Define student scheduling parameters

Before you build your schedule, you need to define scheduling parameters, such as which students to schedule, and scheduling priorities for your students.

Note: If a scenario does not use shared schedule attributes, appears next to each of the schedule attributes to indicate they are privately owned by the current scenario.

To copy student scheduling parameters from the previous year’s schedule, on the Options menu, click Refresh. Or, click Mass Update on the Options menu to define most of these scheduling parameters.

To define student scheduling parameters:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Log on to the Build view. Click the Student tab. Then, select the student you want to define preferences for.
    • Log on to the School view. Click the Student tab. Select the student you want to define preferences for, and click the Schedule side-tab, then click Attributes.

    • The student scheduling parameters appear.

      Note: The information on the top half of the page is the live, current data. Do not change any information here. The bottom half of the page contains the attributes you enter/edit.

  1. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

  2. Field

    Description

    Include in scheduling

    Select this checkbox to include the student when you build the schedule.

    Note: By default, the system includes every student. Therefore, you need to deselect the students you do not want to schedule.

    Exclude from studies

    Select this checkbox if you do not want to schedule the student in study halls. For example, this student might go to the vocational program in another school during afternoon periods.

    Schedule priority

    Type a number to indicate the student’s scheduling priority.

    For example, you might search for and select all students who will be seniors next year. Then, you mass update this field to contain the value of 10. You do the same for juniors (20), sophomores (30), and freshmen (40). This way, the system schedules seniors, then juniors, then sophomores, then freshmen.

    Note: You can create subgroups within groups, such as 5 for AP seniors, and 35 for freshmen. The lower the number, the higher the priority.

    Schedule weight

    Type a number to determine how many seats this student requires in a section.

    By default, students have a schedule weight of 1. You might define a weight of 1.5, or 2 to determine specific students fill more than one seat due to his or her IEPClosed Individualized Education Program requirements.

    Lock schedule

    Select this checkbox if you want the schedule the system builds for this student to stay the same each time you run a load.

    Note: Use this checkbox if you have manually made changes to the student's schedule, or the schedule for this student is perfect, and you will be reloading.

    Balance code

    When building the master schedule, the system automatically balances sections by the number of students. If you want to balance section counts by ethnic code, gender, or grade, select that option on the course scheduling parameters page. To balance section counts using a different balance value, enter the value here.

    For example, assume the ninth graders in your high school are coming from several schools in your district. You might enter the students' previous middle school as the balance code to ensure that sections do not fill with students coming from the same middle school.

    If you enter balance codes for students, when you define course scheduling parameters, select Other at the Section balance type field. Then, when you build and load the schedule, the system spreads students with the same balance code across all sections.

    Team

    Select a team if you want to assign this student to a team.

    Static Team

    If you select a team for this student, the system selects this checkbox automatically when you save the record.

    House

    Select a house if you want to assign this student to a house.

    Static House

    If you select a house for this student, the system selects this checkbox automatically when you save the record.

    Platoon

    Select a platoon if you want to assign this student to a platoon.

    Unavailable schedule

    If the student cannot attend classes during specific periods, click Edit Schedule to determine the terms, days, and periods the system cannot schedule that student. A schedule matrix appears.

    Select the term, then click in the days and periods the student is unavailable. Click OK.
    Note: If you do not select a team, house, or platoon for the student but you build a schedule that uses them, the system makes a random assignment if a student requests a course section assigned to a team, house, or platoon.
  1. Click Save.