Erie goes green, saving paper and plenty of cash as well
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ERIE, Pa. -- Local governments are doing more business electronically to save paper -- including cash.
The Erie School District saved almost 4 million sheets of paper and $22,000 in the last school year by discouraging unnecessary printing, assistant schools Superintendent Walt Strosser said.
A new Erie County initiative to distribute monthly financial reports by e-mail will save an estimated $1,000 a month on ledger paper, said Sue Ellen Pasquale, manager of general accounting for the county.
Additional paperless initiatives are also under way or planned to save some green for taxpayers.
"It's kind of a synergistic thing going on. And it's building," Erie County Clerk Doug Smith said.
Erie's Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy has been on the leading edge of that synergy, and this fall will launch its biggest paperless project yet.
Incoming freshmen will do all class work and homework electronically. Even field-trip permissions and other parent notifications will be handled online and via the district's automated phone system, Associate Dean Jim Vieira said.
"We expect this next freshman class will be the first to go 100 percent paperless," he said.
The school previously reduced paper in the two classes that used the most of it -- computer and language arts, Mr. Vieira said. Teachers trained themselves and others to use e-mail, Google Docs and Wikispaces instead of paper to assign and accept student work.
Students submit assignments via home computer, school laptop or computers available in school labs, Mr. Vieira said.
"Teachers and students have bought into this, and being paperless is culturally acceptable," Mr. Vieira said. "As the class of 2015 comes in, a lot of the big stuff is in place."
Collegiate Academy's first paperless class is part of a larger Erie School District initiative to save paper and paper costs.
First Published August 15, 2011 12:00 am
