January 2022 - Page 21 of 27 - Education For Live

January 8, 2022January 21, 2022

Plan to demolish historic Lakewood Elementary School blasted as ‘shameful’

By John Ruch

An Atlanta Community Educational institutions proposal to demolish the historic Lakewood Elementary constructing is remaining blasted as “shameful” by Town preparing workers in progress of a Jan. 12 review hearing.

The lengthy-shuttered university at 335 Sawtell Ave. is at least 89 many years outdated and is stated as a important “community landmark” contributing to the Lakewood Heights Historic District on the Countrywide Register of Historic Spots. APS desires to tear it down and swap it with absolutely nothing but grass immediately after income makes an attempt reportedly failed, Benefit Group.

The demo is not becoming very well-acquired by setting up employees with the Atlanta City Design Fee (AUDC), which will overview the proposal, nor by the Atlanta Preservation Middle (APC), a nonprofit that has extensive had that faculty and other APS houses on its lists of endangered historic qualities.

“Staff stresses once more it would be shameful if not irresponsible for a town to demolish these kinds of a constructing instead of preserving the historical past that it signifies,” AUDC employees reported in an internal memo well prepared in progress of the listening to.

“This is a no-brainer,” mentioned APC Govt Director David Yoakley Mitchell about preserving the college for reuse. “This is not only a Dudley Do-Proper fantasy. With these buildings that are mentioned on the register… you definitely have the motor vehicle to do some amazing initiatives.”

APS did not have immediate comment, citing a concentration on preparations to return to in-human being lessons next week following yet another COVID-19 pandemic closure.

A publicity photo of the Academy Lofts, an adaptive reuse of the previous George W. Adair Elementary Faculty in Adair Park.

APS has a track document of historic, shuttered faculties returning to use in praised preservation projects. Grant Park’s Roosevelt Historic Lofts and Academy Lofts are former faculties turned into residences. APS’s renovation of a extensive-closed college into the new David T. Howard Center College gained best awards previous year from the Georgia Belief for Historic Preservation and the AUDC itself.

The AUDC staff memo about the Lakewood Elementary proposal suggests that there are numerous similar remake opportunities.

“Staff understands the abandoned creating has become fewer preferred simply because of the altering situations of the spot. However, any place can adjust, and this location is on an upswing,” the memo claims. “It appears to be probable that a different college will be needed in the spot soon simply because of the fast advancement of all places in Atlanta. Also, maybe the making can be repurposed and be used as a shelter, leisure centre or loft. There are numerous opportunities — anything but demolishing one more historic resource in the Atlanta place.”

“The Howard College, clearly, was a large good results. The Adair School was a massive success,” reported Mitchell. “We have a precedent for reactivation of these educational institutions.”

“But we have to have to be fair to APS,” he added. “These [reuse proposals] have to be scenario-by-situation. They just cannot be blanket.” Nonetheless, he said, there really should be a demolition overview approach with this kind of “gateway” goods as to regardless of whether the building has a historic designation like Lakewood Elementary does.

Shuttered since 2004, the college is a two-tale brick composition in the Colonial Revival design on a approximately two-acre internet site partly bounded by Sawtell, Charleston and South Bend avenues. Its latest kind dates to 1932, but there is contradictory info about whether it is even more mature.

The AUDC workers memo dates the school to 1915 with a 1932 transforming. The Historic District filing — which was compiled in 2002, when the faculty was even now open up — dates it to 1932 primarily based on its cornerstone, and adds that an interior plaque indicated a preceding university of the very same identify was proven in 1911, potentially on the same web page.

Irrespective, the constructing — initially identified as Lakewood Heights School — is domestically and architecturally significant. It was created by the firm Edwards and Sayward, whose quite a few sizeable structures in Georgia and the Southeast include things like the McCain Library at Agnes Scott Higher education and the exhibition buildings at the previous Lakewood Fairgrounds near the faculty.

APS’s demolition software calls for salvaging unspecified products from the developing, then eliminating every thing, like parking great deal pavement. The internet site would be graded and seeded. It would then turn into a vacant lot surrounded by a 10-foot-higher, chain-link fence.

APS’s contractor on the job is KHAFRA, an Atlanta-centered organization whose website touts its “award-winning abilities in breathing new existence into cultural and historic sites” with adaptive reuse and renovation initiatives in Alabama. These contain the adaptive reuse of a water-pumping station into a museum and the renovation of two historic properties at Tuskegee University.

Mitchell — himself the parent of an APS university student — reported that Lakewood Elementary is aspect of the greater picture of APS’s stock of historic properties and how preservationists could aid in their future.

“Whatever we can do, even so we can do it, by any means vital, we want to be an advocate for their adaptive reuse, for their reactivation into the local community,” Mitchell stated. “We can do far better.”

