LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Public schools use millions of pieces of paper each year to print everything from school lunch menus to parent notices, but Lake County School District officials said continuing to do that on their own is getting too expensive.
"Right now at our copy center the machines that we have there are old and they are past their warranty date and to replace those would cost us about $500,000," Sherri Owens with Lake County Schools said.
Officials said added to that cost is the approximately $144,000 a year it cost to maintain that copy center.
District officials have come up with a plan to help save money. They said they will outsource their big printing jobs to Volusia County and to Office Depot.
They said their deal with Office Depot will allow them to get black and white printing for 2.2 cents a copy.
They said the printing would be done at the company's business production center in Boca Raton and the cost includes shipping the material back to the district.
Owens said the savings generated from the plan will go back into the classrooms.
"Any cost savings we can realize is a way to put money back in the budget for other needs, and it's just a responsible way of handling taxpayers' money," Owens said.
Residents who spoke with Channel 9 said any plan that can put more money into the classrooms sounds good.
"Anything to help the schools, really if it's going to work, I'm all for it," resident Jacy Jansen said.
"That sounds amazing to me," resident Ryan Hawthorne said.
WFTV
