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The print shop run by the Tucson Unified School District is preparing to launch an ambitious expansion campaign that will market its services to other school districts and charter schools.

While other departments are slicing staffing and services to help stave off a budget shortfall for next year, the self-sustaining print shop still had $150,000 left after paying for its expenses and the salaries of 11 workers. It increased its revenues, now hovering at $900,000, by a third during the past five years and soon could get even bigger.

Much of the success has been credited to manager Mike Ortiz, who ran the print shop at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base before retiring and moving to TUSD.

When he came on board in 2003, he said, the department — on the campus of Tucson High Magnet School — had been losing money and had woefully obsolete equipment.

His philosophy is to run the department like a business, he said.

Any jobs that had been going to outside commercial vendors were stopped. Any prices too far below what commercial vendors charged were raised. The department staff drew up a portfolio of available services and took it around to the district's principals and office managers to make their pitches that work should stay in-house. He received support from the administration to require that schools give the print shop first right of refusal before sending work to commercial printers.

Any excess money went into building efficiency and modernizing equipment. Where it took four workers to do pricing estimates by hand, the department now uses a software program. Large-scale mailings that used to bring the department to a halt for collating, stamping and sealing are now done by a machine and one person. The department also bought a large-format printer to make big pieces, such as large color signs for buses or vinyl banners for TUSD's 110 schools. The department even makes bumper stickers, buttons, pens and yearbooks.

Ortiz said expansion is part of his survival plan. With budget cuts come fewer printing jobs, he said. So the department just printed a brochure to go to all area schools. "It's a win-win," he said. His department can take the jobs while schools can get cheaper deals and, on top of that, won't pay sales tax.

While government is not supposed to compete outright with the private sector, state law allows districts to market their services to other districts on a cost-reimbursement basis. The TUSD legal department is researching whether the print shop also can market itself to other government agencies.

"Is it going to bum some commercial people out in Tucson? Sure it is," said Kevin Bannon, chairman of the industry group Printing Industries Association of Arizona. "But school districts have the right to do it and like everyone else, they're going to try to generate revenue so they can survive in this economy."

A bigger concern to Bannon is that there aren't enough school districts training young people to go into graphic arts and the industry is having a hard time finding workers. Students do not work in TUSD's shop because of liability issues.

The print shop is "a hidden treasure," said Arlene Benavidez, a project coordinator at the Metropolitan Education Commission.

The quote TUSD gave her for a series of 16-by-20-inch posters touting the agency's new regional college-access center was $500 less than commercial entities, she said. Plus, she was impressed with the shop's service and turnaround time.

"I love that they're reaching out to other educational entities because educators and non-profits are always dealing with budget cuts and printing services are extremely expensive. So to have this service that helps support our efforts through discounted services, it's just extremely helpful."