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January 7, 2022

Educational Development Corporation (EDUC) CEO Craig White on Q3 2022 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Educational Development Corporation (NASDAQ:EDUC) Q3 2022 Results Conference Call January 6, 2022 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Craig White – President, CEO

Dan O’Keefe – CFO

Heather Cobb – Chief Sales & Marketing Officer

Conference Call Participants

David Wright – Henry Investment

Randy Freed – RL Capital

Operator

Thank you for joining the Educational Development Corporation’s Third Quarter Earnings Call.

Before beginning the call, we would like to remind you that some of the statements made today will be forward-looking and are protected under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied due to a variety of factors. We refer you to Educational Development Corporation’s recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the company’s financial condition.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Craig White, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Craig White

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to the call. With me today are Randall White, our Executive Chairman of the Board; Heather Cobb, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer; and Dan O’Keefe, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before I turn it over to Dan to go over the financial results, I’d like to recognize what a challenging year has been, probably mostly from a staffing perspective. I’m so proud of the team that we have here at EDC as the team continues to get better and better. We handled most of the staffing challenges very well, predominantly in the warehouse and really didn’t miss a beat with the challenging staffing environment out there. We didn’t have any outbreaks in the office, have really had mostly a healthy and safe environment here at EDC. So I want to recognize that first.

Now I’d like to turn the call over to Dan O’Keefe, our Chief Financial Officer, to provide a brief overview of the financials.

Dan O’Keefe

Thank you, Craig. Now for a brief overview of our third quarter financials. Our net revenues for the third quarter totalled $45.1 million, a decrease of $21.7 million or 32.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} compared to 66.8{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} — compared to $66.8 million reported in the third quarter of last year.

Earnings before income taxes for the third quarter totalled $3.6 million, a decrease of $2.2 million or 37.9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} compared to $5.8 million reported in the third quarter of fiscal 2021. Net earnings totalled $2.6 million compared to $4.3 million, a decrease of $1.7 million or 39.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} from the third quarter last year. Earnings per share totalled $0.31 compared to $0.51, down 39.2{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} on a fully diluted basis.

That concludes the report for the third quarter financial results, and I’ll now turn the call back over to Craig.

Craig White

Thanks, Dan. A couple of items I would like to begin with today that you may have heard from me in the last couple quarterly calls and at conferences and whatnot. The COVID pandemic affected most businesses in the world, either positive or negative last year, and our company was no different. Fiscal 2021 was normal year for us. Along with the initial surge in sales from the pandemic last summer, we experienced an increased demand for non-traditional income opportunities from parents that were looking to supplement or replace pre-COVID income streams.

These factors or pandemic-related issues drove our revenues to record levels last year.

Our fiscal third quarter is typically our largest sales quarter of the year due to the seasonality of the business. This year’s third quarter sales were more in line with pre-COVID years, and that’s why we’ve presented our most current pre-COVID year comparison in today’s press release. While our third quarter revenues are down significantly from the third quarter of last year, they are up over pre-COVID levels, primarily due to our increased publishing division sales and the impact of our UBAM division’s increased consultant count. We see both these contributors continuing to drive sales in fiscal 2022 and into fiscal 2023.

So in the last couple of quarterly calls, I said we had an incredible, unusual year, and while we’re still facing unusual factors, the pandemic is not gone, we kind of had this in and out of school, in and out of work and all those things. It’s just an incredibly challenging year to compare to.

So let me next turn it over to Heather Cobb, our Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, to discuss our sales.

Heather Cobb

Thanks, Craig. During our third quarter we continued to experience an increase in our Publishing division sales and a decrease in sales from our UBAM division when compared to last year, in the throes of the pandemic.

Our Publishing division sales increased 44{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to $3.7 million in the third quarter due primarily to the return of business from customers that were temporarily closed last year due to the guidelines published by local authorities. In addition, our Publishing division has added several new customers and experienced growth with existing customers that are driving this division sales to record levels in fiscal 2022.

Our UBAM sales declined 35{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to $41.4 million in the third quarter of fiscal ’22, primarily due to the anomaly that last year was. During last year, we experienced unusual growth in our active consultant count that began in the summer of 2020 and peaked at around 60,000 in November last year. This growth in active consultants drove our revenues to record levels during fiscal ’21.

Throughout fiscal ’22, we’ve seen our active consultant count decline due to consultants returning to full-time work as the drain on parents available time navigating — associated with the continued pandemic and their children’s returning to school. The recurring obstacles of new strains of the pandemic impact our consultants’ available time to run their business.

