NEWS BRIEFS: SCETV is helping gaps in teaching with remote learning 

Staff reports |  South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV)’s public broadcasting is known for helping young children learn from “Sesame Street” and “Super Why,” but its role shifted to aiding teachers with remote-learning in the early days of the coronavirus in the state.

Now as the new school year approaches, the broadcast network will expand K-12 programming while piloting an initiative that allows teachers to use its existing infrastructure to beam content into a student’s device, such as a tablet issued through a school, without the need for an internet connection. 

“I don’t think the public is aware of how much SCETV stepped in early on when we closed down the schools. ETV immediately altered its programming to give students an opportunity to at least watch lessons,” said state Rep. Raye Felder, R-Fort Mill. “As the new school year starts, more and more districts will try to come up with innovative and creative ways to notify parents of all the options that are available and I’m hoping ETV will be one of those … Every household may not have a computer, more households have television.”

SCETV Vice President of Education Stephanie Frazier said the agency has worked over the summer to spread awareness, mostly through schools and teachers.  Now it’s working on a pilot program called datacasting (data plus broadcasting). The technology reportedly converts a portion of the existing SCETV broadcasting infrastructure for one-way transmission of data sent directly into a device, which could be a parent’s smartphone or a tablet offered through the school district, according to Frazier. Read the full story in Statehouse Report.

In other recent news: 

Masks appear to be working. DHEC released data this week showing that it appears widespread mask use is making a dent in confirmed COVID-19 cases, which dipped below 1,000 reported per day. This means instead of projecting more than 7,400 deaths by Dec. 1, the agency projects 3,671 deaths by Dec. 1. Already, the virus has claimed 2,089 lives as of Thursday.

Democrat flips Trump pick’s S.C. House seat. Democratic candidate Spencer Wetmore is the unofficial winner of Tuesday’s special election (results will be certified Aug. 15, check here) to replace the seat left by former James Island Rep. Peter McCoy, a Republican tapped by the Trump administration as a U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina earlier this year. Wetmore, who is Folly Beach city administrator, defeated Republican Josh Stokes and Green Party candidate Eugene Platt for the seat. She will have to defend the newly-won seat again Nov. 3 from Stokes in the general election. 

Dominion seeks rate hike.  Dominion Energy last week filed with the S.C. Public Service Commission for a 7.75 percent electricity rate increase for retail customers in the state.  If approved, the typical customer would pay about $9.68 more per month, said the company, which added that base rates haven’t gone up since 2012. 

New commissioners. Veronica Hemmingway, Southern Lowcountry director  for grantmaking and community leadership at the Coastal Community Foundation in Charleston, is a newly-appointed commissioner to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.   Selected by the U.S. National Park Service, she and four others were appointed recently by the U.S. Secretary of Interior.  Among those stepping down from the commission after serving since it started in 2006 were Charleston attorney Willie Heyward and Hilton Head Island historian Emory Campbell.

Street closed.  South Market Street in Charleston is now closed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily for pedestrians between Church and State streets.  The closure, arranged in partnership with City Market vendors and staff, will facilitate social distancing in the area, according to a press release from the city of Charleston. 

Statehouse Report’s Lindsay Street contributed to this section. Have a comment?  Send to:  editor@charlestoncurrents.com