Why The Fontana Unified School District Made the Leap Over to Inkjet
No in-plant manager wants to think about budget cuts from the parent organization, but for school district in-plants in particular, budget cuts have been especially harsh in recent years. To save money for its district, the Fontana Unified School District’s Printing Service department made the bold decision to switch from toner to inkjet in October 2024 when it installed a Kyocera TASKalfa 15000c inkjet press.
“We, as print shops, need to come up with creative ways to save money,” says Print Services Supervisor Donna Enriquez.
The new press has cut costs in several ways, she notes. It reduced the Fontana, California, in-plant’s cost per impression from $0.045 to $0.008, she says, substantially increasing its operating margins. It also saved money on electricity usage by operating with low-voltage technology, which has both benefited the environment and cut operational costs.
Beyond that, though, it’s just a great press, she says.
“I really do love it,” Enriquez says. “I feel like the inkjet press is so perfect for education.”
Enriquez and her five employees are responsible for printing for 45 schools in this district of 36,000 K-12 students, about an hour east of Los Angeles. Now, thanks to its Kyocera TASKalfa 15000c inkjet press, the in-plant can print curriculum materials in color for a fraction of the price.
“We’re able to do purposeful printing for our kiddos, and the fact that we can get them these activities in color means a lot to us,” she says. “Especially for our younger kiddos who had to go from seeing everything in color on their devices during COVID, to then coming back to school and seeing everything in … boring black-and-white monochrome. I think it’s really helping with learning, and the color really helps engage kids so that they can learn better and have the tools and the resources that they need to be successful.”
In addition to curriculum materials, her team can now produce student planners and student agendas as well, Enriquez says.
Between the lower cost per impression and the reduction in electricity usage, the inkjet press is making a noticeable difference in the bottom line.
“I'm looking at our budgets and what we did last year for a project … it's almost like 40% less that I'm billing back to schools,” she says.
The Kyocera TASKalfa 15000c replaced Canon toner devices, she says, and the installation was virtually seamless.
“We partnered with Visual Edge IT. They sold us the machine and helped us install it,” she says. “They handled any kind of hiccups that had happened during the installation … so we’re very, very thankful for them and the partnership we have.”
In the very beginning the shop had some problems with stapling, but they worked through it and now Visual Edge is even considering adding a Plockmatic device on the end of the inkjet to improve the in-plant’s stapling capabilities.
Though the inkjet press was installed late last year, Enriquez admits that she’s had her eye on her new device for about two years.
“I think the lightbulb for inkjet went off for me about two years ago at PRINTING United. That was one of my first opportunities to see an inkjet’s capabilities, and it was sort of like this big ‘coming out party.’ So, after that it was definitely on my radar,” Enriquez says.
Even though Enriquez cannot express enough how happy she is with the inkjet press, she admits it took some time to convince her colleagues to make the switch from toner.
“They compare it to toner, and no, it’s not going to be exactly the same. But I’ll just say we haven’t had one teacher or admin complain, and I feel like to a naked eye, someone that doesn’t know printing, they're not going to understand or even notice the difference,” Enriquez says. “But I will be honest, a lot of people told me, ‘That’s not a good idea.’ Not even just friends and colleagues but my press operators too.”
However, it’s a safe bet to say her staff has come around. Even with multiple toner devices still running, her operators prefer working with the Kyocera TASKalfa 15000c. She even foresees the in-plant becoming majority inkjet with one toner press that can be used for more high-end items.
Enriquez herself admits that she was even a little apprehensive in the beginning, but ultimately, being able to provide students with color at a lower cost has overtaken her concern about perfect color quality.
“I thought that people would want perfect color. But I think for education, you don't really need perfected color as long as the ink is on the page,” Enriquez says. “I hope that more people will be willing to go that route because I can just see the need in the school district. And I think when we think of the school district, because we're all taxpayers, we want to be good stewards of the money. I feel like for me, that's the biggest thing is to be a good steward of the taxpayers’ money.”
