Scholastic Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Scholastic Reports Q4 and Fiscal Year 2021 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Gail Dickoff, Senior Vice President, Treasurer, and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. Welcome to Scholastic's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 earnings call. Joining me on today's call are James Barge, the board's lead independent director, Yole Lucchese, the newly appointed chair of the board, and also the company's chief strategy officer and president of Scholastic Entertainment, and of course, Ken Cleary, our chief financial officer. I would also like to introduce Peter Warwick on today's call. Peter will officially become Scholastic's President and Chief Executive Officer on August 1st. We have posted an investor presentation on our IR website at investor.scholastic.com, which we encourage you to download if you have not already done so. I would like to point out that certain statements made today will be forward-looking, Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those arising from the continuing impact of COVID-19 on the company's business operations. These forward-looking statements, by their nature, are uncertain, 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, and the reconciliations of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the company's earnings release filed this afternoon on a Form 8K, which has also been posted to our investor relations website. We encourage you to review the disclaimers in our press release and investor presentation and to review the risk factors contained in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. If you have any questions after today's call, please send them directly to our IR email address investor underscore relations at scholastic.com. And now I would like to turn the call over to Jimmy Barge to begin this afternoon's presentation.

Thanks everyone for joining our call this afternoon. I've had the privilege of serving on Scholastic's board since 2013 and as the lead independent director since 2015. And I've been constantly inspired by the mission of the company. the loyalty of both our employees and customers, and, of course, the vision of Dick Robinson, who led the company until his passing last month. From across the globe, our publishing colleagues, educational leaders, authors, teachers, principals, readers, and the many others who had the opportunity to work with Dick over the years shared an outpouring of tributes in his memory. We thank all of you. Yolei, Ken, and I together with Andy Hayden, our EVP and General Counsel, have been hard at work ensuring that day-to-day operations move forward uninterrupted with an underlying core of stability and our eye on the future business priorities and opportunities that have been identified during this past fiscal year. While I've been very close to the business for quite a while, the last several weeks have made three things very clear to me. First, the profound impact of Dick's legacy on successive generations. Secondly, that Scholastic and its employees remain resilient and continue uninterrupted to demonstrate an amazing ability to deliver through adversity. And most importantly, that families, educators, and kids will always have a partner in Scholastic. On behalf of the board, I'd like to recap steps taken and announced earlier this week to further solidify the future of Scholastic. Yolay Lucchese was elected a board member and appointed as chair of the board. Robert Dumont was elected to the board as a designee of the Robinson family. And effective August 1st, Peter Warwick was appointed the chief executive officer and president of Scholastic. Peter has held impressive leadership roles throughout his career at Thomson Reuters, heading multiple and significant business units within the global company, as well as having held executive roles at Pearson. His wealth of experience and known passion for the Scholastic mission, as seen in his role as an independent director on the Scholastic Board of Directors since 2014, will promise both continuity and advancement for Scholastic. The board feels Peter is exceptionally qualified to lead Scholastic as the company continues to grow our education solutions business, expand the reach of our digital offerings, strengthen partnerships, and focus on creating value for all stakeholders. It is with great confidence that we all welcome Peter. And with that, I now turn the call over to Yole.