Those who grew up in the public school system probably remember the nervous excitement they felt every year that it was time to leave their lower school behind and move on to a new facility. School districts are often made up of three or more levels of schooling, each of which has its own set of buildings. This system provides its own unique challenges. Installing IP school clocks in every facility in the district will not only keep all schools on the same schedule, but provide the necessary flexibility where needed.

It is a challenge for school districts to remain on schedule, as facilities belonging to the same district can be located rather far apart. To check that each clock in every one of these buildings is synchronized would be a tedious and difficult task. A district that wants all of its buildings to display the same time so that every facility in the district is synchronized should invest in an IP school clock system. With a synchronized IP system, each school in the district will get its own analogue or digital IP clocks to install wherever they see fit. Though they would be located in separate buildings, all the clocks would receive their time from the same NTP (Network Time Protocol) server. This accurate, to-the-second time source will keep every school in the district on schedule and operating as efficiently as possible.

One of the main benefits of IP school clocks is total control. Whereas a broken or inaccurate standalone clock can hang on a wall for weeks or months at a time before it comes to the attention of the facility manager, this is not the case with an IP school clock system. How is this possible? With IP monitoring software you can view every clock in the district from a single computer. The program will give you updates about how well the clocks are functioning. The facility manager can even set up their e-mail account so that they never have to check the web monitoring software. Instead, the software will automatically send him an e-mail should something need his attention.

There are a number of other features which make IP clocks a great choice for school districts. The countdown feature on IP digital clocks is a great asset during standardized testing procedures. However, if the high school is testing while elementary and middle schools are not, it is important to be able to display the countdown only on high school clocks, while leaving the other schools’ clocks unchanged. Additionally, you can also use the bias seconds feature to adjust the time a few minutes in either direction in a particular school, although the clocks are still receiving the same correct time from the NTP server. This can be particularly useful for large districts. By using the bias seconds feature, a district can dismiss elementary schools a few minutes before high schools or vice versa. This is useful as far as bus scheduling and traffic.

To keep a school district cohesive but still meet the needs of each individual school, there is no better solution than an IP school clock system. With an IP clock system, not only will the entire district receive accurate, synchronized time, but the clocks in each school can be manipulated to better fit their own individual application. Gains in efficiency and organization will be made, and the district can put less time into scheduling and maintenance issues, and more time into bettering education.