(CLAREMORE) RSU Public TV in partnership with Sequoyah Public Schools (Rogers County) and other regional public-school districts will begin airing free, locally produced learning opportunities April 7, 9 a.m., to thousands of stay-at-home students.
Due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases across Oklahoma, normal public-school class schedules have been cancelled and school buildings closed. RSUTV@HomeLearning, a first-ever public-school TV programming partnership, will be available on RSU TV 35.1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday through May 15th.
The State Board of Education on March 25 asked public schools across the state to implement Distance Learning Plans in order to complete the 2019-2020 school year. Sequoyah serves 1,280 PreK-12 students. It is one of Rogers County’s nine public school districts.
Sequoyah Superintendent Dr. Terry Saul reached out to RSU Public TV last week as he and his staff began designing the district’s Distance Learning action plan.
“The first thing that came to mind was all the parents and students who do not have unlimited access to data plans and the Internet; but, RSU TV is free and can be accessed by almost everyone regardless of where they live or their economic status,” Saul says.
“Sequoyah Public School analyzed all possible resources in our area to connect and provide learning experiences to our students and families, which led us to RSU-TV. We know from data the vast majority of our homes have a TV and that RSU-TV is available for FREE,” Saul says. “[We] will provide learning opportunities and experiences with an emphasis on enrichment teaching and presentations. Our goal is to keep our students engaged in learning and continue our vision of instilling the love of learning.
“We will have a blended continuous learning plan with a combination of learning resources for parents, direct instruction via an online platform and RSU-TV. We will continue to make announcements to our community on our Sequoyah FaceBook page and our school website www.sequoyaheagles.net,” Saul continued.
“We feel like RSU TV is the best option for us to reach a maximum number of households with the least amount of stress on our families. RSU TV also gives us a chance to showcase our amazing teachers to the community! We believe our students are going to love seeing our teachers on RSU-TV!”
RSU Public TV General Manager Royal Aills says, “We are excited to be a trusted communication and educational solution in this unprecedented challenge.”
“One of the things we know is, in times like these, our mission to serve the public is paramount. Like public schools, public TV means working together for the greater good of our students, families and communities,” Aills says.
Aills says, “We know that students in rural parts of the state don’t have high speed internet. So, the only way to reach 100% of them is broadcast TV. That mean everyone can get RSU Public TV and the educational content we will be delivering.”
Aills said other schools are also working on content that can be offered and will be included in the final RSUTV@HomeLearning schedule. RSU Public TV broadcasts on channels 35.1 and 35.2 and is available via cable and satellite services throughout northeast Oklahoma reaching over 1.2 million viewers.
The finalized RSUTV@HomeLearning TV Guide will be available Sunday, April 5, 2020 at RSU.tv and https://www.sequoyaheagles.net/ . Follow the Sequoyah Eagles at #COMESOARWITHUS.