School Specialty Inc.: School Specialty Continues “Gift of Education” Drive With Donation to New York’s North Side School

Company Contact: Dru Popper-Lopez School Specialty, Inc.
Tel: (920) 243-5292
Email: dru.popper-lopez@schoolspecialty.com

Media Relations Contacts: Glenn Wiener and Dionne Manchester GW Communications (for School Specialty)
Tel: (212) 786-6011 / (212) 786-6068
Email: gwiener@GWCco.com / dionne@GWCco.com

Company highlights program at KidzVuz holiday event for mom bloggers and their kids

GREENVILLE, Wis., Nov. 20, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — School Specialty,
Inc. (OTCQB:SCOO) (“School Specialty”, “the Company”, or
“@SchoolSpecialty”), a leading distributor of innovative and
proprietary products, programs and services to the education
marketplace, today announced that as part of its “Gift of Education”
holiday campaign, the Company donated essential school supplies and
learning materials to North Side School, a non-profit charter school
specializing in education and early childhood development, operating
out of eight sites in the New York City boroughs of Queens and the
Bronx.

A photo accompanying this release is available at
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=29206.

Students at North Side will be able to take advantage of vital learning
tools from School Specialty and its partner brands, including Classroom
Select furniture, Bird-In-Hand furniture (e.g. Tabletop Easel),
Grasping Grammar Game, Teacher Created Resources Jumpin Chips
Subtraction Math Game, Edupress Learning Well Science Lab Game Set,
Flip2BFit Fitness In A Box Board Game, Sportime Penguin Bowling Set,
Childcraft Magnetic Color Coded Words and Boards Set, Smartmouth Game,
Educational Insights: the Sci or Fi Files Strange Science Facts and
Fiction Cards, Speedball Screen Printing Tool Kit, and Jacquard Economy
Tie-Dye Kit.

“On behalf of the North Side School family, we sincerely thank School
Specialty for its generous gift of innovative classroom furniture and
educational supplies that are so important to the teaching and learning
needs of our faculty and students,” stated Natasha Ganjian, Finance and
Operations Director. “Through School Specialty’s outstanding service,
we are able to furnish 13 new classrooms across our sites. The care we
received was just wonderful and went above and beyond our expectations.
The team understood North Side’s unique environment as a charter school
specializing in early childhood education and development, serving the
various learning styles of young students from across the city, and
they collaborated closely with us to accommodate those needs.”

The Company also announced its “Gift of Education” program at the
KidzVuz (www.kidzvuz.com; @KidzVuz) annual holiday celebration for the
mom blogging community, held on November 16 at New York City’s Chelsea
Piers complex. School Specialty joined KidzVuz, a leading
online-kid-review network, and 100 of the top mom bloggers from the
Northeast and their kids for an afternoon of entertainment, exploration
and education.

As an event sponsor, School Specialty hosted an interactive classroom
experience, showcasing many of its 21st century learning solutions and
providing tons of fun for kids on site. Among the products featured
were the Learning Resources Starter Cube Set, Heinemann Raintree Tales
of Invention Books Set, Elenco Electronics Mini Torso Model, Learning
Resources Primary Measurement Kit, Educational Insights Story Sparkers!
Library, Scratch-Art Photo Frame, Kolorfast Pre-Cut Tissue Flower Kit,
Color Pack, and more!

Kids were able to interact at the School Specialty booth across three
subject areas:

– Art: building paper flowers; creating scratch art picture frames
– Math/Science: human torso modeling; weights and measurements games;
discover/invention kits
– Language Arts: sentence creation boards; story starter dice; story
generation card games

Additionally, parents were able to enjoy a reading space with their
children or take a break to Tweet and Instagram from School Specialty’s
booth. A number of products were up for grabs by winners of games
played at the booth. Mom bloggers were also given the opportunity to
review School Specialty products. Their reviews can be seen on
Pinterest at
http://www.pinterest.com/schoolspecialty/giftofedu-blogger-reviews/.

twiniversity’s Natalie Diaz posted, “Before I close my eyes tonight, I
just want to thank the wonderful people at @kidzvuz for allowing the
twins and I to spend a wonderful day playing, snacking, learning about
new products, and toasting (with coffee of course) the upcoming
holidays with friends. I don’t know how you guys do it.
#kidzvuzHoliday.”

It was an awesome kick-off of the holiday season for School Specialty
with the KidzVuz organization and other brand sponsors such as HP,
Annie Movie and Keurig. Children and parents in attendance were able to
scoop up lots of cool tools and gear.

For more information on how to participate in School Specialty’s “Gift
of Education” program, please visit the Company’s website/landing page:
https://store.schoolspecialty.com/OA_HTML/xxssi_ibeCampaignPage.jsp?doc
Name=G2424401&minisite=10206.

About School Specialty, Inc.

School Specialty is a leading distributor of innovative and proprietary
products, programs and services to the education marketplace. The
Company designs, develops, and provides educators with the latest and
very best school supplies, furniture and both curriculum and
supplemental learning resources. Working in collaboration with
educators, School Specialty reaches beyond the scope of textbooks to
help teachers, guidance counselors and school administrators ensure
that every student reaches his or her full potential. For more
information about School Specialty, visit www.schoolspecialty.com.