In light of the city’s decision this week to close city facilities (except by appointment) and Public Health Madison and Dane County’s issuance of Emergency Order #10, which prohibits indoor mass gatherings of any size, the Sun Prairie Media Center will be suspending in-person KIDS-4 classes beginning Wednesday, November 24.
KIDS-4 is the SPMC’s after-school program during which SPASD students produce video and radio programming to air on KIDS-4 and 103.5 FM The Sun Community Radio. KIDS-4 production crews are typically each between six-eight students.
“We are saddened by the decision but understand the paramount need to keep residents and city staff safe,” said SPMC director Jeff Robbins.
The SPMC unveiled their plans for the remainder of the 2020-2021 KIDS-4 crew season, which typically runs from October to April.
The final KIDS-4 in-person crews for the calendar year 2020 will be held at the SPMC on Tuesday, November 24.
Beginning Monday, December 7, virtual meetings will be held for several weeks. These virtual meetings will be held at the same time as normal in-person crew times. At these meetings crew leaders will check in with crews and discuss KIDS-4 project ideas that students can work on from home.
“We understand that lots of kids and their parents are ‘Zoom-ed Out’ these days, but we do feel it is important to maintain some continuity until we can hopefully meet back again in person,” said Robbins.
Robbins said staff hoped to resume in-person crew meetings at the SPMC on Monday, February 1, 2021. He also said that the 2020-2021 crew year would be extended roughly four weeks longer than initially scheduled with the last day of in-person crews being Thursday, May 27, 2021.
“It has been a great year of KIDS-4 so far this year and we have some terrific students that we really enjoy working with,” said Robbins. “We hope that families understand the reasons behind this break and we appreciate their patience as we continue to navigate these unprecedented times.”
Robbins said families should call 608-837-4193 or e-mail at staff@sunprairiemediacenter.com with any questions or concerns.
The suspension of KIDS-4 does not affect the production of other programming at the SPMC, which is usually done on-site with one or two member producers at a time via appointment.
KIDS-4 can be seen on Charter Spectrum 984, on TDS channels 14 and 1014, streaming at kids4.tv, on the SPMC’s Roku and Apple TV channels, and on the SPMC’s free app, available for download from Google Play or the App Store.