In June, Channel One lost one of its best salesmen – Paul Folkemer. In 1998, Folkemer walked away from Benjamin Franklin Middle School where he was the principal to take a job with Channel One. Overnight, Folkemer went from worrying about the carpool line to a cushy job as "Vice President of Education" with an office on Madison Avenue with what must have been a big pay increase.
His job was to try to convince people that Channel One had more to do with education than with advertising. It is safe to say that he failed miserably. That is probably one reason why he is now an assistant principal in charge of instruction in a small New York public school system.
Who will Channel One hire to replace Folkemer? The better question
is "Can Channel One find another educator who will shill for this controversial
marketing company?"
Primedia continues to list "Paul Folkemer" on its list of Channel One executives. They never announced that Folkemer is out of the company. Primedia is being deceptive by not acknowledging that they have no VP of Education.
Channel One is listing Elissa Schein as their "Manager of Educational Services." That title doesn’t convey what she does. Obligation sent Ms. Schein an email two days ago asking her to tell us of her background and her duties. Is she replacing Folkemer? Is so, is she giving final approval to each commercial on Channel One like Folkemer did? If she is doing that, then she is a very important person in the lives of over eight million schoolchildren. She would be the one who would determine what violent movie is going to be pushed on children. She would be the one to determine what candy bar is going to be promoted during class. The public needs to know more about Ms. Schein. It is not surprising that Ms. Schein has not responded to our request.
The ploy Channel One used for the last three years was "You can trust us. We have an educator (Folkemer) signing off on ALL the commercials. If he doesn’t like it, then we ain’t going to show it." Schein may not be responsible for this oversight. It might be Noreen Clarke who worked with Folkemer and who presently is still employed by the company.
Below is the information Channel One has posted about Ms. Schein. Below that is a blurb that was published about Ms. Schein at her previous job at WNET. If Obligation hears from her, we will post any information she provides.
"Elissa Schein joined Channel One Network as the Manager of Educational Services after serving as Manager of Instructional Television Programming for the past six years at Thirteen/WNET, public television’s flagship station in New York. In addition to her primary responsibility for the acquisition and scheduling of the network’s K-12 educational programming, Elissa ran outreach events at the station, developed content for the Thirteen/WNET educational web site, presented at conferences, and chaired numerous committees for the Educational Services Department. Prior to her joining Thirteen, Elissa was an elementary school teacher and museum educator. Elissa received her BA degree from S.U.N.Y Binghamton, and her MS degrees in Early Childhood and Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education."
"Elissa Schein is Manager of Instructional Programming at Thirteen/WNET in New York City. She is responsible for the evaluation, acquisition, and scheduling of the more than 125 Instructional Television (ITV) series Thirteen broadcasts each school year, and oversees the publication of the Educational Services ITV Resource Guide. Schein served as Content Developer for Learning Link prior to her current position, and holds an MS in Elementary and Museum Education from the Bank Street College of Education."
