Papers rustle across the table, some falling to the floor in the commotion of moving people. People flow in and out carrying pamphlets and handouts, while a witty director oversees the operation with care. This is not a description of a scene from “The Office,” but rather that of the Copy Center.

Located in room five in the basement, the Copy Center employs around 30 students a semester and helps deliver pamphlets and handouts around the school. It teaches students office skills while letting them serve their community.

Career and Technology Education teacher Paul Lauro-Priestly, who runs the Copy Center, has worked there for the past 24 years. Lauro-Priestly says that student-teacher collaboration is crucial to the success of the program.

“We have teachers who send us things all throughout the day. We do all the copying and delivering, and we go all throughout the entire building,” Lauro-Priestly said. “So if somebody says ‘I need a test for this,’ I’ll put it in an envelope and send it up to them. If people need copies for their classrooms we run it, get it down and give it up to them.”

Senior Angel Zayas says the job is fairly simple: import and export paper.

“I help Paul pass out paper to teachers, the papers they need, and they print some down here,” Zayas said. “I also get papers from the loading dock and bring it down here, pass it around to teachers who need it.”

According to Lauro-Priestly, the Copy Center also teaches students skills that will benefit them later in their careers.

“Teachers definitely send down students so they get interaction services,” Lauro-Priestly said. “The children also get to work as customer service representatives, because I think that that’s a very important thing that they are learning: how to behave in a professional manner and how to treat a customer.”

Senior Chynna Redd works at the Copy Center and said that teachers show their gratitude when they receive their deliveries from the Copy Center.

“The teachers are really nice when we give them their stuff, and they’re thankful because they’ve been waiting on us to get it to them,” Redd said.

Redd said that the Copy Center gives students a chance to learn office skills that they might need later on, such as working a copy machine.

“I feel like everyone needs to know how to handle copying machines and how to print things out, and a lot of people don’t really know that until they figure out that they need those skills, and they don’t have them,” Redd said.

Lauro-Priestly says his 24 years at the high school have been enriched by his interactions with students in a manner unlike teachers.

“I have a different relationship with the kids because as an academic teacher, it’s far more formal and structured and sort of rigid,” Lauro-Priestly said. “For me, I get to know the kids as people, which is kind of an honor and a privilege. I love that. I love that I get to know people.”