SEE THE MEETING - Teen Mental Health Is Primary

Did you know all PAUSD meetings are cablecast live on Channel 28, usually the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month? Did you know that all meetings are archived and can be accessed for viewing from the the on demand page we host for PAUSD? Lupita Segura is the staff member here at the Media Center who ensures that the meetings are digitized and archived for on demand playback.

Tuesday night's meeting was not one to miss: the school board heard testimony from parents, students, school officials, and healthcare professionals regarding formulating a consistent, system-wide policy to identify and care for students suffering emotional stress. The atmosphere of the meeting was at times quite highly charged, but the bottom line is that change is coming to our schools. Fostering emotional health and safety is front and center at PAUSD.

If you missed Tuesday night's PAUSD meeting, this meeting will playback tonight (Thursday) evening at 6:30 pm and again at midnight and then tomorrow (Friday) morning at 10:51 am right after the live news from Paly. All on Channel 28. Whenever it is on TV, the meeting can also be watched via simulcast at on our website.

MC STAFF OFFERS COMMENT AT FCC WORKSHOP

Last Friday, Annie, Becca, Valerie (our new summer intern) and I attended the Federal Communication Commission's Media Ownership Workshop held at Dinkelspiel Auditorium at Stanford University. The two-panel forum was open to the public and explored the impact of new media on broadcast stations. The morning session investigated the changing nature of media distribution channels -- everything used to be broadcast or come across the threshhold via the paper boy, and now as we all know people get their entertainment and news through a variety of splintered and overlapping sources. Is the Media Center still relevant? In a word. Yes. We cablecast, we youtube it, we livestream, we simulcast, we ondemand it, you name it were going for it. The afternoon portion of the workshop addressed the changing financial and business model for media. In summary, traditional delivery methods are losing money. How can media outlets maintain journalistic integrity and be competitive? That is a problem that all the traditional news providers are grappling with.



During the public comment portion of the morning session, Annie, Becca and I offered comment while Valerie taped us. Each of us shared a different perspective on the role The Media Center and other PEG stations play in our community. We really are at the front line in the battle against media concentration and media exclusivity and media idiocy (opposite of media literacy). Despite marketplace pressures that have driven many of our sister stations out of the marketplace or to reduce greatly their operations, somehow we are not only staying afloat but putting a bit more wind to our sails as we add new programs, new classes and bring on line more co-productions with our community with a tremendous focus on our youth and the schools. We must stay innovative and keep it vocal and local so that the FCC appreciates that PEG stations really are the vanguard of independent media.

MEDIA CENTER AWASH IN MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

Yesterday, MC studio tech and Zoom In Teacher Matt Harnack taught 24 (twenty-four) middle and high school teachers simple special effects techniques for use in video production to take back to their classrooms. This workshop was a collaboration of the Media Center, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) and Klutz, the Palo Alto based "How To Hands On" Books and Resource Company targeted mainly at kids. The teachers were equipped with flips cams and the Klutz book TRICKY VIDEO which offers up low tech special effects techniques to spice up anyone's video project. Matt divided the teachers into 4 groups to learn how to operate their camera, recreate several of the exercises in the book and create a playable video. Matt said many of the teachers were already tech savvy and jumped in to mentor the less experienced teachers. The JCC, our neighbor across San Antonio Road, graciously permitted us the use of their gymnasium to recreate the "bouncing ball" special effect. The Media Center is all about empowering people to be content creators rather than passive consumers. We look forward to hearing the stories and seeing the results of this training in the classrooms of our local schools.

MC INTERNS TO COVER COMMUNITY MEETING TONIGHT!

Adolescent Counseling Services is hosting a free community forum tonight (May 20) from 7 to 9 p.m. on helping parents better communicate with their teens about teen sexuality. The event is at the Mitchell Park Community Center, 3800 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. And the event is being covered for the Media Center by Paula and Hamilton, two of our Interns, under the direction of Becca Fisher, our Youth Services Coordinator. This 2 hour program will be scheduled for playback and available to watch simulcast starting Sunday, May 30. Check out this flyer for more information on the meeting.

