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Public Service Company of Oklahoma is proud to be a partner in education, particularly in grades pre-K to 12. Through school partnerships, workshops for educators, electrical safety programs (with Louie, the Lightning bug) and other activities, we strive to make a difference in the lives and the learning of teachers, students and customers within the PSO service territory. In terms of early childhood education, PSO has a long-standing tradition of partnering with communities on programs that ensure children are ready to learn when they enter school. In the 1980s, the late Martin Fate, former PSO President, began encouraging community leaders to forge partnerships with educators to ensure that early childhood education receives the attention it deservs. Pete Churchwell chaired the Governor's Task Force on Early Childhood Education in 2000 during his tenure as PSO President. That effort led to the creation of Smart Start Oklahoma. Today, PSO President and COO Stuart Solomon continues this education legacy, encouraging employees to volunteer for educational efforts and with his support for Smart Start Oklahoma.
When Smart Start Oklahoma was founded, PSO provided a three-year commitment of $300,000 to hire staff and launch the initiative. PSO announced an additional three-year commitment of $180,000 to support Smart Start Oklahoma and Smart Start Communities in the expansion of two early literacy programs, Raising A Reader and Read Now! Four communities in the PSO service areaa will receive the dollars. They are Hugo/Idabel, Tulsa, Bartlesville and Lawton. Since the inception of Smart Start Oklahoma, PSO has donated close to a half million dollars to cover start-up costs and programs for early childhood education. Raising A Reader (RAR) is a nationally recognized early literacy program that promotes healthy brain development, parent-child bonding and early literacy skills critical for school success by engaging parents in a daily read-aloud routine with their children from birth to age five. Through a child-driven process, Raising A Reader rotates bright red bags filled with the highest quality age-appropriate books into homes each week. The book bag rotation, combined with research-based training and a strong connection to the local library, motivates families to establish "book cuddling" routines with their little ones, leading to a love of books that lasts a lifetime. Read Now! was developed in response to research that shows nearly 40% of fourth grade children cannot read at grade level. Its mission is to promote a lifelong love of reading by recruiting adult and youth volunteers to read books for one hour a week one-to-one with children in area child care centers. Volunteers typically read with two children from infancy through age six for 30 minutes each week. In addition to having their own reading mentor, children in Read Now! also receive one book a month to keep. During the 2003-04 school year, the PSO-sponsored National Theatre for Children (NTC) performed at 101 Oklahoma schools, reaching 1,035 teachers and 25,937 students. Enterprise for Education, the company's educational resource fulfillment service, provided materials to 94 Oklahoma schools for use by 788 teachers and 20,014 students. In all, we estimate that PSO worked with 172 different schools, 1,651 different teachers and 40,888 different students in its educational support efforts. Safety education materials PSO President and Chief Operating Officer Stuart Solomon has sent a letter (PDF : 50 KB : get viewer) to Oklahoma teachers in communities served by PSO with information on how to order the materials. Request forms
 
Online Education: Learn more about how energy works:
  For more information on our education initiatives, see the Community Involvement section of our corporate web site, AEP.com.
Louie and cast members deliver important electrical safety messages to students across the state.
Spring breezes rocket kites skyward, but kids and adults who enjoy this timeless pastime need to remember some simple safety rules:
For more electrical safety information, visit The Electric Universe®, www.AEP.electricuniverse.com. Teachers and youth leaders who work with children in grades K-4 may request a free Louie teaching kit. To request safety resources, visit www.AEP.com/go/education or write AEP Community Relations, 1 Riverside Plaza, Columbus, OH 43215. Be sure to tell us what grade level(s) you require.
PSO Community Affairs Manager Vic Brown presents a check to support education programs to Kyle Wood, Executive Director of Student Services for Broken Arrow schools.
Sand Springs teacher Lisa Seay received a Teacher Vision Grant to buy safety equipment for the school's science department. She stretched the grant dollars and was able to purchase more than 150 pairs of safety goggles, after convincing the vendor to drop shipping charges. Seay, shown here with 2 of the science classes.
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