Dan Foster is the principal of the district of Waterford. He has served as principal for the last 10 years and prior to that, he was Dean and Associate Principal for 7 years. GenComm had the pleasure of working with him and Waterford Union High School when they needed to update their communication system.
GenComm started by thoroughly testing their location and concluding that they needed a repeater system for their daily operations. We then installed two Hytera DMR repeaters as well as 40 radios. After the installation, we worked directly with the local police department to make sure all public safety communications were in place for their resource officer on-site at the school.
We recently sat down with Dan and asked him a few questions.
How does Waterford Union High School serve your students and community?
Our vision is to ensure that all students learn at high levels, resulting in being college or career and life ready. That vision is the thread in every piece of the fabric that makes up our educational pattern. We emphasize the importance of academics, arts, and athletics. Additionally, we focus on tools that will help students be better prepared for life beyond high school through youth apprenticeships, college-level offerings, personal skills and accountability.
We accomplish our goals through partnerships with our parents and community. Our stakeholders play an important role in holding the district accountable for reaching our goals.
Why did you choose to work with GenComm?
I met Scott Lesniewski (one of GenComm’s Territory Managers) at a professional conference and our district happened to be in the market for upgrading our radio communications. Scott and I had a great conversation, and he provided a brief overview of GenComm’s line of products. He then followed up with some additional details. His approach was professional, and he struck the right note by reading the needs of his potential customer well.
What makes GenComm stand out from other communication suppliers?
- Confidence. After communicating with Scott and the GenComm team, I was confident in their knowledge and ability to meet all our needs. From infrastructure building to implementation, all our questions were answered and sometimes addressed before we even asked them.
- Responsiveness. Scott and GenComm have been incredibly responsive to our needs. Emails and phone calls have been timely. If he needed to research information, the turnaround time was quick.
- Price point. Based on what I researched, the Hytera product was a far more affordable option than what we were previously using.
- Product quality. The Hytera radios are more versatile, have higher quality audio, and better range than the radios offered by other communication suppliers.
Why is having confidence in your repeater system, radios and communication systems provided by GenComm important to you?
Confidence in our system so that we can communicate effectively is epically important to us at a high school building. From K9 searches to fire drills to power outages to active shooter training exercises, we need communication tools that will allow us to either maintain privacy on radio-to-radio communications or override chatter to get a message to all listeners on all channels. The line of communication needs to occur without fail.
Any other comments or anything that you’d like to add?
Overall, we are quite pleased with the service and the product. We have recommended GenComm to other school districts, and we plan to maintain our communication partnership with them in the future.