Case Study: Hoquiam School District

Chris Nitti, Digital Age Coordinator, Hoquiam School District is enthusiastic, to say the least. It makes us wonder if positive thinking is contagious. As if, by being enthusiastic and encouraging, we could overcome any obstacle, and upend the status quo. Now that we’ve met him, we believe this to be the case.

“I want to revolutionize this district and make it a technology magnet that draws students from all over the region,” said Mr. Nitti.

Truly a noble idea, but in his newly appointed role as Digital Age Coordinator, Mr. Nitti quickly saw the bottlenecks:

• 103 different kinds of toner on the shelf
• Different makes and models of printers scattered district-wide
• Lack of access to color copying

All of which pointed to a distinct absence of a consistently managed printer policy. And the need for backup, post-haste.

“Kelley Create reached out and offered to come to the district for two days, visit all six campuses, find every printer, and give an assessment of our printing needs,” explained Mr. Nitti. “When they told me they were doing this gratis, I said, ‘Come on down, you’re the next contestant at the Hoquiam School District!’”

Which led to some not-so-surprising results.

“They found printers that could go to a brewery and order a beer since they were 22 years old,” said Mr. Nitti. “But they took all the info, reserved judgment, and just provided data. Raw data. Because they know the district is concerned about budget, and our job is to make decisions based on quantitative data. That’s how change occurs here.”

Change is hard, but it’s a challenge we help our partners navigate toward. And when it comes to managed print services, our free assessments provide a broader knowledge of the overall print environment – the only way to create workflow efficiencies that reduce the burden for administrators and IT staff.

Bottom line: fewer printer models and supplies bought in bulk create a budget-friendly print environment. But as we often find during assessments, there’s often a few surprises.

“Our official policy is that teachers don’t bring in personal printers,” explained Mr. Nitti. “But many teachers do – they buy printers and ink with their own money. This is not equitable. So there’s also savings there, saving them their own money. That’s the ‘equity’ in ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”

Now Mr. Nitti sees a clear path to a streamlined, efficient, effective printer fleet that comes in at a lower price point, reduces workload, and saves money by buying supplies in bulk.

But he’s just getting started (remember what we said about enthusiasm). Here are his parting thoughts. Get ready to be inspired!

“Hoquiam is a former logging town that lost half of its population, half its students since the ’90s. Now we are on track to become our region’s technology magnet. Kelley Create is a vital piece of our renaissance as a district, providing modern print services and support. I intend to double our self-directed grant funding to 1.5 million dollars next year. We may have won $830,000 in grant funding in our first year as a new department, to purchase a whole new fleet of student Chromebooks, and provide an Interactive Flat Panel for every teaching and learning space in our district. And yes, we were also the first district in the state of Washington to develop a Virtual Reality lab for staff and student use, but this is just the beginning: we are already in talks to create a working Holodeck, straight out of Star Trek, for next year. Along with it, we will have our first Hoquiam WorldForge, a class devoted to turning students into virtual world-builders, which will be a national first. I am surfing the crest of this wave as our town brings in new residents with more income, and I want everyone who moves here to say, ‘Of course, I’ll send my kids to the Hoquiam School District, who wouldn’t?’”

Don’t you dare stop, Mr. Nitti: We’re with you.