Schwarzenegger Visits Newly Retooled In-plant

A high school in-plant in Los Angeles got a high-profile visitor last month. Former governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger toured Venice High School’s Super Shop 9 during an open house to celebrate its new $3 million state-of-the-art printing facility.

As reported in Venice-MarVistaPatch, a local online news service, Schwarzenegger toured the shop for more than an hour and was assisted by students as he printed a Venice High School t-shirt and helped operate the facility’s new four-color printing press.

Longtime Super Shop 9 instructor Art Lindauer applied for and won a $1.5 million Proposition 1D grant from the state in 2006 and then lobbied for five years to receive a $1.5 million matching grant from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Lindauer applied the grant money and matching funds to a complete overhaul of the print shop, which also handles in-house production printing for the school, as well as other local schools and alumni.

In all, the in-plant purchased a staggering 48 pieces of new equipment. These include a four-color Heidelberg Speedmaster, a two-color Heidelberg Printmaster, Heidelberg CTP, cutting and folding equipment, a Duplo bookletmaker, a Roland wide-format press, and an M&R screen printing press.

“I’m very proud to say that Venice High School now has the best equipped graphic communication facility west of the Mississippi river,” said Lindauer during the open house. “All this would not have been possible without California state proposition 1D.” He thanked Schwarzenegger for his support of Proposition 1D, a $20 billion bond measure to repair and upgrade public schools.

“I fought very hard during my administration to rebuild our schools and to elevate our education system,” Schwarzenegger said. “But I made it very clear to the politicians in Sacramento that I would never sign any of the bonds if we don’t also have money available for career tech education. There are thousands of jobs that we need out there that aren’t directly related to four-year university.” Read the full story here.