BY RYAN MERARD
In the past, students have been able to print from the CCHS library without having to worry about the cost of ink or paper. Now, that has changed, as students will soon have to pay a fee to print from the school’s library. Students will now be charged 15 cents for black and white documents and 30 cents for color documents.
Every student will be provided with an account allotted with $30 which will only be used for school printing. This means that multiple free copies can be printed by a student before their account reaches zero and will need to begin paying for every document that they print.
Once a student’s account has been drained, they will have to add money to the account using the online payment tool on the CCHS website. The money will only be able to be put into the account in increments, like $5, $10 and $15.
There were certain actions made by many students that caused the school to instate this new fee.
“In the previous years, students were printing out reams of papers and many of those papers were being left unclaimed.”
“Almost every school in Broward County charges students for printing in school,” Student Assessment Specialist Melissa Megna said. “In the previous years, students were printing out reams of papers and many of those papers were being left unclaimed which was a problem.”
The school wants to achieve some goals by charging for printing, such as making the students more environmentally conscious. The school does not like the idea of excessive papers being printed yearly by students and felt as if a change had to be made.
Once this charge is put into effect, the school expects that students will most likely take advantage of options such as creating documents to be double-sided when printing to cut back on the paper used.
This could help minimize the number of pages that are printed which could lead to the school saving money instead of constantly having to replenish ink and copy paper among other supplies. This money could instead be used to improve on other important school resources.
“Kids are wasting too much paper these days.”
“I feel that adding a fee for printing in the library is fair. Kids are wasting too much paper these days,” sophomore Steven Adelman said. “Without this, anybody can print 50 pages a day if they wanted.”
Students across the school have different opinions on the new printing charge, but most seem to understand the reason behind it.
“It sucks that we have to now pay to print in the library because we never had to in previous years,” sophomore Zachary Goodstein said. “Even though I don’t like it, I can understand why they want to start charging us when we use their paper and ink.”
The money generated from the fees will be used to fund the resources such as the ink and paper needed for library use.
Though this rule is not currently in effect, it will be starting October 22. The school plans to see more efficient uses of the ink and paper available in the library in the upcoming school years.
Photo by Cassie Hartmann
