Educational Television Channel Makes Debut

Educational television in Thousand Oaks is now on the air, the culmination of a 10-year cooperative effort among area public and private schools.

Educational Television for the Conejo airs on Channel 59 through Ventura County and Falcon cable companies, offering a bulletin board of activities in Conejo Valley schools for the first 30 to 45 days. In addition to service in Thousand Oaks, which began Thursday, the channel will air in Westlake Village, Agoura, Newbury Park and Calabasas.

As its orders of equipment and tapes arrive throughout the month, ETC will also begin offering a variety of televised local events, including school sports events, an author interview show, arts and music programs, school district board meetings and other forums.

ETC also plans an interactive homework hotline in which students call in and talk to a teacher who will answer questions on the air.

It will also enable the Conejo Valley Unified School District to offer classes with the distance-learning format that allows students to take televised classes, said Gerry Gross, district superintendent.

“We have to find alternate ways of reaching students and being creative with our teaching,” Gross said. “The world is becoming the classroom and we’re trying to give students access to all avenues of learning.”

In addition to Conejo Unified, Moorpark College, Cal Lutheran University, private schools in the area and the Consortium for Technical Education worked together to create ETC.

“This is a dream I thought would never materialize,” said Beverly Kelley, a Cal Lutheran administrator who worked on the project.

ETC began with a $25,000 grant from Ventura County Cable Vision, $4,000 grant from Falcon Cable and $4,375 grant from GTE. Kelley said she hopes to secure more grants from camera equipment manufacturers and other local businesses.

ETC, a nonprofit corporation, is recruiting volunteers to help with fund-raising, management, marketing and programming.

For information, call Kelley at 493-3366.