It’s one thing to know you’re running late to a meeting—and to try to do something about it. It’s another to look at the clock and have no idea whether you’re early, late, or right on time.

This was the situation at the South Central Kansas Educational Service Center in Clearwater, Kansas. The clocks throughout the teacher training facility were notoriously unreliable, which undermined the professionalism of staff who needed to get to training sessions on time, according to the Director of Virtual Learning, Sunni Sternecker.

The Educational Service Center is a meeting-heavy environment. A consortium of 33 school districts in Kansas, it trains teachers in the latest trends in education, helps them keep up their certification, and offers other ongoing learning opportunities.

Punctuality is important to keeping programs running smoothly. As in many educational institutions, when even one class runs late, a domino effect occurs that can throw the entire facility off its schedule.

Primex Wireless set up the facility as a beta site, with GPS wireless clocks in the center’s nine training rooms, offices, and common areas. Right away, the benefits became clear—and now the district is considering installing the system in several schools.

“We love the system dearly,” Sternecker says. “There are only three pieces to install, and they work without fail,” she said.

Cost savings are another important benefit. “It’s so much less expensive, since you don’t have to run all that hardware,” that you do with a traditional system, Sternecker says.

The center has also installed Primex Wireless’s Computer Time Sync software on its computers to link up the time on PCs with that on the wall clocks, further enhancing efficiency of the entire facility.

“We were constantly worried about not making it to meetings on time,” Sternecker, says. “Knowing that the clock you look at is accurate gives us incredible peace of mind.”

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The Adena Local School District in Frankfort, Ohio dedicated a brand new, 190,210 square foot state-of-the art fa-cility, to house all of the district’s 1,300+ students in grades K through 12. One of the new technologies incorporated into the building is a clock system developed by Primex Wireless Inc., of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, as a solution for unreliable and expensive synchronized clock systems.

The new Adena school facility, which is now a model for other school construction projects in Ohio, replaced four existing buildings that were greatly outdated. Some of the buildings were still heated with coal and some could not accommodate the electrical load that all the school’s computers required. Located 50 miles south of Columbus, Adena is a rural community whose students have not always benefited from newer technologies available in larger, well-funded urban school districts.

Jake Grooms, superintendent of the Adena School District said, “In designing the facility, choices were made to invest in building designs and technologies that facilitate the learning process over aesthetics.” Classrooms in the facility are arranged in pods to facilitate personal attention for the students. Educational technology is utilized throughout the school, including several computers in each classroom, the ability to download educational programs from the internet, and much more.

Alongside these new technologies is the Primex Wireless GPS Clock System which was chosen because it was less expensive and easier to maintain than traditional hard-wired clocks. This new system uses GPS and FM frequencies to keep the clocks in all the classrooms and public areas throughout the facility synchronized.

The GPS Wireless Clock System employs freestanding wall clocks that are synchronized via wireless technology. A master receiver/transmitter captures the GPS signal from US government global positioning satellites (GPS) and then transmits the time to the clocks via an FM signal. The clocks are synchronized each day and they automatically change twice a year for Daylight Saving Time (a feature that can be deactivated where DST is not observed). Clocks are available in battery-operated, electric and digitals models in a variety of styles.

The GPS Wireless Clock System is a patent-pending product of Primex Wireless Inc.

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In a beautiful location in Fort Myers, Florida – not far from the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford – Bishop Verot High School occupies a partially open-air, multi-building campus. The school enrolls 735 students, with more than 70 faculty members teaching courses and leading activities and athletics.

With 11 separate buildings and a robust roster of academics and events, keeping classes and people on schedule can be a challenge, says Todd Cordisco, Assistant Director of Institutional Advancement at Bishop Verot High School.

“Students only have four minutes between classes, and it’s important to be on time,” he explains. But punctuality was hampered by undependable clocks. “We were using basic battery-operated clocks like you’d buy at a discount store, and nearly every clock on campus showed a different time,” he says. The chronic inconsistencies created confusion and inefficiency for both students and faculty.

The school staff had considered atomic clocks, but the signal wasn’t dependable, Cordisco says. “We needed a reliable system. Our main question was whether we would be able to reach all the buildings with the transmitter signal, including our wood shop which is on the other side of campus and quite a walk from our other buildings,” he adds.

Their solution: the Primex Wireless GPS Clock System. The school has one transmitter that synchronizes multiple GPS-based clocks in office spaces and public areas such as the gymnasium lobby, front office and library. The system uses field tested, reliable technology to produce perfectly synchronized, maintenance-free timekeeping.

“It’s been a very good system for us,” Cordisco says. “The Primex Wireless signal is good everywhere on campus and has never gone out.”

Daylight Saving Time also required extra effort to reset the old clocks. With each time change, someone would have to climb up, remove each clock from the wall, change the time and replace the clock. “Time changes are not an issue with the Primex system,” Cordisco notes, because they self-adjust.

For this high school, the Primex Wireless system is an inventive solution that perhaps even Thomas Edison would be proud of.

For more information on Primex Wireless solutions, call 800-537-0464 or visit www.primexwireless.com.