But while our consultant counts have declined, they are certainly above the pre-pandemic levels that Craig mentioned and our consultants are still having success, generating sales, earning commissions and building their business. This was evidenced during this third quarter as our active consultants generated similar sales and commission per consultant to the third quarter of last year and the pre-pandemic third quarter of fiscal 2020.

These sales and commission results give us support that our existing consultants are experiencing a consistent level of success as they achieved without benefiting from the increased demand that occurred in the early days of the pandemic, most noticeably in that first and second quarter of fiscal ’21.

In addition, we continue to introduce new technology-based tools to help our consultants be more successful in reaching new customers and expand their recruiting and business building efforts. We believe that this will help retain the current consultants we have as well as recruit new people to the business.

Two upcoming enhancements that we expect to roll out in the next 3 months include upgrade to our platform with additional features that will improve our new consultant experience as well as our new e-commerce platform. We delayed rolling out that e-commerce platform in the third quarter of this fiscal year because our internal team as well as our top level leaders had valuable input to make that platform even better. These new technologies are expected to have a positive impact on both new consultant experience, customer experience as well as the sales and commissions earned by those new consultants during their initial period with the company.

With that, I’ll turn the call back over to Craig.

Craig White

Thanks, Heather. One other impact you see from our recently published financials is our continued high levels of working capital. We have increased inventory levels and increased working capital borrowings. These increased levels are temporary and will rebalance as we turn inventory into cash over the next few quarters. As inventory turns to cash, we will pay down our borrowings and expect to be back to a more normalized working capital within the next year.

And the good news is that the cost of carrying this inventory is less than the current replacement costs given the unusual ocean shipping challenges that are occurring.

One of the other highlights for our third quarter was our strong pretax profit levels. Our pretax profit as a percentage of net revenues totalled 8{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. These pretax results on lower revenue levels than the third quarter last year reflect the strength of our business model and the management’s attention to cost containment.

We are excited to see the rebound from certain sales channels that were negatively impacted by the pandemic, including sales through school booth fairs. While this started to return this year, the new versions of the COVID-19 virus has stalled the return of this income stream, the return of booth and fair booths, which also continue to be impacted by the new COVID-19 variants. These 2 sales channels combined for about $30 million of the business that we expect will be returning to us in future quarters. We saw evidence that they were kind of starting to come back and then again with this new variant kind of shut those things back down a little bit.

So I can expand on any of those points. But at this point, we want to open it up to questions from our investors.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of David Wright from Henry Investment.

David Wright

Is your inventory higher than you’d like it to be right now?

Craig White

Absolutely. No question. I’ve had — I’m glad you asked — well, do you have a follow-up question or can I answer that one?

David Wright

Please do.

Craig White

So I was asked — I’ve been asked every phone call with investors, every investor conference, absolutely, our inventory is a little bit high. While we didn’t expect to increase sales 80{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, 50{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or maybe even 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to 15{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} this year, last third quarter was a disaster as far as inventory levels. So we ramped up our inventory levels, which we purchased in January, February, March. And we are just now receiving that in the September, October, November time frame. We have not actively purchased any new backlist title inventory in 6 months.

The only inventory purchases that we’ve made in the last 6 months are new title inventory, which, as people know, is the lifeblood of a sales organization. So while there is some silver lining to that, as I mentioned in the script, we mostly — not completely, but we largely missed all the chaos that is the supply chain right now. We saw our container costs coming from China go from $5,000 to sometimes $35,000 a container. And so while we were over-inventoried, we largely missed all of that increase in cost and the delays coming from China. So yes, we’re over-inventoried.

It helped us get through a tough time, but none of it is obsolete. It will all sell. And over the next 4, 5 months, we expect that to sell down, turn it into cash, and we’ll be in great shape by next summer or third quarter.

David Wright

Right. So with your — just looking historically, your fourth and first quarters — well, your fourth quarter is typically your slowest quarter and your first quarter is only a little better. So what — where would you like inventories to have been at November 30 based on current business conditions?

Craig White

Yes. For the current sales levels, probably $45 million to $50 million would have been a more appropriate level. I think we peaked at $70 million or just slightly north of $70 million. So we have about $20 million to $25 million too much inventory. But again, we’re not actively purchasing except for new titles, and we’ll sell that down over the next couple of quarters.

David Wright

Okay. And then the other thing that I wanted to ask here ties in with the cash flow. Cash flow from operations through the first 6 months was positive $12.4 million, it’s now negative $7.4 million, which means it’s $119.8 million in the third quarter. What — do you think the fourth quarter is going to generate positive cash flow from operations?

Dan O’Keefe

Craig, do you want me to address that?

Craig White

That would be great.

