photo by McKella Sylvester
The Scotch Plains-Fanwood copy room goes through approximately eight million sheets of paper every school year. The person behind the management of all this paper is Julio Vasquez.
Vasquez starts his day at seven in the morning; the first thing on his agenda is checking copy requests. Teachers either hand in a copy request sheet or email Vasquez. Vasquez prefers emails and they are the most common considering many teachers remember they need copies later in the day. To Vasquez, these requests start his job process and for the students they are the creation of tomorrow night’s homework.
Upon arrival, Vasquez says that there are a lot of teachers requesting help outside the copy room or doing their own copying. Vasquez explains that there are three copy machines in the room; two of which are for his use and the other for the teachers. The teachers are informed to only copy small amounts of paper by themselves, and any large orders should go directly to Vasquez.
Because Vasquez only uses two copiers for a large amount of requests, paper jams are very detrimental to his schedule. When one printer jams, all copies need to be made on a single copier, which is very difficult. Although most students hope that one day the English packets will come to a halt, Vasquez still manages to complete his work load.
Other than that obstacle, “I don’t think there is anything really hard. It is not brain surgery and there is nothing really hard about making copies,” Vasquez says regarding his job. Although the work in the copy room is not brain surgery, biology teachers would refer to the copy room as the mitochondria of SPFHS. Teachers are dependent on the constant creation of needed documents. This job also seems easy to Vasquez because of his past work experience.
He worked in corporate making copies and he discusses the fast paced system when working in corporate. Although the teachers at SPFHS need copies as soon as possible, it is nothing compared to his previous job.
Being here at SPFHS, Vasquez says that he has made a lot of friendships and enjoys the company of teachers. He says, “I see the teachers all day and even the students. It helps to feel not lonely– especially in this room with no windows.”
Vasquez also appreciates seeing students often. Even outside of school, Julio gets warm greetings from students that recognize him. Vasquez is important to both the school copy room and the overall school environment.
