During 3rd period on Monday, December 12th, all the clocks in Revere High School gained 12 hours in less than 50 minutes. In attempts to finally make sure the clocks were no longer too fast, students trying to check the time noticed the rapidly turning minute hand. Before Thanksgiving break, every clock in the school was running about ten minutes fast, confusing both students and teachers on when classes were to end. 

Many other schools may use clocks that people can easily correct manually and put back on the correct time, but, for Revere, it is a bit more complicated than that. Revere’s clocks are all on a centralized system, and Southeast Security, the company contracted for clock management, has to come onto campus to put them all back on the correct time.

After an overnight power surge that affected several homes and businesses in the area, the clocks began to gain time. Every night, the clocks are supposed to reset and make sure that they are running on the correct time. Following the power surge, the clocks stopped resetting. Due to this, each day the clocks would become a little bit faster than the day before. 

Revere’s clocks were drifting due to networking and firmware errors and were continually speeding up each day. Secretary Jessica Baird explained what happened with the clock system. 

“Basically, we had to resync the system. It was a network error. . . . The system, each night at 11:59, resyncs. So, when it was knocked off the server, it stopped doing that,” Baird said. 

The clock’s server ended up on the wrong network, causing them to stop syncing at 11:59 and eventually making them gradually gain time. 

Although the clocks look like regular analog clocks, they are a bit more complex. Joe Lentine from Southeast Security explained how the clocks are controlled. 

“There is a master clock that controls all of the clocks. It sends out a wireless signal throughout the school to each clock,” Lentine said. 

Revere has a data room with large monitors, a radio, a cord phone (for intercom, paging and setting the bell schedule) and the master clock. 

Lentine explained what went awry with the master clock causing these issues. 

“The master clock itself had a firmware issue, and it was causing the clock to drift in time,” Lentine said. 

Lentine explained how this firmware bug was resolved. 

“We worked with the manufacturer to figure out why it was doing that, and basically we had to apply an update to the master clock,” Lentine said. 

Principal Dr. Andy Peltz explained that it took Southeast Security a few tries to get the clocks back on correct time. 

“They came in and tried something [to fix the clocks] over a weekend, and it worked for a while. But, all of the sudden, [the time] started going off again,” Peltz said.  

Peltz recalled another time they attempted to fix the clock issue during school hours. 

“[Southeast Security] came in one time during school, and I remember walking through the hallway and seeing that the clocks were spinning,” Peltz said. 

The clocks were all fixed and set back on the correct time after the third time Southeast Security came in. 

Peltz explained how the clocks being incorrect may have been part of a bigger system issue. 

“Southeast Security [provides] our sound system, as well as some of our security aspects, [and] they also tie everything in with the clocks. Right at the end of the first quarter, we had a problem with our P.A. system. We don’t know if everything is somehow tied together, but it looks like it is fixed now,” Peltz said. 

As of today, the clocks are all fixed and on the right time. The firmware and networking issue has been resolved, so when students and teachers turn to look at the clocks, they will be finally looking at the correct time again.