Dan O’Keefe

Okay. Yes, David, that’s a good question. As you mentioned, the first — the fourth quarter is typically not our biggest quarter of the year as far as sales. But we do — we’re not going to be — we don’t expect to increase inventory. When we look at cash flow from operations, there’s really going to be 2 things — 3 things driving it.

You’re going to have your income from the business, which is going to be positive. And then you’re going to have your change in inventory and your change in accounts payable, which are going to be the other 2 major drivers of that. And we don’t see inventory increasing so that shouldn’t negatively impact our cash flow from operations. AP will be coming down a little bit, though, because we do have some payables coming due, so that would be the other element there that — we’re still in the fourth quarter and only in the first month of it. So I don’t want to make a commitment that it’s going to be cash flow positive.

But I mean those are the only 3 elements that are really going to drive it. And as you said kind of, David, when you started your question, our fourth quarter is typically not the biggest of the year. So it’s not going to really see a lot of impact on inventory dropping. We see that being bigger in the first quarter of next year in the April — March, April, May quarter because that’s when we have our second largest quarter of the year. That involves our — the Easter holiday, and we have a lot of school activities associated with that quarter of March, April and May.

So we expect to see a bigger dent in our inventory coming down in that first fiscal quarter and then also in the second fiscal quarter and third fiscal quarter, as Craig was saying. So as Craig mentioned earlier, we’re $25 million more in inventory than normally be had more predictable last 24 months, but there’s some positive elements being a little over inventoried right now. And that’s the fact that the replacement cost right now is much higher than our carrying cost of inventory. And so we feel like we’re a little heavy on inventory and our working capital position, but it will be corrected here over the next 3 quarters.

Craig White

Thanks, Dan. It seems like an appropriate time also to mention that we have very solid relationship with our bank, and their involvement and support of our business is very strong. So that’s a positive as well.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Randy Freed from RL Capital.

Randy Freed

I’m not sure who this question could be directed to, but it’s probably either Craig or Dan. I’m looking at the table in the earnings announcement near the beginning where you talked about the average number of consultants and then the net revenue and the net earnings after tax profit percentage. And I’m trying to reconcile in my own mind some of the statements you made a little bit past that in the next paragraph or 2 and a couple of statements you made on this call, where you said that you’re happy with the strong pretax profit level and you’re very happy with the cost containment.

So when I’m looking at this table here for the current quarter and I’m comparing it to the one from 2 years ago, I see after-tax profit margin of 5.9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} versus year ago was 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. And I see the net earnings down just very slightly compared to the one from 2 years ago, even though the sales were up about 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. So that’s the problem I’m having in my mind reconciling sort of what’s going on. I was wondering if maybe something happened this quarter, there was an unusual expense or something, and I’ll quiet, let you talk.

Dan O’Keefe

Yes. Craig, if it’s okay, I’ll take that one.

Craig White

Yes, go ahead. I have some things to add to, but go ahead.

Dan O’Keefe

Okay. So a good question, Randy. Third quarter typically our biggest quarter of the year and highest profit percentage of the year because you’re spreading your fixed costs, obviously, over a bigger revenue base. And so the difference between pre-COVID if you look at those profitability percentages now is really dealing with a little — a different freight cost on our outbound freight is the biggest impact. We have a contract with our small parcel carrier.

And COVID occurred last year, they started implementing 2 different layers of surcharges. One was a peak season surcharge and the other one was a — just an unusual holiday season on top of the peak season surcharge. And so we’ve kind of had to bear some of those costs, and they’ve hit our bottom line here in the third quarter of this year that weren’t in place pre-COVID. And so that’s what you see. The other thing I would like to point out to you is that if you can look at the year-to-date numbers, you can see our year-to-date numbers for this current year after tax were 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} in the table there, and then the pre-COVID numbers are 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

So while we’ve had some holiday season peak surcharges this year and even last year, overall, the peak season surcharges haven’t hurt us. And we’ve implemented some rate increases this year that have actually helped us generate the after-tax margin of 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} year-to-date.

Craig White

Yes. Let me add to that, we kind of internally use pretax profit as a KPI. And so we had a very challenging September actually. That seemed to be the most chaotic as it related to the pandemic as kids were kind of going back to school. We seemed to be coming out of the pandemic with people going back to work.

So there was a little bit of chaos. September was not good. And then we followed that up with October with our best pretax profit that I remember in years. And then November, we did a lot of promotions with some free shippings and things, but it was still a very solid pretax profit.

So we’re — like we’re saying, the sales are way over third quarter — or not way over, they’re over third quarter 2020 and considerably lower than last third quarter, but we’re maintaining good pretax profit level.

