The print shop plays a vital role in cost savings, reducing workload for schools, and ensuring students have the materials they need. Recently, the print shop opened its doors to all JUSD staff and provided guided tours.
“The print shop is part of the purchasing department. Here at Jurupa, we’re fortunate enough to have a really expansive print shop,” said Jeffrey Lewis, Director of Purchasing, Business Services.
JUSD’s print shop has seen tremendous growth throughout its years in operation.
“It goes back to the days of old printing presses, dyes, dark rooms, so we’ve been able to expand and upgrade the print shop as new technologies become available and provide additional services.” Mr. Lewis said.
Thanks to those investments, JUSD has expanded its printing capabilities.
“We’ve made a lot of investments, and right now we have some extra capacity,” Mr. Lewis said. “We’ve been printing for some other school districts, which has been great because we’re able to share and pass on some savings to them, but also bring in some additional revenue to the district, and that allows us to take that money, and it goes back into the general fund, to support the district as a whole.”
Cost savings are among the most beneficial aspects of keeping printing in-house.
“If we were to outsource it, farm it out to a commercial shop or something, obviously, the cost of our printing would be astronomical,” said Alex Cruz, Print Technician, Reprographics and Records. “Doing it in-house, it's a lot cheaper, and we get to customize it to whichever school sites that we’re working with.”
The print shop makes a wide range of materials for the JUSD school sites and departments.
“We produce all the consumable textbooks for school sites (such as) teacher packets, homework packets, reader books,” said Sylvia Palmer, Supervisor, Reprographics and Records.
The print shop also produces specialty items.
“We print certificates that have foil on them, we print diplomas, we print banners, the window perforation,(and) wall wrap.” Ms. Palmer said.
By controlling the printing of materials directly, students and teachers benefit, Ms. Palmer said.
“Here, we control all of that so we can print it when students need it, and we can print it according to a pacing guide of when they need it.” Ms. Palmer said. “It allows us to print in a way that’s most conducive to teachers teaching.”
The print shop allows for accessibility to meaningful and timeless publications such as yearbooks.
“We are able to print yearbooks at a very small price point for middle school and elementary school students.” Ms. Palmer said. ”Just about every school site that uses our print shop is able to give a yearbook to every single student…and that’s something special, they’re taking home those memories from the year.”
The print shop’s doors are always open to JUSD staff. In fact, print shop staff encourage in-person visits to get a feel for the options and materials available.
“If they can’t feel the paper or see what kind of color it is, I tell them, ‘Well, come in.” Said Tomas Sanchez, Senior Print Technician, Reprographics and Records.“I have sample books also, so they can pick out certain things that we don't have on the storefront.”
“People in the district are not aware of the capabilities of what we can do for them, so this way it exposes our work…It opens the door.” Mr. Cruz said.
