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Mail Guidelines & Procedures

Mail at no charge to site/department budget:

1. Report cards, letters stating improvements needed or failing grades, test scores
2. Smoke Ups (middle school)
3. Governing Board Items
4. Partners in Education who are raising and donating funds and time to improve the schools within our District
5. Any District mailout regarding insurance benefits, teacher applications, payroll, anything to do with employees
6. Normal District business letters
   

 Mail to be charged:

Please attach Form B-22, available from the Print Shop, and include with mail.

1. Educational Foundation and PTA (They have a budget and they are a separate entity)
2. Cards celebrating Holidays to Students or Staff (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc.)
3. Before school mailouts, pertaining to the first day of school, etc. (Each site/school has the option to do this; it is not mandatory)
4. Programs with a budget for mail expenses (SIP, Title I, Gate, Child Nutrition, Bilingual, etc.)
5. Twenty-five (25) letters or more from a school at a time, not pertaining to grades or student progress. To include notices of meetings, newsletters, school programs, etc. Even though information is often considered by the site or department as something a parent “Needs to Know,” unless it is for progress reports, etc. it is to be charged to a site/department budget.
6. All Bulk Mail (see below for specific instructions)

There are 2 options for sending mail to be charged, depending on your situation, first class mail or bulk mail. Please review both options carefully to determine the method that best fits your mailing, based upon quantity of pieces to be mailed, timeline for delivery, and budget:

1.      First Class

• Delivery within 2-3 business days
• Individualized mail must be mailed first class
• Current Cost: 46 cents per piece (price subject to change by USPS)

2.      Bulk Mail

• Bulk mail may take up to two (2) weeks to be delivered.  If using this mail option, please plan accordingly.
• Only mail that consists of 200 pieces or more and is not individualized can be sent via bulk mail.
• Current Cost: 16.2 cents per piece (price subject to change by USPS)

Definition of Bulk Mail:
What type of mail can be used for a bulk mail?  Only generic information can be used for bulk mail (i.e. Back to School notice, PTA newsletter, etc. – information that is not individualized). Bulk mail must consist of 200 letters or more.

Bulk Mail Instructions:

 a. Envelope Capacity

When preparing your mailout, use only #10 envelopes (warehouse stock #001186).  Envelopes may only contain 5 pieces of paper or less.  If your mailout exceeds 5 pieces of paper, it will need to be mailed first class. Mail must be uniform for the entire mailout. Each envelope must contain the exact number of pieces of paper.

(Note:  Due to the District’s mail machine configurations, tri-fold and half-fold flyers are no longer an option.)

b. Return Address for Bulk Mail Envelope

Effective March 2, 2009, the U.S. Postal Service implemented a new regulation for bulk mail.  A charge is incurred for each piece of bulk mail that is undeliverable and will be returned to the school/site.  The cost to return each piece is 55 cents.  The cost to mail a piece of bulk mail is 16.2 cents.  Bulk mail is a cost effective solution for certain mailings, but addresses need to be correct. Bulk mail will not be forwarded.

The District has set up a postage due account with the U.S. Postal Service and will cover the cost for the returned mail.  However, if the fees become excessive, the cost could be charged back to your school.  It is important to follow up on the returned mail and make the necessary address corrections.

The postage due account has been set up using the District’s Post Office Box 1007.  All bulk mail envelopes require the school/site’s return address to list the District Name, School or Department Name, P.O. Box, City & State (see example below).  If it is not set up in this format, the U.S. Postal Service will not bill the postage due account and will contact your school for payment. Please work with the Print Shop Supervisor to ensure you have the proper envelope with the correct return address when using bulk mail.  Bulk mail brought to the warehouse with the physical address as the return address will be returned to the site/department to be corrected.

 (Example)             ÒõAPPµ¼º½ Valley Union School District

                              Greenfield Middle School

                              1495 Greenfield Drive

                              PO Box 1007

                              El ÒõAPPµ¼º½, CA 92022-1007

 c. Zip Code Form and Mail Billing Form (B-22)

                Fill out the zip code form (attached) recording number of pieces for each zip code and a B-22 form (Mail Billing Form, available from Print Shop) with budget to be charged.  These forms must be included with your bulk mail.

d. Zip Code Preparation

Put envelopes with the same zip codes together.  All flaps must be open and nested (one up against the other).  The top of a copier paper box works well for transport or you may stop by the warehouse and pick up some letter trays.  You do not need to rubber band the letters together, just distinguish where one zip code ends and another starts.

e. Delivery Options

When your mail is ready to be brought to the warehouse, the options are:

• The fastest and easiest is to have one of your staff members drive the mail to the warehouse for processing.
• Call the Warehouse Supervisor at ex. 3026, or submit an A-11 to have the mail picked up by the warehouse as special handling.  The warehouse will pick it up as soon as possible, but it may take a day or two to pick up, so please be aware and consider this.  The post office requires the warehouse to make an appointment to drop off the bulk mail which could add an additional day or two for processing.

Note:  Bulk mail may take up to two weeks for delivery.  Please plan accordingly.

3. Information Regarding Daily "Intradistrict" Mail:
It is very important the bags not be “stuffed” to the maximum capacity, especially with heavy items. If bags cannot be pinched together at the top, they are overfilled.  Books should always be sent through on scheduled delivery pick-up days and should never be sent through the daily mail due to excess bulk and weight.  Cumulative folders for students should be evaluated; one or two may go through the daily mail, but if a large number is going to a specific school site, they should be boxed or wrapped and set out for pick-up on scheduled delivery pick up days. If a large number of cum folders need to go out to different sites, please space them out and send a few every day to reduce the load on one day, choosing the most urgent to go out first.