by Liza DiStefano Co-editor-in-chief

Mysterious envelopes embellished with “Panther Printing Service” have cropped up on walls and doors all around school. What purpose do these manila containers have, and who’s behind this?

“[Each teacher] was given an envelop, with order forms in it, and what they would do is fill out the order form with their master copy, put it in the envelop, put that in the pocket, and we pick it up,” said Marsha Gross, Special Education teacher.

We meaning the Special School District students that speckle the Mehlville student body that now take the burden of making copies off teachers who simply do not have the time.

Instead of wasting precious planning period time or staying after hours to make 100’s of copies of class worksheets, teachers may not conveniently place an order, including the date they need it by, in one of these not-so-mysterious PPS pouches.

“Since our community based vocational instructional programs have been cut due to budget constraints, we were looking to start something outside, that really didn’t cost transportation. Something that would cost very little,” said Gross.

So they obtained a copy machine, and working out of an office in the back of the library, began their personal service project.

Similar to how the school store operates, the four or five students who participate in PPS are actually enrolled in it as a block long class for credit.

After sending out several emails to teachers and leaving notes in their mailboxes, the PPS began getting their first orders.

“I’ve gotten a lot of feedback back from teachers too, saying they really appreciate it. That our kids are very professional and have good manners. So far, so good,” said Gross.

Kids make their rounds at the beginning of their assigned block, checking the many envelop and box locations for new orders and dropping off warm off the printer copies.

As well as taking care of Mehlville’s copy needs, PPS has taken on the recycling in place of the old “send-whoever-whenever” system as part of a new policy. Teachers simply set their bins outside of their class rooms at the beginning of class, and will have them returned by the end of the block.

“The kids really enjoy it,” said Gross.