Randy Freed

Okay. I did notice what you said, too, about the 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} versus the 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, but that sort of brings me to the question, if you look at the fiscal year-to-date for the sales from 2 years ago versus this year for the first 9 months, it looks like it was up about 28{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} from 2 years ago for the first 3 quarters added up. But this year, it was up about 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or 11{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. So I did notice that, too. So it looks like — I mean the sales are higher, but they’re not as high in the whole fiscal year as a percentage.

Craig White

Well, that’s not exactly accurate. 1.2{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} on the 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} is more like 23{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or 24{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}. So it’s not 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or 11{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, it’s about 20{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

Randy Freed

No, I was talking about the sales — I’m sorry, the net revenue is what I was talking about, I’m still in that same table.

Craig White

Okay. I thought you were talking about the after-tax profit, I’m sorry.

Randy Freed

No. That’s fine. Let me just ask one last question. So you’re talking about strong pretax profit levels, et cetera, and I know you really can’t project this at all. But for the next fiscal year, which I guess talking about March 1 of this year or 12 months after that. I mean you’ve talked a lot about efficiencies and things like that. Do you have any idea or do you think the pretax or the after-tax profit levels are going to be sort of consistent? If you look at this whole table here, you can see no matter what we’re talking about, they’re pretty consistent, right, between 5.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} at the worst and 6.7{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} at the best, just looking at this table, which I know there’s different columns there. But do you sort of project that as being roughly the same? Or do you think that potentially could increase in the future?

Craig White

Yes. I think you probably recognize kind of our model, and we have 25{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to our business. So we’re hitting 8{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} and maybe a little bit north of 10{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} on a pretax profit, but the changes of getting much higher than that are challenging. I think it’s going to be very consistent. What I will add is that we could have been more efficient this third quarter this year because the staffing challenges were crazy.

We hired roughly 300 people, and about 30 of them starched. So that time and effort to train people for them to leave at lunch and never come back or not come back the second day or all of those factors, we could have been a little more efficient this year, even this third quarter. So — but still, I expect them to remain consistent. Yes.

Randy Freed

Okay. That’s what I was hoping you’d get into a little bit of what you just said that there was a lot of challenges this quarter. And like you said, with staffing and people not coming back. And then what Dan already talked about with the freight costs and the peak season surcharges. So thank you for that information.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Presenters, you may continue.

Craig White

Okay. Great. So while we’re not ecstatic about what has been so far this year, we are encouraged and happy. We’re considering ourselves still in the growth mode, if we’re comparing to the last normal year. We’ve had 2 very unusual non-normal years that were — our growth pattern of about 30{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} to 40{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} over the same time period in calendar 2019. So

we have nothing but good forecasts. We’re looking forward to this next year. While we’re not ecstatic, we’re still pleased with what we’ve accomplished. So we appreciate you all joining us, and talk to you next time. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

January 7, 2022

CLASS NOTES: Whatcom parents choosing homeschooling | News

COVID-19 pandemic a person reason much more mothers and fathers educating their little ones

WHATCOM — It is no top secret that COVID-19 has uprooted the nation’s schooling procedure, an establishment even now mastering how to walk in this article-pandemic globe.

Due to these drastic changes, additional dad and mom in Whatcom County are selecting to homeschool their young children, according to Meagan McGovern, creator and admin of Homeschoolers of Whatcom County web site and Facebook web page.

McGovern reported that since the pandemic, the Homeschoolers of Whatcom County Facebook page has obtained 800 new users, which now helps make for virtually 2,000 complete associates.

McGovern recounts prior to the pandemic, there were being 3 sorts of homeschoolers.

Mother and father who selected homeschooling owing to religious causes, dad and mom who selected homeschooling who required to be concerned and provide greater instruction to their small children, and parents who chose homeschooling mainly because the faculty was not meeting their requirements.

But now a fourth homeschooler has appear on to the scene: the COVID-19 homeschooler. And it has adjusted the landscape of homeschooling all alongside one another.

“So now homeschooling has occur to imply a great deal of distinctive points to a large amount of folks,” mentioned McGovern. “And it basically usually means any person who’s not in faculty and that was not what it employed to indicate. Now it can necessarily mean any individual who’s doing an on the internet school, with the faculty district, applying all of the school’s curriculum. And customarily, that is not a homeschooler, that’s someone who’s enrolled in general public college.”

McGovern points out with this solution to household education and learning, you lose a large amount of flexibility and flexibility that standard homeschooling offers but can nevertheless facial area related problems.

Given that the get started of the pandemic, McGovern has been given e-mails from new homeschooling dad and mom asking a wide variety of issues concerning how to method homeschooling for their children.

