In this episode, In-plant Impressions’ Editor Bob Neubauer talks with Chuck Werninger, who recently moved from Houston Independent School District’s in-plant to become chief officer of print production and distribution at the Region 4 Education Service Center, which serves 20% of Texas’ students. Funded by a state grant, he’s been tasked with building a new facility and adding print equipment, and expects to oversee the printing of billions of pages of open education resource textbooks per year.

In this discussion, Chuck reflects on the success of production inkjet at HISD, explains the mission of the Region 4 Education Service Center, and talks about his plans to build a printing operation to handle the high demand for curriculum materials. In the first year he expects to print nearly $100 million worth of textbooks, amounting to 3-4 billion pages

Curriculum, he says, is a “massive” opportunity for K-12 in-plants, and he offers them advice on how to work with their school district’s curriculum team and ask the right questions to learn how they want curriculum delivered, and how the in-plant can save them money doing it in-house.