2011 printing comparisons for WDM Schools

Last year, we published “The Biggest Loser: paper edition” showing which schools were reducing their printing expenses at our district print shop.  Over a two year period, schools were saving a minimum of 25%, while some reduced as much as 75%.  However, this was only looking at our district print shop.  This year, we’ve monitored all printing devices to help us get a more complete picture….

Q1. Which school prints the least amount of pages per child per semester?

		Printed pages/child per semester
1	Fairmeadows Elementary	916
2	Westridge Elementary	1,043
3	Phenix Early Childhood Center	1,057
4	Jordan Creek Elementary	1,127
5	Crossroads Park Elementary	1,289
6	Crestview Elementary	1,368
7	Hillside Elementary	1,547
8	Clive Elementary	1,726
9	Western Hills Elementary	1,766
10	Valley High School	1,782
11	Valley Southwoods Freshman High School	2,163
12	Walnut Creek Campus (Alt HS)	2,503
13	Stilwell Junior High	2,511
14	Indian Hills Junior High	2,661

Q2. How was this calculated?
All of the stats are from the same time period, July 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011.  Pages printed per child per semeter = # pages from print shop  + # pages from building copiers + # pages from buiding printers / # students enrolled.  Download the full stats for pages per student.

Q3. Which school spends the least on printing per child?

		Cost/Student per semester
1	Fairmeadows Elementary	$6.99
2	Jordan Creek Elementary	$7.37
3	Westridge Elementary	$8.11
4	Phenix Early Childhood	$8.88
5	Crestview Elementary	$9.50
6	Western Hills Elementary	$11.45
7	Clive Elementary	$11.90
8	Hillside Elementary	$12.16
9	Crossroads Park Elementary	$13.42
10	Valley High School	$14.38
11	Stilwell Junior High	$16.38
12	Indian Hills Junior High	$17.08
13	Valley Southwoods Freshman High	$17.47
14	Walnut Creek Campus (Alt HS)	$22.56

Q4. How are $ per student per semester calculated?
All stats are from the same time period: July 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011.  $ spent per student =  $ spent at print shop + $ spent at copiers + $ spent at building printers / # students enrolled.  Download the full stats for cost per student.

Q5.  Why are the rankings different for each comparison?  Why aren’t they the same?
The average printing cost is different at each device (print shop vs copier vs building printers).  Some schools print more economically than others, depending on where they choose to print.  On average, a single printed sheet at the print shop is 1/2 cent.  The building copier cost is 1 cent – and at the building printer, the cost is at or over  3 cents per page.  Another factor is color, as that ranges from 5 to 10 cents per page and the usage also varies from school to school.

Q6. So what’s the purpose of all this?
The purpose is to give us a view of how we are doing in regards to printing.  If we provide your school with only your stats, then you have no basis for knowing how it compares – so we’ve included everyones stats.  We’ll run the stats again next fall and compare to the same timeframe to see how we are progressing.

Q7.  Hold on…. what about the district office (LRC) and operations? Where are their numbers?
They are available at the bottom of  the full stats for pages per student and cost per student… they were not included in the charts, since we can’t divide their cost by number of children enrolled.

Saving money on printing….

Today, I was copied on an email that was sent to all Jordan Creek Elementary staff from their building administrators updating the staff on a quick comparison of building printing.

In 2010 – Building Laser Printer Costs (Oct. 31-Nov.13) was  $746.90

This year, 2011 – Building Laser Printer Costs (Oct. 30-Nov.12) was $177.95

Total savings for two weeks of Fall conferences on building printers = $568.95

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Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean they went paperless. It’s likely that much of the printing was shifted to more cost efficient printers – which are not included in the costs, but the end point is this – they are more aware of costs and usage.

 What the secret to making this happen?
We setup our print server to send out 2 automated reports once a week to each building administrator. The first report shows printer usage at their site, including total pages and cost.  The second report shows how their building printers compare to printers at other schools.   Sending this information is part of the secret.  It doesn’t show who is printing what or highlight any specific user –  instead, it shows general trends and gives schools an idea of whether they are printing more or less than others.  In prior years, we would send things to the printer as if we didn’t know whether it cost money or not –  because we really didn’t know what the cost was or how much we were using.