“A whole lot of them occur in, wholly unable to understand what homeschooling is,” reported McGovern. “They’ll arrive in and write me an electronic mail expressing, ‘where do I sign up for homeschooling?’ and ‘when are the lessons?’ And properly, that is not the way homeschooling operates. This is the education and learning you have to get on your possess, to figure out how to do this.”

But that is why McGovern began the Homeschoolers of Whatcom County web-site and Fb website page: to give steering to mother and father and guardians new to homeschooling their little ones.

“So that folks who really don’t know anything about homeschooling have a put to go and look at community homeschoolers and see how it operates listed here in the community,” mentioned McGovern.

McGovern claims she has spoken to lots of parents who are unsatisfied with how nearby educational institutions are operating all through COVID-19, with some mother and father who really don’t want their children to have on a mask and/or have their schooling changed by the pandemic at all to other mother and father who believe that until all people is masked and vaccinated, no just one need to be in school.

“And so both equally of [these parents], outliers on each sides of the bell curve, have decided on to hold their youngsters out of school,” reported McGovern. “Most of the people today who are homeschooling for COVID are not the men and women who would have ever assumed they would homeschool they’re not performing it due to the fact they established out on this journey. That’s why their young ones ended up in general public faculty.”

McGovern has generally homeschooled her little ones.

She said homeschooling is an essential aspect of her family’s lifestyle.

“Homeschooling was a way that we could maintain alongside one another as a family and enjoy each other and master about the entire world collectively,” reported McGovern.

Crystal McCracken has been homeschooling her young children given that March 2020. COVID-19 was the key force that started off her and her children’s homeschooling journey.

“I by no means would have regarded as myself a homeschooling mom ahead of COVID,” stated McCracken.

McCracken’s daughters, ages 8 and 10, had been executing virtual distance learning at the start off of the pandemic but faced distinct worries in their training. Just one of McCracken’s daughters was forward of her grade degree and needed to go at a more quickly speed than the classroom placing was providing at the time, in accordance to McCracken.

Her other daughter, age 8, struggled with on line understanding.

“The youngest was a kindergartener, and we needed a backup appropriate up to the beginning of kindergarten and just quite much restart with a super good basis [with homeschooling,]” claimed McCracken.

McCracken suggests that homeschooling was the best factor that could have took place for her family and that the awareness made available by the prominent homeschooling community in Whatcom County designed a major change.

“There’s this sort of a large, various sum of homeschoolers right here,” claimed McCracken.

And what can make homeschooling particular for the McCracken loved ones? “The point that my youngsters guide their education,” mentioned McCracken. “My kids get to impact what they understand, which is so completely various from every little thing I was taught as a child.”

January 7, 2022

‘We have to do something’ — Michigan parents split over in-person, online education plans

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – The Lansing School District is heading back again to in-individual understanding Monday.

The district had a 7 days of virtual training as a precaution due to COVID figures. Some parents are concerned it will not be very long until finally the pupils are discovering remotely again.

Linked: Lawsuit submitted to block Michigan colleges from heading digital

When it arrives to digital learning, it is much more than just holding youngsters at household to do their operate. In a lot of conditions, mothers and fathers have to get time off from get the job done, the districts have to assign Chromebooks, lunch decide-ups have to be coordinated — just to title a few.

Moms and dads are torn on the selection.

“I really don’t think they’re finding the education and learning they want,” mentioned Lynnette Caldwell.

Immediately after a 12 months of on the internet training, Caldwell’s kids fell driving. As COVID circumstances keep on to rise, she’s anxious remote finding out could after once again come to be yet another extensive-expression choice.

“My 15-12 months-aged, she’s acquired credits she’s received to make up since she did not pass all of her classes,” Caldwell mentioned. “She still moved onto the upcoming quality, but she’s received to enjoy capture-up.”

Immediately after saying college would go back again to facial area-to-experience education, Lansing University District superintendent Ben Shuldiner said the reason for the pause was because the virus wasn’t just impacting students, but staff members, and with the district suffering from a trainer lack, it was a recipe for disaster.

Not all people feels like relocating to virtual mastering is a bad detail. Kelly Stalhood stated she thinks the schools require to consider a split for a tiny when.

“I assume it would be sensible to shut down the schools for a minor though,” Stalhood explained. “Just so that way, this can get below command and the colleges can do a deep thoroughly clean.”

With two kids on the autism spectrum, she mentioned she’s apprehensive for their bodily and psychological wellbeing with the virus remaining so common in schools.

“It’s hitting a large amount of us,” Stalhood claimed. “We have to have to do something. We have to have to do our component.”

Several university districts — like Lansing — have equipped their properties with air filters and point out-of-the-art sanitizing machines for the lecture rooms.

The Lansing Faculty Board president stated she feels comfortable bringing learners again to the classroom.

