| Scheduling > Common scheduling tasks > Ensure that the school course catalog is ready

Ensure that the school course catalog is ready

[Applies to elementary [>>] and secondary [>>] school scheduling.]

The district course catalog defines the courses available for scheduling in schools.

To update the course catalog for the next year [DA]:

Setting course properties

The District Administrator sets the properties of each course, such as its name, applicable grade levels, course load value, and the maximum number of students allowed per class. A School Administrator can adjust some of these properties for a course available to his school.

To adjust a course's properties: [DA]

1 In the Admin menu, click District Setup. The District Setup page appears.
2 Click Course Catalog.
3 Click Courses. The Course List page appears displaying a list of the courses available to schools in the district.
= To include inactive courses in the list, in the Edit menu, select Show Inactive Courses.
= Alternatively, in the Course Search section, you can use a Basic or Detail search to generate a relevant list of courses from the district's course catalog. PowerSchool SMS runs the search and displays matching courses (if any) under Search Results.
= Perform the search using the same methods as a Basic [>>] or Detail [>>] search for students. You can save the results of a search, or save the search criteria for re-use as a favorite search.
= Course name is case insensitive (that is, entering english for the course name will produce courses named English and english).
4 In the Search Results section, under Number, click a course's number to view its properties. The Course Detail page appears.
5 In the control bar, click the course property you want to view or work with:
= Course Detail [>>]
= Course Scheduling [>>]
= Course Grading [>>]
= School Assignment [>>]
6 On each page, click Save.
= Click Reset to restore the properties to the district's values.

Course detail information includes:

= Course number: The course number must be unique in the district. The course number can contain alphabetic characters, for example, "101A". Caution: Once assigned and saved, the District Administrator cannot change this number.
= Course state number: A state-assigned number, if required.
= Course name: A descriptive name for the course.
= Course short name: An abbreviated name, up to 10 characters long, for the course.
= Course alternate name: An optional alternate to the course name.
= Course description: A short description of course.
= Course subject area: The applicable subject area, as selected from those set up for the district.
= Course type: The applicable type of course as selected from those set up for the district.
= Recommended grade levels: The grade levels appropriate for this course.
= Course Is: Indicates that the course is one of the following: Required, Elective, or Study hall. A course designated "Study hall" cannot have grades collected for it.
= Collect Attendance: Indicates that attendance is taken for the course.

Course scheduling information includes:

= Scheduling load: The value used to determine whether the student has a full course load for the year. This value is also used to determine a teacher's scheduling load. The total scheduling load for a student or teacher cannot exceed 99.99.
= Maximum students / Minimum students / Optimal students: The maximum, minimum, and optimal number of students that a class for this course should have. The District Administrator sets these values. A School Administrator can change these values for the purposes of his school's Planning Calendar.
= Prerequisites: Prerequisite courses as set for the district.
= Corequisites: Corequisite courses as set for the district.
= Room required: Select to indicate the Preferred room type(s) or Preferred room. When the Master Schedule Builder creates classes for this course, it assigns those classes to rooms according to these preferences. Note: The School Administrator makes this selection for her school.

The vertical order of the rooms in the Selected list determines the priority, where the top room has the highest.

To change a course's Maximum students / Minimum students / Optimal students values [SA]:

Assign subjects and courses to schools

In the Planning Calendar [>>], the District Administrator can adjust the assignment of specific subjects to each elementary school and the assignment of courses to each secondary school, before making the district course catalog available to schools.

Make the district course catalog available to schools

When the District Administrator has fully prepared the Planning Calendar [>>], he or she publishes the course list for use by secondary schools and the subject framework for use by elementary schools. Publishing these items makes the course catalog available to School Administrators. The availability of this information enables the School Administrator to schedule classes for the district's courses.

