For Immediate Release – 11/24/07

Press Contact: Maureen McFadden  

JACK O’CONNELL, CALIFORNIA'S SUPERINTENDENT FOR PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, TO BE GUEST OF HONOR FOR RECEPTION HOSTED BY RECORDING FOR THE BLIND & DYSLEXIC IN SANTA BARBARA

Santa Barbara, CA – The Santa Barbara Unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) will host a meet and greet reception for Jack O’Connell, the California State Superintendent for Public Instruction, at Noon on December 7, 2007 at the Hampton Inn, 5665 Hollister Avenue, Goleta (between Kellogg & Kinman).  Following the reception, Superintendent O’Connell will participate in recording, from 1:05 – 1:25 p.m., a California state adopted textbook at RFB&D’s studios across the street (5638 Hollister Avenue, Suite 210). 

Attending the reception for Jack O’Connell will be the area’s school superintendents (including SBCEO Superintendent, Bill Cirone, and SB School Districts Superintendent, Brian Sarvis), along with special education directors and instructors, individuals who use the RFB&D audio textbook service, as well as RFB&D staff and board members. 

Superintendent O’Connell will speak briefly about the importance of special education in our schools and how RFB&D plays a crucial role in helping students who are challenged by the printed word because of a disability.  Executive Director, Tim Owens, will talk about the Unit’s new Educational Outreach Program and their efforts to help more students than ever before.  There will also be moving stories by Kristen Reed, the Unit’s Educational Outreach Director, and students who have used the RFB&D service to transform their lives.

Jack T. O’Connell was elected to his current post in November 2002 with 61% of the vote.  He previously served on the Santa Barbara County School Board.  He later went on to serve in the California State Assembly as a Democrat representing the Central Coast-based 35^th District from 1982 to 1994.  He then won election from the 18^th District to the California State Senate where he served from 1994 to 2002.  As California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, O’Connell is best known for writing legislation to make the California High School Exit Exam a graduation requirement for high school students. 

The Santa Barbara Unit of RFB&D was founded in 1976.  Its 200 weekly volunteers spend more than 14,000 hours yearly producing 160+ audio books for students in all grades – kindergarten through graduate and professional schools.  These books are then housed in the nation’s largest audio textbook library, consisting of 40,000 digitally recorded titles, at the organization’s headquarters in Princeton.  Audio books are currently distributed on CDs to schools and individual nationwide. 

RFB&D’s mission is to create opportunities for individual success with its learning through listening program.  Its vision is to give all people equal access to the printed word.

RFB&D builds confidence and lives!  Studies by Rutgers University show that students using RFB&D audio textbooks significantly increase their reading accuracy, reading rate and comprehension.  Self-esteem and self-confidence increases as students perform better academically and professionally -- for many with print disabilities using RFB&D’s audio books can be life changing. 

Today, RFB&D is serving nearly 200,000 students nationwide and more than 500 students in the counties are served by the Santa Barbara Unit of RFB&D.