Associated: The place to get COVID tests in Mid-Michigan

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January 7, 2022

Educational Games Market Size, Trends, Forecast to 2029

New Jersey, United States,- The Academic Games Marketplace is very carefully examined in the report, basically concentrating on the vital players and their enterprise methods, geographic expansion, market segments, the competitive landscape, production, and cost and cost structure. Each section of the exploration examine is specially well prepared to examine key aspects of the Educational Online games market place. For case in point, Market Dynamics part delves in additional depth into the drivers, restraints, tendencies, and options in the Instructional Game titles market place. With qualitative and quantitative analyzes, we assist you with an in-depth and complete investigation on the Educational Game titles marketplace. We also targeted on the SWOT, PESTLE, and Porter’s 5 Forces evaluation of the Educational Games industry.

Top players of the Instructional Games sector are analyzed using into account their industry share, latest developments, new product launches, partnerships, mergers or acquisitions, and marketplaces served. We also supply an exhaustive investigation of their solution portfolios to take a look at the solutions and programs they focus on when operating in the Instructional Video games market. On top of that, the report presents two separate market place forecasts – just one for the creation side and one more for the consumption aspect of the Instructional Online games marketplace. It also offers beneficial suggestions for new as very well as recognized gamers of the Educational Games marketplace.

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Crucial Players Described in the Academic Online games Industry Research Report:

Breakaway Ltd., Building Digitally Inc., DIGINEXT, IBM Corporation, Studying Nexus Ltd, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Promotion Software program GmbH.

Instructional Games Market Segmentation:

Global Instructional Games Marketplace, By Consumer Kind

• Enterprises
• Shoppers

World Educational Video games Industry, By Application

• Advertising & Marketing and advertising
• Simulation Teaching
• Analysis & Planning
• Human sources

The Instructional Game titles market is segmented as per type of products, software, and geography. All of the segments of the Academic Games market place are carefully analyzed dependent on their market share, CAGR, worth and quantity growth, and other crucial components. The report also delivers exact estimations about the CAGR, profits, manufacturing, income, and other calculations for the Instructional Video games sector. Each individual regional sector is extensively researched in the report to explain why some regions are progressing at a substantial price when other individuals at a low amount. We have also supplied Porter’s Five Forces and PESTLE investigation for a deeper examine on the Academic Game titles market place.

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Academic Games Market place Report Scope

Attributes	Specifics
Approximated Calendar year	2022
Foundation Year	2021
FORECAST Year	2029
Historical Calendar year	2020
Device	Benefit (USD Million/Billion)
SEGMENTS Coated	Types, Apps, Finish-Users, and extra.
REPORT Coverage	Earnings Forecast, Company Rating, Competitive Landscape, Advancement Factors, and Trends
BY Region	North The usa, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa
CUSTOMIZATION SCOPE	Free of charge report customization (equivalent up to 4 analysts doing the job times) with obtain. Addition or alteration to region, regional & section scope.

Geographic Segment Included in the Report:

The Educational Games report provides info about the market place spot, which is even more subdivided into sub-areas and nations/regions. In addition to the sector share in each and every region and sub-area, this chapter of this report also includes facts on gain options. This chapter of the report mentions the sector share and progress rate of every single area, region and sub-area in the course of the approximated time period.

• North The usa (Usa and Canada)
• Europe (British isles, Germany, France and the relaxation of Europe)
• Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, and the relaxation of the Asia Pacific region)
• Latin The united states (Brazil, Mexico, and the relaxation of Latin The united states)
• Center East and Africa (GCC and rest of the Center East and Africa)

Crucial concerns answered in the report:

1. Which are the dominant players of the Instructional Online games current market?

2. How will the Academic Video games sector change in the future five years?

3. Which product and software will consider a lion’s share of the Educational Video games market place?

4. What are the motorists and restraints of the Educational Online games current market?

5. Which regional sector will demonstrate the highest expansion?

6. What will be the CAGR and dimensions of the Educational Online games marketplace throughout the forecast time period?

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January 7, 2022

Marin parents say physical education lacking in county program

As with many Marin 9-yr-olds, Elena Ncho-Oguie has extra than sufficient electricity following school to journey her bike, jump on a trampoline or walk close to her Novato neighborhood with her mom Alicia.

What the fourth-grader, who is on the autism spectrum, doesn’t have, is certain in-man or woman bodily schooling coaching that could assistance her learn how to toss a softball, be on a athletics team or dribble a basketball.

Even even though Marin schools are back again to in-man or woman understanding this tumble, Elena has so much only received one particular 30-minute class per week in what is termed adaptive physical instruction — or APE — at her distinctive education course at Edna Maguire Elementary Faculty in Mill Valley. The course is run by the Marin County Business office of Education and learning.

