Concealed within the lively halls of South lies a hidden gem of craftsmanship. South’s Print Shop serves as a valuable resource for teachers to enhance their educational materials; it enables them to ease their bustling days by simply walking down the Old Pit’s food hallway to collect their sizable stacks of paper for their classes.
The print shop is the birthplace of almost every worksheet, packet, poster, or even lamination one finds given to them by their teacher, according to Scott Engel, the Print Shop’s Account Coordinator. Engel arrives at the print shop at 7:30 a.m. each day and works to prepare papers for teachers. Teachers are constantly flowing in and out of the print shop, enabling Engel to engage with staff from numerous departments, fostering collaboration and camaraderie.
“You get to meet [most of] the teachers to talk about different things,” Engel said. “I get to see all the different departments [and I get] close to a lot of them.”
The process of uploading the items needed to be printed for staff is quite simple, Engel explained. A teacher will submit their printing requirements using an online system called PaperCut, and once the requested materials are ready for pickup, the staff will receive an email alerting them, Engel said. Many teachers can attest to the efficiency and quickness of the print shop, including Chemistry Teacher David Lieberman.
“[It is] nothing but a positive experience,” Lieberman said. “I use [the print shop] a lot and they’re always timely with my orders.] Engel] gets my [paper printed] in a couple of hours, and If I do need something ASAP, he can do that too. [He does] a great job.”
The print shop is busiest in August before school as well as right before finals in January, completing between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs each month on average, Engel said. One of the print shop’s greatest undertakings was the printing of 450 posters of photos of South students, which were showcased around the exterior of South. Completing the project took over a week-and-half to complete, Engel said.
When printing a large sum of paper, it is essential to recognize the environmental impact. The print shop does its best to be environmentally friendly, Engel explained.
If a problem does occur within the printing process, Engel is quick to alert the staff and resolve the issue, according to Reggie Lara, Social Studies Teacher and Boys’ Head Soccer Coach. When Lara requested to print senior booklets for the Varsity Boys’ Soccer Team, there was an issue with paper jamming as a result of the thickness of the booklets and the large quantity of ink needed. Engel quickly contacted Lara, and after discussing a few minor changes, Engel swiftly made adjustments to the booklets to resolve the issue before it scaled to a large waste of paper.
“I try to pick up whatever I can [so the] machines don’t waste much paper,” Engel said. “There’s not much jamming, so we save paper that way.”
Nevertheless, the large usage of paper does serve a great purpose for students. Many teachers can attest that there is an intentional, educational reason behind having students use actual paper compared to a digital copy of an assignment, Lara explained.
“Students are able to better comprehend what they’re reading and [are] better able to interact with what they’re reading when it’s on paper,” Lara said.
