Leadership expects staff to produce weekly booklets that include all curricular materials. However--it takes anywhere from 1-2 hours for one teacher to photocopy one class's worth of booklets using the outdated copy/printer machines--and that's if the machine is operating at maximum capacity (i.e. no jams, toner outages, stapler outages, etc). Teachers end up waiting for literal hours for their turn to print. Some teachers even show up more than an hour before the official clock-in time just to make copies--and then find they can't make copies because there is already either a line of teachers waiting to print and/or one of three available machines is broken. And yes--there are only three machines available for the whole school, with only one of these machines capable of making color copies. The machines are spread out among the two buildings that make up the school, so good luck if you're stuck teaching in the building with only one printer (which is black and white only). There is a fourth machine, but it is locked up in a room that won't be available until October (or at least that is what leadership says.).
The machines that are available are so outdated, one of them (the sole printer/copier in one of the buildings) can't even switch paper trays automatically, which means that printing jobs stall when the machine thinks its out of paper (a common phenomenon when each teacher is expected to print 140 copies of a 15-page booklet each week). Unless you are actively monitoring your print job, you risk stalling the printing line just because the machine is too outdated to do something as simple as automatically switch to another paper tray. Even the hired tech support has been unable to remedy this glitch. Other teachers say that this has been an issue since before this year, and requests for new printers have already been made in previous semesters. You'd think that between then and the new school year, such a fundamental need would have been met. It has not.
Leadership will not relent on the expectation that these booklets are printed each week, but they will excuse themselves for locking up a printer in a room that won't be available (supposedly) until October. To leadership, there is no excuse for late copies or booklets printed in sections to accommodate the printing demands. There is no grace for the extraordinary stress that accumulates from encountering some kind of printing dilemma every. single. day. But leadership is entitled to use every excuse under the sun to do absolutely nothing about the printer situation, except making more excuses and tell teachers to be "solution oriented" and "assume best intent."