Caution: After the District Administrator publishes the course catalog, changes to that catalog are limited to the following:

= Add a new course or subject: The course is available to a school as soon as it is assigned to it — the District Administrator does not need to publish the course list again.
= Copy information between course levels.
= Unassign a course or generic subject at a school: Only if the course is not scheduled.
= Change a course's prerequisite or corequisite: The change affects only course requests and schedules made after the change, not course requests and schedules made before the change.
= Change a course: The District Administrator can change a course if the change is logical and would not damage existing use of the course. For example, you cannot stop collecting grades for a course if it is being used in a GPA definition.
= Change a grade level assigned to a generic subject: Only if that course is unassigned from all schools.

 

To publish the district course catalog: [DA]

Reserving periods for students, teachers, or rooms

A School Administrator can reserve specific periods in the schedule for a students, teachers, or rooms using a reservation label. A reservation label works like a course in the scheduling structure. PowerSchool SMS prints reservation labels on schedules.

The School Administrator can assign a reservation label, or she can let the Master Schedule Builder or Student Loader assign the label automatically based on teacher preferences and student course requests. A reservation label does not have a course number and grades and attendance are not collected for it.

PowerSchool SMS provides three types of reservation labels:

= Teacher: Reserves a period in a teacher's schedule for an activity such as a preparation period or lunch monitoring session. A teacher reservation label is not available to students to request and the administrator cannot assign one to a student. A Teacher reservation label differs from a teacher time restriction [xref] in that the latter indicates when a part-time teacher is available and PowerSchool SMS does not print a restriction on a schedule.
= Student: Reserves a period in a student's or teacher's schedule for an activity such as an early starting time for a school that employs extended days, an extracurricular activity, or a tutoring session.
= Room: Reserves a room for a period without assigning teachers or students to that room; for example, to set aside a room for an outside group.
To create a reservation label: [SA]

Example: Assigning a reservation label for a preparation period

A typical reservation label assigned by a School Administrator is one for a preparation period. The administrator can assign a preparation period to one teacher at a time or have the Master Scheduler automatically assign preparation periods to teachers based on teacher preferences.

To assign a preparation period to a teacher: [SA]
To have PowerSchool SMS automatically assign preparation periods to teachers based on teacher preferences: [SA]

Example: Using reservation labels to assign a student to an early or late starting time

A School Administrator can use reservation labels to reserve the early or late periods for schools that use extended day patterns. In this example, the administrator assigns to one or more students either an early start or a late start. This involves setting up a meeting pattern to reserve the first three periods of each day and another meeting pattern to reserve the last three periods of each day. This setup enables the student loader to automatically assign either an early start or a late start to the selected students and prevents the Master Scheduler from scheduling classes during the reserved times.

For this example, assume that the school has an eight-period bell schedule and students are required to attend five periods. The school has approximately 1000 students.

To assign a student to an early or late starting time: [SA]

Example: Using reservation labels to have students automatically assigned to early or late starting times

A School Administrator can use reservation labels to reserve the early or late periods for schools that use extended day patterns. In this example, the administrator sets up PowerSchool SMS to have the student loader to automatically assign either an early start or a late start to the selected students and prevent the Master Scheduler from scheduling classes during the reserved times. This involves setting up a meeting pattern to reserve the first three periods of each day and another meeting pattern to reserve the last three periods of each day.

For this example, assume that the school has an eight-period bell schedule and students are required to attend five periods. The school has approximately 1000 students and wants half scheduled for early classes and half scheduled for late classes.

To have students automatically assigned to early or late starting times: [SA]

Example: Setting up a reservation label for a student-teacher meeting

A School Administrator can use a reservation label to reserve time for student-teacher meetings, such as tutoring or special assistance, for which attendance and grades are not recorded.

In this example, the administrator creates a Math Assistance session in which a teacher provides additional math instruction to a small group of students. The Math Assistance session employs a meeting pattern created for other courses. The administrator assigns the reservation label directly to both a teacher's and student's schedules.

To employ a reservation label for a Math Assistance tutoring session: [SA]

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