Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Scholastic Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Results. During the program today, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, today’s program may be recorded. And now I’d like to introduce your host for today’s program, Jeff Matthews, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello and welcome everyone to Scholastic fiscal 2023 first quarter earnings call. I’m excited to be back at Scholastic, a company defined by its incredible people emission, over the coming months I look forward to reconnecting with and getting to know again it’s classics investment community, as we work to reach a new level of understanding of our shareholders perspective and communicate our strategy, opportunity and progress. Today on the call, I’m joined by Peter Warwick, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Ken Cleary, our Chief Financial Officer. As usual, we have posted the company investor presentation on our IR website at investor.scholastic.com, which you may download now, if you’ve not done so already. We would like to point out that certain statements made today will be forward-looking. These forward-looking statements by their nature are subject to various risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated. In addition, we will be discussing some non-GAAP financial measures as defined in Regulation G. The reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures may be found in the company’s earnings release and in company’s financial tables, filed this afternoon on a Form 8-K. This earnings release has also been posted to our Investor Relations website. We encourage you to review the disclaimers in the release and investor presentation and to review the risk factors disclosed in the company’s annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. Should you have any questions after today’s call, please send them directly to me at our IR email address, investor_relations@scholastic.com. And now, I’d like to turn the call over to Peter to begin this afternoons’ presentation.

Good afternoon, everyone and thank you, Jeff. I’ll start by welcoming you back to Scholastic in the new role of Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. I am confident that Jeff is the right person to assume this important new position, which marks a key milestone in our plan to strategically expand the expertise available in our already highly skilled management team. Jeff’s previous tenure have some deep knowledge of Scholastic, combined with his recent experience advising an expansive list of high level corporate clients will be invaluable to the company and our shareholders. He’s already been instrumental to advancing our strategic growth investments, leading the recently announced Learning Ovations acquisition. In advance of Ken’s detailed walk-through of our first quarter of fiscal year 2023, I am pleased to share that results are in-line with our plan for top and bottom line growth in 2023, with lower year-over-year operating income and earnings as expected, primarily reflecting increased investments in growth initiatives in our education business and a return to more typical seasonal revenue patterns post pandemic, as I’ll discuss in a moment. Based on quarter one performance and the momentum we see today, we are affirming guidance to deliver an 8% to 10% increase in revenue in fiscal year ‘23. And adjusted EBITDA of $195 million to $205 million, up from $189 million in fiscal 2022. Back to school significant, to both our first and second fiscal quarters. The circumstances this year contrast with those of last year. A year ago, concerned about supply chain issues resulted in that years’ back to school purchasing season, beginning earlier than usual, because teachers, libraries and parents were aware of book supply issues. Purchasing this year has reverted to a more normal path, which means we anticipate proportionately higher revenues from…

Thank you, Peter and good afternoon. Today, I will refer to our adjusted results for the first quarter excluding one-time items unless otherwise indicated. Please refer to our press release tables and SEC filings for a complete discussion of one-time items. The first quarter of the fiscal year is seasonally our quietest quarter, as schools are not in session in most of North America, as Peter just described. Our preparations for the upcoming fall and spring seasons are proceeding as planned and our readiness for the rest of the year is stronger than it’s ever been at this point in time. We have addressed the supply chain and operational issues we’ve faced last fiscal year, have dedicated substantial resources to ensure we are prepared for the strong demand we are expecting from our customers. We have ordered inventory well in advance of the season, given the long lead times in our supply chain. We have hired sufficient distribution staff to meet the strong expected demand. Initial indicators from our first few Book Fair and Book Club offerings are positive and in line with our expectations. In addition, we completed the acquisition of Learning Ovations on September 1, greatly accelerating the development of our Education Solutions literacy platform. In short, we are off to a strong start to our fiscal year and we are therefore affirming our guidance of $1.8 billion of annual revenue and $195 million to $205 million of adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2023 as we balance growth initiatives, were current returns for our shareholders. Revenue for the first quarter grew 1% to $262.9 million versus $259.8 million in the prior year period. Operating loss in the quarter was $58.1 million versus $36.2 million last year. Net loss was $45.5 million compared to $27.3 million last year and adjusted…

Thank you, Ken. This past quarter has built a solid foundation for the rest of the fiscal year and the positive trends we saw in the previous fiscal year have continued to benefit our performance. In concluding, I’d like to call out four critical factors. First, funding to close the widening reading achievement gap, accelerated by the pandemic should continue. It’s something that the federal government, all state governments and all shades of opinion want to address. We’re uniquely positioned to help with this vital and noble cause, because of our IP and because of our unrivaled distribution capabilities and relationships with literacy specialists, teachers and educational administrators. Second, we’re taking advantage of our strong cash position and improved business results to invest in targeted growth for the future, especially in digital and media solutions are developing literacy platform and ground breaking and engaging IP. Third, a strong financial position has also enabled us to manage our supply chain, so that we have the books and the resources we need right now to meet demand. And finally, our business that was most affected by the disruption to schools during the pandemic book fairs is already ahead of its performance at this time last year and its very well set to meet its targets this fiscal year and improved further on what was an excellent performance last financial year. In closing, I want to thank every educator, family, and partner that’s helping raise up the students in their community. We see you working tirelessly and we promise to do the same, mapping out your needs with our solutions and bringing books to children’s homes through fairs, clubs, retail and partnerships. Thank you all again for joining us on our call today. Jeff will conclude this afternoon’s presentation for us.

Thank you, Peter. As a reminder, we invite questions to be directed to our IR mailbox, investor_relations@scholastic.com. We appreciate your time and continuing support.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.