier to her, but it wasn't always that way. "My first few years," she says laughing, "I think with all teachers, you think, 'What did I just get myself into?'" Fresh out of college, she stayed at school until six o'clock most evenings, replaying every lesson in her head. What went wrong? How could she make tomorrow better? Experienced teachers stepped up to help.

"With the help of mentorship from other teachers in my school district, and really just diving in deeper and learning how to teach kids and how to make learning fun, I really started thinking, 'Yeah, I made the right decision. This is where I'm supposed to be.'"

Sixteen years later, she still reflects after every lesson, walking through why she is teaching each item, if it's making an impact, and diving deep into data on her students' progress. The main difference now from her early career years is taking a step back, looking at students' interests, and incorporating that into her instruction to make a bigger impact.

"Even sixteen years later of teaching, I don't know everything," she said. "I'll talk to my teammates and we'll figure things out. Teaching really has to be a team."

Her willingness to reflect continues to grow stronger as Arkansas is transforming the education system. Since Governor Sanders signed Arkansas LEARNS into law, teachers have greater access to student performance data throughout the school year, helping identify strengths, close learning gaps, and adjust instruction in real time. Combined with deploying over 120 literacy coaches and investing in teacher excellence, the LEARNS Act is producing improved results across the state.

In June, Arkansas students posted over a 20% increase in proficiency across every grade and every subject on the ATLAS exam. Kindergarten through second-grade literacy improved by more than 30%, third-grade literacy rose by nearly 20%, and approximately 40,000 fewer students scored at the lowest achievement level than just three years ago. Arkansas is quickly becoming a national blueprint for education reform and improving student outcomes.

Qualls sees those changes every day inside her classroom. "There's been a bigger push on really diving deep into data and seeing exactly where our kids are," she said. "Then looking at that and asking, 'What can we do? How can we make this better?' We owe that to our kids to constantly be trying to help them do better and succeed." She also knows the data is just the beginning of the story.

Whether she's teaching literature, grammar, or geography, Qualls believes learning should be engaging, sticking for years to come. But perhaps nowhere is that philosophy more evident than reading. "I know it's kind of cliché to say, but reading can really take you places," she said.

Every year, she challenges students to read widely and often, and soon they begin running into her classroom saying, "Did you know this? Look what I learned!" That's a moment that's truly rewarding to an educator, knowing books and lessons are doing exactly what they're meant to. Beyond providing information, books give students confidence. Some of Qualls' favorite memories involve students who rarely spoke in class but suddenly found their voices through writing, who once avoided attention began sharing ideas with confidence through a newly found avenue to express themselves.

"If they can find their voice, they'll be able to succeed in so many different areas," Qualls said.

That's what success looks like for Qualls. A student who finally found confidence through a story, the teammate who stayed after school to help another teacher, and community members turning an ordinary history lesson into an unforgettable experience.

Carlee Qualls, fifth-grade English Language Arts teacher at Cave City Elementary. Photo credit: Will Newton.
Carlee Qualls, fifth-grade English Language Arts teacher at Cave City Elementary. Photo credit: Will Newton.

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