In addition to that staying only fifty percent of what Elena’s individualized educational strategy requires, the 30-moment course is distant on Zoom, not in individual, and is with a trainer from an additional county, Alicia Ncho-Oguie claimed.

“If you can visualize, adaptive actual physical instruction on Zoom,” Ncho-Oguie stated. Mainly because of the absence of in-man or woman speak to, the trainer who calls in on Zoom usually just asks mom and daughter to toss a ball with each other.

“And then she puts on a video that Elena is meant to check out about stretching,” Ncho-Oguie claimed.

Elena is not by itself.

According to the most latest pupil rely, in slide 2020, 3,840 Marin pupils had IEPs — or individualized educational programs — for exclusive instruction, mentioned Jonathan Lenz. He administers the Marin County SELPA — or specific schooling neighborhood strategy area — for the county instruction place of work.

Of all those, Lenz could not say how lots of have APE approvals incorporated in their academic ideas, because the selection was so small “that it may well be viewed as a breach of confidentiality,” Lenz said.

“We — and the California Division of Training — do not publicly report university student info sets that are significantly less than 11,” he said.

In addition, “not all pupils with IEPs obtain APE providers,” Lenz explained.

“APE is recommended by a district when a student has been decided to be not able to participate in general education actual physical training or a modified physical training method,” he reported.

Of the evident handful of Marin families that do have approvals for adaptive bodily training, their small children are possibly having the APE online on Zoom — or not at all, mother and father stated.

“Our loved ones chose to keep on working with his company in this method as there are currently no other possibilities offered which would allow our son to receive all of the minutes agreed to in his IEP every week,” Kentfield mum or dad Jenny Novack mentioned of the on-line courses.

Novack’s son, Phillip, 9, receives two 30-moment physical instruction courses for every 7 days. Both are on Zoom — a single through the faculty working day and the other just one right after school to accommodate the teacher’s occupied program.

“We truly feel that we have no selection,” Novack claimed.

At situation is that Marin has not been equipped to hire any individual to fill the one particular comprehensive-time adaptive physical schooling instructor slot that is accessible, Lenz said.

Since there is not enough demand for each and every Marin faculty district to hire its possess whole time APE expert, the one place is a shared position that is pooled amid the numerous county districts. Some faculty districts could only will need an adaptive actual physical training trainer for two several hours a 7 days, for illustration.

“In buy to deal with this will need for a competent supplier, the districts have partnered to merge their unique APE staffing needs into a person shared place that would serve all of the APE demands inside of the districts collectively,” Lenz said. “Unfortunately, that situation is at this time unfilled. ”

Marin school districts and the county education and learning workplace are aggressively recruiting for the place — but with no luck so far, stated Mary Jane Burke, Marin educational institutions superintendent.

“We have a million openings in a range of positions in distinctive instruction,” Burke explained. “These are specialized positions. We’re undertaking all the things we can to get them stuffed.”

Marin mothers and fathers, in the meantime, worry that their children will skip out on finding out motor techniques and athletics workforce socialization that could support established a foundation for them to take part in lifelong sporting activities and work out routines.

Kira Cordasco of Corte Madera stated her son, Hudson, 11, who is in sixth quality at a county-run course in Fairfax, was intended to receive two 30-minute APE lessons a 7 days. So much this slide, he has been given none.

“They explained they never have a therapist accessible,” Cordasco mentioned. “So it’s been 13 hrs missed.”

Appropriately, Hudson is “not getting the PE that other little ones are getting, and that which is expected by regulation,” Cordasco stated.

“He’s not developing elementary techniques — ball-playing, throwing, motor coordination — lifelong capabilities that he will will need to be in a position to have interaction with his peers,” she claimed.

Cordasco reported she thinks there are several Marin moms and dads who don’t even know their youngsters could be acquiring APE.

“They don’t know they can question for it,” she reported. “I’m advocating for my son, and I’m advocating for all the other kids out there who really should be receiving specialised actual physical training with an adaptive PE therapist.”

All California general public elementary students through sixth quality are meant to get a minimal 200 minutes of physical schooling just about every 10 times. Commencing in seventh grade, students are supposed to get 400 minutes each 10 times.

Even if all the Marin adaptive actual physical education classes took spot as planned, they would nevertheless slide small from what was essential by state regulation — and they nevertheless would only protect a fraction of the complete specific education and learning pupils in the county. Lenz mentioned he had no word on what the point out may possibly do to keep faculty districts accountable if the circumstance in Marin is not settled.

“If the district does not deliver the expected compensatory expert services, the district can be discovered out of compliance,” he reported. “The California Department of Education may have interaction in monitoring functions to make sure the district is compliant.”