An Arizona School In-plant’s Mission to ‘Fill the Gap’ and Secure Its Future

When Joseph Barz started as supervisor of Print Operations for Mesa Public Schools in Mesa, Arizona, he says the in-plant was in rough shape.

“When I got here … we were in the dark ages,” Barz recalls.

Four years later, Barz’s “master plan” for the shop has been a success.

“I put in this master plan of ‘This is where we want to be; this is where we want to go,’ and superintendency supported me all the way through it,” he says. “And so far, we've been really, really lucky: The schools and the departments have really taken hold of what we do and we're increasing orders and we're staying busy.”

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Barz says this plan of making the shop sustainable for the future is largely driven by his experience at his previous job, where he was constantly visiting print shops, particularly commercial printers.

“In that time, I saw a lot of shops closing their doors, and I saw a lot of the shops flourishing. So I went back and I looked at: OK, the ones that are flourishing — what are they doing?” he says.

That approach has enabled Print Operations to take on projects such as printing and installing window mesh (one of the district’s 82 schools had 96 windows done), yard signs, scrim banners, A-frame signs, metal signs, and more.

Over the past few months, the eight-person staff has heartily embraced new equipment — with more to come — to better support the district, and position itself as an invaluable resource for the 67,000 students and thousands of employees it serves.

Strengthening the Wide-Format Offer

From left: Kyler Browe, David Aranda, and Cory Nichols show off the new JUKI double needle sewing machine at Mesa Public Schools.

About three months ago, the in-plant added a Juki LU-1560 twin-needle embroidery machine for hemming banners.

“The standard is usually tape or welding,” Barz says. “We have a combination in Arizona of high heat, and we also get winds. So, we wanted a product that was going to withstand the heat and the winds both, because the weld would tear sometimes because of the wind that we would get, and the tape would start coming un-taped with the heat that we got. We wanted a product that the schools could invest in that was going to last them a long time.”

Barz says the machine has already been putting in the work; it’s used four days a week.

In early April, Print Operations also added a GFP 355TH 55” wide-format laminator for the floor graphics it creates with its HP Latex 335 printer and 64 Plus cutting solution.

“One of the areas that we're really trying to expand is into the wide-format arena,” Barz says. “With [traditional] print declining as much as it is, we're trying to fill in the gaps. What we've decided to do was go out more into the wide-format to do the floor graphics. And in order to do the floor graphics, it needed to be laminated with a slip-proof laminate over top of it to make sure that somebody didn't slip and fall, because of course with the school system, we have to follow all the safety rules that are out there.”

Not only is the in-plant using the laminator for floor graphics, but it’s also created stickers (one of its most common products), as well as labels for the maintenance department.

Venturing Into Apparel

While the in-plant is working to elevate its existing offerings, it also isn’t shying away from new opportunities. In February, the 10,000-sq.-ft. shop added the Mimaki TxF 150 direct-to-film (DTF) printer/shaker. This addition — plus the investment in a Stahls’ Hotronix heat press — were inspired by a visit to nearby Arizona State University’s in-plant, which Barz says is having huge success with the machines.

The in-plant ventured into apparel with a new heat press, shown here by heat press Cory Nichols (left) and Kyler Browe.

For Mesa Public Schools’ operation, apparel is an entirely new business, Barz says.

“I found out how much the district was spending a year sending out apparel and it was astronomical,” he explains. “So again, I was trying to find gaps and fill gaps of time and making sure that the print shop was going to be successful down the road, and this was one of the areas that I saw. I identified this one when I first started as an area that we wanted to go into. And superintendency has known about this … and they were 100% supportive with doing this because they saw how much of a savings it could bring to the district.”

According to Barz, the very first job the in-plant did with the DTF equipment was a shirt for one of the high school girls’ tennis teams.

“This shirt came out phenomenal,” he says. “They were so, so impressed, and our athletic director for the schools got a hold of me and he said, ‘Hey, I want to take a tour with all the high school athletic directors so we can see what you do here and get an idea. And they were flabbergasted when they walked out of here. They're just like ‘I had no idea you guys could do as much as you can do.’”

Other Investments

Showing off the new EnveJet are Dianna Ciani-Cebuhar (left) and Raymond Foster.

About six months ago, the Mesa-based in-plant added a Postmark EnveJet inkjet envelope printer.

“What we would do is we put [envelopes] on our Ryobi offset press and run them that way, but they're all short runs,” Barz says. “So what we decided to do is get something that could take the load off of that little press because we didn't use it that often.”

Barz adds that with the new inkjet envelope printer bridging the gap between envelopes and 8.5x11” sheets when needed, the in-plant plans to eliminate its two Ryobi offset presses in the next few months — meaning the shop will be fully digital.

But that’s not all. With the fiscal year ending in June, Barz says one of the first pieces of equipment to join the fleet in the new year will be a bookletmaker in the first quarter to replace its 15-year-old Duplo.

While the in-plant certainly promotes its own work to bring in business — by creating a promotional calendar and postcards, and hosting an annual open house — word of mouth has also been hugely important.

“If we get a couple orders for something a little bit different, all of a sudden that's all we're doing is window perfs [for example],” Barz says. “It's the strangest thing, and I think a lot of it is one principal will go to another school, see it, and go, ‘Whoa, wait, where'd you get that?’ ‘Oh, the print shop did it for me.’ And then it just snowballs.”