By now, you may have seen a green pop-up window show up on the upper right corner of  your desktop. This pop-up is to show your printing balance, which is part of a new printing program for the school that started earlier this semester. Each student starts with $8.00, which equals 400 pages.

Ms. Swenson, the EHS librarian and media specialist, said, “Our goal is to help students be more thoughtful about what they print and waste less paper.” The plan helps students do just that, as a pop-up window shows up every time you request to print something. The pop-up shows how much money is coming out of your balance. For example, if you’re printing 1 page, $0.02 will be removed from the $8.00 you started with.

The program uses a software called PaperCut, an organization that is used by over 50,000 organizations. To decide how much money the school would give each student, the media center reached out to Student Council and colleges who use a similar program. “Local colleges give their students a balance of 500 pages, but we decided that 400 pages would work just fine,” Ms. Swenson said.

Teacher and student reception to the program has been positive so far. “I think it makes sense,” said junior Lauren Tabor, “People kind of take advantage of the media center’s resources.” Ms. Swenson said that teachers have contacted her praising the program’s value for the students. “We have heard no complaints,” she said.

If your balance is out, simply head to the media center and they will add money to your account for free. However, next year it will be up to you to refill your balance. Your balance will also not rollover into the next school year.