Walworth County Joint School District

Any school that aims to provide its students with the best education possible knows the importance of accurate timekeeping. Leaders at Walworth Jt. School District #1 in Walworth, Wisconsin, know just how much synchronized time can help achieve their mission, which is just that: provide the best education for all students.

“We are very relationship-heavy,” said Phill Klamm, district administrator at Walworth Joint School District #1. “We work hard to educate the whole child, and we know that every child is different in their development and what they know, so we work really hard to build strong relationships with students and their families.”

Staying on schedule is a big part of building those strong relationships that bolster the education the school provides. So, when staff at the junior kindergarten-through-eighth grade public school began experiencing challenges related to maintaining their clock systems, they knew they had to find a better, more dependable solution.

“Since we take our job of educating children very seriously, we know that every minute is very valuable,” Klamm said. “We work really hard to maximize the time we have with kids, and everyone needs to be on the same time.”

Eliminating Clock Maintenance With an Engineered Solution

Instead of focusing on other, student-related tasks, staff at the school were spending too much of their time ensuring their hardwired clocks throughout the school remained on time and synchronized. This included checking and setting each clock manually to ensure that each clock stayed on schedule and synced up with other clocks. The dependability for this system just wasn’t there, so district leaders sought out more information about Primex OneVue Sync™ clocks, which they previously heard positive things about.

“We contacted [Primex] and had a really great initial experience,” Klamm said. “After talking with them, [we knew] it was going to be easy and cost-effective to implement.”

For the first part of this easy implementation, a Primex engineer analyzed the school’s blueprint, taking into account square footage, building materials, and the number of floors to provide a guarantee of coverage letter. This letter outlined how many Primex OneVue Sync 72 MHz transmitters were necessary to provide ample synchronized time throughout the school. The letter also included that if its recommendations were incorrect, and if any clocks were not to receive the time signal, Primex would install the necessary equipment to ensure facilitywide synchronized time. After this complimentary assessment, school leaders followed this engineered solution recommendation.

“We chose the transmitter [because] we would have wide coverage of a wide area,” Klamm said. “And it was plug and play. Very easy to maintain. Also, we had an older clock-speaker combo, and the Primex option allowed us to upgrade within our existing infrastructure.”

Experiencing the Benefits of Primex OneVue Sync

Since choosing the OneVue Sync 72 MHz transmitter and installing 70 analog clocks throughout the school, Walworth Jt. School District #1 leaders have been very pleased with their Primex OneVue Sync synchronized clocks. So far, the clocks have assisted with keeping the following on time and operating according to schedule:

• Different grades’ lunch hours and recess times
• Special and encore classes
• Bus and transportation schedules
• Standardized testing itineraries

The synchronized clocks have also helped school staff with their required documentation of and reporting on how many minutes students are learning from core classes while also helping to ensure emergency drills operate within the correct timeframe.

“We’ve really enjoyed our experience with Primex so far,” Klamm said. “Ordering was very simple, the shipment came faster than we expected, and the installation into our existing infrastructure was really easy.”

Planning To Add Additional Primex Solutions With Confidence

Since OneVue Sync is working wonderfully to provide synchronized time at Walworth Jt. School District #1, district leaders are looking to add other Primex solutions into their school. Products like OneVue Notify® InfoBoard™ displays can help strengthen communication throughout their school for emergent and nonemergent incidents, alike.

“We have areas in our school that are hard to hear [in] during loud events,” Klamm said. “Areas like the band room, the choir room, during concerts, in the gym, and for sporting events, and with OneVue Notify, it allows us to instantly notify our students, staff, and guests that there’s an emergency and they need to act immediately. It also allows us to broadcast reminders to students and staff, such as positive messages and schedule change reminders. We are very excited about OneVue Notify.”

School leaders are also strongly considering adding two types of OneVue Sense™ environmental monitoring sensors. The first would be the OneVue Sense Temperature Sensor to inform staff if a refrigerator or freezer’s temperature left a customized range. Having this alert would help prevent the loss of thousands of dollars’ worth of food if a storage unit broke or someone accidentally left a door open.

Achieving Its Mission With Assistance From Primex Satisfaction

In the meantime, leaders at the Walworth Jt. School District #1 are happy with the synchronized timekeeping that the Primex OneVue Sync solution provides. The technology and experience from Primex have helped the district achieve its mission every day: to provide the best education for all students.

“I would recommend Primex and the OneVue platform to other districts,” Klamm said. “Our total experience has been great. The products are top-notch, and the people supporting them have been wonderful. Every touchpoint we have had has exceeded our expectations.”