New In-plant Blends Education With Production

By building an in-plant from scratch, Lufkin Independent School District is both preparing students for employment and saving money.

By Bob Neubauer

When the Lufkin Independent School District decided to create an in-plant at its Lufkin, Texas-based high school, it went all out.

First it hired Brian Crews, who had spent the previous 10 years running the in-plant and graphic arts instructional program for the Gladewater School District, an hour and a half away. Then it installed new prepress, offset and finishing gear worth close to $600,000, including computer-to-plate (CTP) equipment and two-color presses.

"They told me to put together my Christmas list of everything I wanted," remarks Crews. And even though that list was substantial, the school board approved it unanimously, he says.

Just after Christmas a year ago the equipment started rolling in. In one five-day period, Crews says, a semi truckload of equipment arrived every day. Installation took about four weeks. When it was over, the district had a fully equipped in-plant staffed by Crews, a copy specialist and a co-op student, and covering 3,200 square feet of space, not including the classroom, office and stock room.

This was a major change for a district that had previously operated only a small copy center and outsourced all other printing. But in a part of Texas rife with printing and paper companies, the idea of training students for graphic arts careers was too good for the district to pass up. The high school even closed down its wood shop to create the print shop.

A Focus on Education

This school year Crews is teaching two introductory classes and two advanced classes to ninth- and tenth-grade students. This follows a successful second semester of courses the previous school year and a summer work program.

To make sure his students are serious about graphic arts, Crews hand picks them after an interview, limiting each class to 13 students. Those in the advanced classes are responsible for printing many of the items needed by the district's 14 schools, from stationery and calendars to student handbooks and teachers' manuals. They even print the four-color brochures that departments use to recruit students into their programs. Their work carries the proud statement "Printed by Lufkin High School graphic arts students."

All of this has taken work away from the local printers, which include national giant American Color Graphics, but not one of them is complaining, Crews says. That's because for years they have had trouble recruiting skilled employees. Thanks to Lufkin's graphic arts program that problem will soon end.

"This has been a very welcome addition, as far as they're concerned," Crews says.

Already one of his students has gotten a job offer, he adds. For the district, this is a welcome payback on its investment.

Though Crews could have started off modestly in his equipment requests, he felt, and the school board agreed, that training students on the latest equipment was the most productive move.

"I just told them it was the most widely used equipment in this market, and the students trained on this equipment would be much more marketable," he explains.

CTP Front End

The centerpiece of the operation is the A.B.Dick DPM2340 digital platesetter, with ScanMaster for scanning hard copy into the CTP workflow.

"The DPM2340 requires very little setup and little or no adjustments for the plates," Crews lauds. "I was very impressed by its simplicity and with the quality and reproduction we are getting from the 8-mil polyester plates. We're running four-color process day in and day out with them."

In fact, the call for four-color printing is huge, Crews says. The in-plant supplies it using a two-color A.B.Dick 9995 and a two-color Heidelberg Printmaster. Just last month the shop also added a pair of A.B.Dick 9810 presses, one with a T-head unit.

"Market-wide, by offering these kids exposure to learn and work on a press like the 9995 and other dominant products, it will help them and the industry in the future," says Crews, who once worked as an A.B.Dick offset technician in Oklahoma.

Merged With Copy Center

Last summer, the district folded its copy center into the in-plant, giving Crews' crew a trio of Xerox 5885s. The shop also received a donation from NASA's nearby facility of a 54˝ Encad NovaCut 54 wide-format printer and vinyl cutter. Crews plans to output banners for the schools, saving the district lots of money in outsourcing costs.

Crews also assembled an impressive bindery for the in-plant. It includes three Interlake stitchers, two Baum folders and a Baum Quickset 10 collator with an inline stitch-and-fold unit from ISP Stitching & Bindery Products, among other equipment.

In the classroom, students have 12 Macintosh G4 computers at their disposal. Another G4 is in Crews' office, networked to the DPM2340.

Despite having an equipment arsenal that would make many in-plants jealous, Crews is eager to add even more gear. He is writing a grant that he hopes will get his shop a Heidelberg GTO 52. But it's all for the benefit of his students and their future in the printing business. Knowing the influence he is having on those students makes Crews a very happy man.

"It has been just a remarkable experience here," he says.