OXFORD — Schools around the Oxford Hills will be receiving new copy machines to help run off about 7 million copies the district makes each year.

“I, for one, am glad,” Rowe Elementary School Principal George Sincerbeaux said as he ran off copies early Friday morning at the Norway school.

He wasn’t the only one. Principals across the district expressed delight at the announcement during Tuesday night’s Board of Director’s meeting that Budget Document Technology of Lewiston would supply the replacement copiers to most schools in the district, plus the central office. The exceptions were Hebron Station School, which had a recent copier replacement, and Paris Elementary School, which did not receive a new copier.

Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy Coffey said the new contract calls for copies to cost 0.4 cents per copy. The older copier machines in service will still cost 0.6 cents per copy.

The winning bid was $9,000 less than what was previously budgeted.

Coffey said the copier budget of $101,500 has been the same for five years and includes the estimated cost for the lease-purchase of new copiers and service for both the old and new copiers. Based on the bid award and estimate of interest, Coffey said the total cost will be about $92,000 for the year.

“The actual cost will vary depending on the interest rate on the financing and the actual number of copies made in the district over the next year,” she said.

While 7 million copies may seem like a high number, Sincerbeaux said that not everything can be done electronically because some families do not have access to the Internet at home, and other documents are meant to be hung up on refrigerators, such as schedules and calendars.

Daily lunch numbers, notices to parents and much more are run off on the copier — even some documents that are also sent electronically, he said.

“Some things you have to run off,” Sincerbeaux said. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

There were four bidders for the contract for the new copy machines, in what officials called “a very competitive bidding process.”

The best of the old copiers will be relocated to where the greatest need is and the oldest will be taken out of service The hard drives and data contained in each that goes out of service is destroyed.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link