As President of my children's elementary school's PTA this year, one of my goals was to improve communication through our newsletter and website. Our newsletter had been haphazard at best, sometimes we had one, sometimes not. Fact is, it was a lot of work for one person and making copies for 850 kids every month on the school's older copier machines was a challenge. Then I got a postcard from www.schoolhousenews.com. We sold 17 ads to local companies for $150 for the year(10 issues). For this we get 850 copies of our newsletter professionally designed and printed every month, for 10 months, and mailed to our school. Now, our secretary e-mails the content that our committee chairs send her every month and Schoolhouse News puts it together in a beautiful newsletter and ships it to our school at the first of the month. I have heard nothing but positive comments from our parents and staff and would recommend it to everyone.
Teresa
Last year the PTO purchased their own copier. The school still does print our newsletter for us but we copy everything else. It is nice this way. We have better control over how and when things get copied. We are not overloading their staff and we don't have to rely on them to get our copies made.
Our school gives all the teachers and the PTO a code for the copier--this allows so many copies per month. We as the PTO never have enough "allowed copies" so our President copies alot of items at her place of employment and i make copies for my treasurers stuff at the library or at home on my printer. Our PTO buys all the paper we make copies on at the school.
As budgets are tight, our PTO offered to turn in used printer cartridges to Office Depot and Office Max for a free ream of paper. We have donated dozens of reams to the Middle School so far.
For our newsletter and other full school letters, we take it to Office Depot or our local printer. We are getting incorporated with our own tax number and we are priding ourselves on being as self sufficient as we can. We earn the money, so we try to take care of our own expenses. 10-15 copies? Ok at the school, but otherwise, we take care of it.
FYI. :cool:
We purchase our paper throught the school district and the school makes our copies for us.
Before our school purchased two big copiers and a rizo, the PTO sent out the newsletter to be copied and it was about $35 for 800 copies on colored paper.
I love doing our newsletter! I've often put in it info that didn't get into the school's newsletter and reminders. Ex. time to check school suppiles! Many of our children are needing glue sticks, crayons, pencils, etc!! Add these items to your shopping list while you shop for the holidays to help our students start off the year with a full supply box!
You know, fun stuff!
In case anyone needs a figure for comparison - "real costs" of copying include the copy machine costs/rental, toner, paper, and maintenance. Often this is tied to volume - especially on leased machines. The paper cost is easy to figure out, but the other sometimes more difficult. (Some places track it very closely.) But the point is, the school is paying expenses beyond just the paper.
At my office (200 people, a huge copy machine and 6 or 7 smaller ones), they track this closely so it can be billed back per division. Our real cost per impression (copying on one side of the paper) is 2.1 cents.
If I applied that factor to a 2 page PTO document at our school, it would cost the school $21.00.
The paper itself is only a tiny piece. I find it helpful to keep that in mind. The school's factor may be a little different, but it all adds up. They run hunreds of thousands of copies and in these tight budget times, I can see why they try to crack down - or at least get the paper supplied.
