English cleric and writer Charles Caleb Colton once said, “The present time has one advantage over every other, – it is our own.”
Mr. Colton, who died in 1832, obviously never set foot in the Solon High School where “time is an illusion,” to borrow from author Douglas Adams, or perhaps may be defined by which part of the building one happens to be standing in – office time vs. science classroom time, vs. corridor/lockers time, etc., making each area’s time, in effect… its own.
With watches a rarity in the modern age, and cellphones banned during the school day, some students have arrived in classrooms late, due to the different time zones, and found themselves marked as tardy for it.
The Board of Education for the Solon Community School District (SCSD) took up the issue of dysregulated clocks last month at the prompting of Board President Dr. Tim Brown. A quote by Primex Wireless, Inc. for $24,369.68 to install a “wireless, engineered solution that guarantees synchronized clocks throughout your facility” was rejected with district administration charged to find a more economical solution.
The Board revisited the topic during an abbreviated regular meeting Thursday, Sept. 18 and accepted a revised bid for $8,828.96. The significantly lower amount is due in part to going from 60 clocks to 20.
“Last month we brought a quote that would put 60 clocks throughout the school, every classroom, every nook and cranny,” said Superintendent Davis Eidahl. “We went back to strategically placing these clocks in large gathering areas, hallways, and about every spot other than individual classrooms and that brought the figure to less than $10,000.”
The Board approved the proposal unanimously.
“They’ll all match and we won’t have three different time zones in the high school,” said Brown.