| Scheduling > Common scheduling tasks > Set up a planning schedule

Set up a planning schedule

[Applies secondary [>>] school scheduling.]

A School Administrator schedules a school in the planning schedule in the school's Planning Calendar [>>].

An elementary school's Planning Calendar has one planning schedule. If the administrator creates a Planning Calendar for an elementary school [>>], PowerSchool SMS creates a planning schedule for it. The administrator has the option of copying all the Active Calendar [>>] schedule's settings to the planning schedule.

A secondary school's Planning Calendar can have one or more planning schedules, each with its own independent settings. This enables an administrator to try out different schedules for the coming year, each with different teachers, rooms, courses, and classes.

While a secondary school can have more than one planning schedule, only one can be active at any one time [Figure 136]. The School Administrator can work with the active schedule, setting such things as meeting patterns, courses, teacher preferences and so on. The administrator can also rename the schedule or delete it. As year end approaches, the administrator must consider which schedule to set as the planning schedule for year-end [Figure 136] so that PowerSchool SMS rolls it over [>>] as the active schedule for the next school year.

Note: Switching the active planning schedules affects student course requests. PowerSchool SMS copies all the unchanged course requests to the new active planning schedule. Changed course requests are not copied. (This enables the administrator to have different planning schedules with different course requests.)

To set a school's active planning schedule: [SA]

Figure 136: Active planning schedule

A Planning Schedule: The schedule selected is the active planning schedule.
B Active schedule details: The information displayed is for the active schedule.
C Planning schedule for year-end: During Year-End Processing [>>], PowerSchool SMS uses this schedule as a basis for the next year's active schedule.
D Change selection to current: Sets the current active schedule as the planning schedule for year-end.

Creating a new planning schedule

The administrator can create a planning schedule by creating a blank new one or copying from an existing schedule. PowerSchool SMS automatically creates a planning schedule for a secondary school when the School Administrator creates a Planning Calendar [>>].

The administrator can discard changes he or she has made to a planning schedule by creating an entirely new planning schedule. Note: At an elementary school, this overwrites the existing planning schedule.

To set up a school's planning schedule: [SA]

When a School Administrator develops a planning schedule by copying it from the Active Calendar [>>], PowerSchool SMS sets the schedule's fields as follows:

= Class Setup: Copied from the Active Calendar's schedule only where subjects are assigned in both the Active and Planning Calendars.
= Can schedule: Copied from the Active Calendar's schedule. Where subjects are assigned in only the Planning Calendar, PowerSchool SMS clears this flag.
= Automatically assign this subject to all students in grade #: PowerSchool SMS assigns students are assigned in the same way as the Active Calendar, that is, based on settings on the Edit Subject page and the creation of homerooms. Where subjects are assigned in only the Planning Calendar, PowerSchool SMS sets this to "Yes".
= Default Teacher: Copied from the Active Calendar's schedule. Where subjects are assigned in only the Planning Calendar, PowerSchool SMS sets this to the homeroom teacher
= Number of Rosters: Copied from the Active Calendar's schedule. Where subjects are assigned in only the Planning Calendar, PowerSchool SMS creates one roster per homeroom.
= Teacher preferences: Copied from the Active Calendar's schedule.

When a School Administrator creates a new planning schedule, PowerSchool SMS sets the schedule's fields as follows:

= Staff List: Same as the Active Calendar (a change in either calendar affects both).
= Rooms: Same as the Active Calendar (a change in either calendar affects both)

In a new planning schedule not copied from the Active Calendar, PowerSchool SMS sets the schedule's fields as follows:

= Scheduling Group: PowerSchool SMS creates two default scheduling groups: Homerooms and Classes.
= Day patterns: PowerSchool SMS creates 5 Regular Days and 0 Special Days.
= Scheduling defaults: For homerooms, the scheduling group default is Homeroom Default, for classes, Classes.
= Can schedule: PowerSchool SMS clears this flag.
= Automatically assign this subject to all students in grade #: PowerSchool SMS sets this to "Yes".
= Default Teacher: Homeroom teacher
= Number of Rosters: PowerSchool SMS creates one roster per homeroom.

Copying parts of a planning schedule

The administrator has the option of copying selected settings from each of the schedules in the Active Calendar [>>] into the Planning Calendar [>>] or from one Planning Calendar to another Planning Calendar. For example, the administrator could copy only Scheduling Groups, Bell Schedules, and Meeting Patterns. Selective copying enables the administrator to test various scheduling scenarios for the year being planned.

When the administrator copies a schedule's settings to a planning schedule, the following applies:

= Only the fields that are available in the Planning Calendar are copied from the Active Calendar.
= All the fields that are available in the Planning Calendar are copied from the Active Calendar, that is, the administrator cannot choose which scheduling elements or fields to copy to the Planning Calendar.
= PowerSchool SMS does not copy subjects from the Active Calendar to the Planning Calendar. It is the District Administrator who assigns subjects to schools and publishes the Subject Framework to district schools each calendar year.

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Always Learning
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