Lakeshore Learning, Tracing Projectors, GPA Calculators & the Printer Problem: FAQ From a School Supply Coordinator

I've been the person who orders classroom supplies and keeps the office tech alive for a small district for eight years. I've personally made and documented over $12,000 in purchasing mistakes, so these answers come from the 'don't do what I did' school of learning.

Is Lakeshore Learning worth the price?

Short answer: sometimes yes, sometimes no, and if you don't know which, you're leaving budget on the table.

I have mixed feelings about Lakeshore Learning. On one hand, their daily-use stuff holds up. The bulletin board rolls we bought in 2022 are still hanging where cheaper rolls would have died by December. On the other hand, the catalog price is not the final price. What most people don't realize is that you can ask for a school account quote or bulk pricing. I didn't ask on a $2,800 order in my first year. That's about $380 I can't get back.

Bottom line: buy the things that take daily abuse from Lakeshore. Buy the decorative extras somewhere else unless durability matters more than style.

Is the Lakeshore Learning tracing projector better than paper?

If you're typing 'Lakeshore Learning better than paper' into Google, the word 'paper' is doing a lot of work. Tracing paper? Printer paper? Bulletin board paper? The answer changes for each one.

For tracing specifically, I was on the fence for a long time. The spreadsheet said buy a stack of tracing paper and call it done. My gut said a projector would get more use. I went with my gut, and honestly, it was the right call for our pre-K and early elementary kids. The Lakeshore Learning tracing projector let four kids work at once without fighting over light sources. Tracing paper is still useful for older students who need precise line control, but for group stations, the projector is a no-brainer.

One thing I learned the hard way: image resolution matters. A low-res photo or scan gets blurry the second it's blown up on a projector. If you're printing a source image at 300 DPI, a 3000 x 2000 pixel file gives you a clean 10 x 6.67-inch print. The projector can't fix what isn't in the file.

How do I get a printer back online?

The search phrase 'how to get printer back online' usually happens at 11 p.m. the night before report cards. I've been called to fix the same printer 'offline' issue nine times in the last three years. Nine times.

Most of the time it's not the printer. It's the computer. Per Microsoft's printer troubleshooting documentation, the first thing to check is the 'Use Printer Offline' setting. If that box is checked, the computer will keep ignoring the printer no matter how many times you unplug it.

Next, restart the print spooler. Open services.msc, find Print Spooler, right-click and restart. Then power-cycle the printer. If it's still offline, check the printer's IP address. One time a DHCP update reassigned our printer's IP overnight. We paid $450 for a service call before discovering that. Now I give every printer a reserved IP and the problem basically disappeared.

Should mention: if you're using 20 lb bond paper (75 gsm) and it's been jamming all week, the paper is probably not the issue. Check the pick-up rollers first.

What's the most common high school GPA calculator mistake?

Mixing weighted and unweighted scales. I've seen more 11 p.m. emails than I can count that start with 'the GPA calculator says my daughter has a 3.8' when the transcript says 3.4. Nine times out of ten, someone typed her grades into the wrong scale.

Let me rephrase that: a high school GPA calculator doesn't decide anything. It's a quick progress check. According to College Board's admissions guidance, colleges often recalculate GPAs using their own formula, so the number on a random website will never be the official one.

My system: run an unweighted and a weighted version. If they differ by more than about 0.3, check course levels. A typo in one AP class can shift the weighted GPA a lot more than people expect.

Why would I need an RVU calculator in a school?

If you're a school-based OT, PT, SLP, or another provider who bills Medicaid for IEP services, this one is real. RVU stands for relative value unit. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updates work RVUs every year in the Physician Fee Schedule.

What most people don't realize is that an RVU calculator is not a reimbursement calculator. It combines work, practice expense, and malpractice RVUs, multiplies by a conversion factor, then adjusts for geography. A calculator is only as good as the current conversion factor. As of January 2025, I'd verify the CMS conversion factor before relying on any RVU output. I learned this after using an outdated factor in a forecast and coming up $1,800 short for a semester. Not a catastrophe, but enough to make me check the date on every spreadsheet now.

What's the pricing mistake teachers make at Lakeshore Learning?

Buying the wrong format, not overbuying. I once ordered 24 rolls of bulletin board paper for a building that was 90% whiteboards. Those rolls sat in a cabinet until the next teacher inherited them. That was $460 of dead weight.

Teachers make the same mistake with tracing projector supplies: they buy the brand-name tracing paper when the projector will work fine with plain copy paper. I'm not saying skip the brand. I'm saying read the description twice, measure the work area, and ask yourself what surface this will be used on. If the answer is 'I don't know yet,' that's a red flag.

And please don't pay full price out of pocket. Lakeshore's teacher discount is available if you ask. It's not a secret, but it's also not on the front page. Use it.

What has actually changed since you started doing this?

The fundamentals haven't changed: students still need materials, teachers still need them on time, and budgets still get squeezed. But the execution has transformed.

In 2017, I ordered everything from printed catalogs. Today I'm comparing prices on my phone while a teacher texts me a link. Digital tools also changed the support side. An RVU calculator, GPA calculator, and printer dashboard are all part of the same ecosystem now. What was best practice in 2020—order early and stockpile because companies couldn't keep up—is less true in 2025. Suppliers have mostly caught up on common items like glue sticks and laminating sheets. Now the problem is too many choices, not empty bins.

The mistake that hasn't changed? Not keeping a simple checklist. I've caught 47 potential ordering errors in the past 18 months by having a second person glance at quantities before I approve. That's not a tech problem. It's a human one.