MC Producer Secures Sponsor

Sheryl Shaffer sports her new AMVETS cap, courtesy of her new sponsor.

Sheryl Shaffer the hardworking producer of over 100 episodes of Veterans Helping Veterans just secured sponsorship from AMVETS for the next ten episodes. AMVETS is the 4th largest Veterans organization in the US. On her own, Sheryl, herself a veteran, has made the trip up from SoCal once a month for the taping of VHV, which, as far as my research yields, appears to be the only TV show of its kind in the nation that deals exclusively with issues affecting Veterans. Sheryl wrote and submitted the 4 page grant application six months ago and she just found out about the award. Not only will AMVETS cover her costs at the Media Center to produce the show, but AMVETS will also cover her travel expenses and provide her with state of the art production equipment, including an HD video camera to support her field interviews and editing software. Sheryl told me yesterday she is on the lookout for a tech person as she believes her strengths are producing and interviewing. If you have an interest in Veteran related topics and might like to explore volunteering with Sheryl, please give us a call! Sheryl is so passionate about Veterans and it really shows in AMVETS' choice of Veterans Helping Veterans to receive this coveted grant. Congratulations Sheryl. You do us all proud!

BACCALAUREATE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN SENIORS

On Sunday, May 23, 2010 from 3-4:30 pm, the 6th Annual Baccalaureate for African American Seniors will be held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 134 Hemlock Avenue in Redwood City. This incredibly moving and special event is held for students in the Sequoia Union High School District which includes Canada Middle College, Carlmont, Menlo Atherton, Redwood, Sequoia, Sequoia Adult and Woodside High Schools. The Baccaulareate will be recorded and will playback on our channels throughout June.

You can watch the 2009 Baccalaureate starting next week. Click on Channel 28 to view playback times.

COMMUNITY REPORT - CONNECTING & CARING: We Can Do Better For Our Youth

Pictured: School Board members Barb Mitchell & Barb Klausner, Gunn High School students Matthew & Andrew Mendoza, and St. Mark's Parish Hall. (Photos courtesy of Bill Wang)

On Sunday, May 2, 2010, St. Mark's Episcopal Church of Palo Alto in conjunction with Peninsula Interfaith Action hosted a community meeting to discuss what those in the faith community can do to promote the emotional health of children in the wake of the youth suicides of the past year. From 6:30 to 8:00 pm in the Parish Hall, council members Barb Mitchell and Barbara Klausner from the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) listened to testimony and fielded questions from concerned students and parents. This meeting was the culmination of months of planning by St. Mark's Advocates for Youth Committee which was formed to mobilize church members who were passionate about their kids' health but lacked a forum. A follow-on meeting is planned on Sunday May 23 from 6:30-8:00 pm at St. Marks. All are welcome!

The meeting was announced in the Weekly, the Daily, and the Post, and attracted over 400 community members. It was gratifying to see so many community leaders in attendance: Leif Erickson, Executive Director, of Youth Community Service and a Media Center 2010 Local Hero, Mary and Vik Ojakian, Internet safety guru Larry Magid, San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon, Palo Alto City Council members Gail Price and Nancy Shepherd and Mayor Pat Burke. Additionally we had representatives from a dozen faith communities including Temple Beth Am, the Palo Alto Unitarian Universalists, and the Society of Friends. I saw many members of Track Watch, the grassroots movement that has mobilized guards and parents at the crossings. Finally, I recognized in the audience parents who lost children this past year and have turned their grief to activism.

For an excellent description of the meeting please check out Palo Alto Weekly staff writer Chris Kenrick's article. She really caught the tenor of the meeting. As our community grapples with finding a meaningful and lasting way to change the way we care for and protect our youth, it is vitally important to keep having these meetings and to build a community of caring parents. If parents can't connect and care for one another, how we can possibly model caring and compassion for our kids? We can change our children, by first changing ourselves. Then, we must tackle our assumptions about how to build a healthy child.