Shipping & Materials Coordinator, Mr. Bill DeJoseph, Makes Sure Students Have the Supplies They Need

Mr. Bill DeJoseph has been working at PA Distance for the past 13+ years, making him one of the longest-serving employees. Currently, he serves as the Shipping & Materials Coordinator and is responsible for all of the materials that PA Distance ships and receives. He does all of this from his office (and materials warehouse) on the first floor of the PA Distance office building.

If you walk into his office, you are immediately met with stacks of boxes, aisles of metal shelves that hold rows of art supplies, books, calculators, pens and pencils, and a menagerie of other materials. You could easily be standing in a supply room at Staples rather than in the materials room at PA Distance.

Behind the walls of supplies and flattened boxes, you might see Bill sitting at his desk printing out UPS shipping labels or itemized packing slips. More often than not, you’ll find him putting together “Technology Kits” for newly enrolled students or specific material packages for students entering a new grade. Depending on the time of year, he could be handling a variety of tasks from packing and shipping out material boxes to receiving returned computers.

In addition to gathering together supplies, packing them up, and shipping them out, Bill also serves as a support for PA Distance students and families. “If there’s an issue, they call me. If something is broken or if a family is missing a package, they call me,” Bill explained.

A dry-erase board is mounted on the wall behind his desk that shows a 3-month calendar with important shipping dates jotted down throughout the upcoming weeks. Bill explained that his busiest time for shipping and receiving is right before school starts in late August and then before mid-year enrollment in January.

“When the busy shipping time rolls around, I don’t do anything else. This room gets filled to the brim with boxes,” he said. “There is so much stuff in here at the beginning of each year.” 

He explained that in recent years, he has come up with systems that make shipping much more efficient.

“The process gets better every year," he noted. 

When asked about his experience with PA Distance teachers, he said, “The staff really cares 100%. I’ve never met a teacher that worked here that wasn’t completely invested.”