Overview of Master Schedule Builder

The Master Schedule Builder helps schools to optimize all of their scheduling resources, matching the course requests, available classrooms, and staff resources with the number of sections and periods that will be needed. The Master Schedule Builder uses both the student schedule requests that have been entered and parameters set within the Builder.

Scheduling Setup Checklist

Create/Verify that all teachers are in Focus
Create/Verify that all rooms are set up in Focus and assigned to the correct teacher
Verify that Periods and Bell schedules have been set up
Verify that calendar(s) have been created
Verify that Marking Periods have been created
Verify that grad posting schemes have been created
Verify that grading scales have been created
Verify that all course requests have been entered into Focus

Master Schedule Builder Setup

Once you have verified that your schedule foundations are in place you can begin to use the builder. To access the builder make sure that you have selected the upcoming school year (that you are scheduling for) from the pull-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Then click Scheduling > Master Schedule Builder.

Scenarios

Once in the builder, you will see a tab called Scenarios. The Scenarios tab displays each of the scenarios that have been run in the Master Schedule Builder and are used to duplicate or create new scenarios as needed. The Initial Scenario is used the first time you use the Master Schedule Builder.

To rename the Initial scenario, click the Title field and enter the desired name. It is useful to name the scenario using the date and a description. Then click Save.

As you try different scheduling scenarios you may want to create additional instances to see what works best. As additional scenarios are created and saved you will see that the pulldown in the top right corner of the builder is updated allowing you to easily switch between scenarios.

Setup

Setup consists of Terms, Periods, Course Defaults, and Teacher Restraints.

Terms

Each of the terms set up in Setup > Marking Periods are listed. The Active checkboxes next to each of the terms are automatically selected.

Deselect the Active check box next to terms that will not be scheduled.

In my example below I would only like the builder to schedule classes for Full Year, Semester 1, and Semester 2 therefore I am deselecting the quarters.

After your selections are made click Save.

Periods

Click on the tab titled Periods. The periods you see here come from Setup> Periods. Here you will select the periods you would like to use within the builder for scheduling. Deselect any periods that will not be used in your schedule builder.

When you are finished, click Save.

Course Defaults

The Course Defaults tab is used to apply default settings for Meeting Days, Takes Attendance, Graded, Affects GPA, Calendar, Grading Scale, Stacking, and Default Marking Period to new sections.

Each course is listed, along with its current settings. The highlight color indicates if there is currently no setting (red), not all sections have the same setting (yellow), or the section was created by the master scheduler this year (gray). There is a Color Legend for reference at the top of the screen.

For each course, adjust the course defaults as needed and click Save. You can mass update the values by clicking Mass Update, selecting the column and values to update, click Update and Save.

Selecting courses in the Stacking pull-down indicates that these courses should be scheduled into the same period, for example, Band 1, Band 2, Band 3, and Band 4.

Each course needs to be selected individually and stacked with the other courses. For example, for the Band 1 course, Band 2, Band 3, and Band 4 must be selected in the Stacking pull-down. For the Band 2 course, Band 1, Band 3, and Band 4 must be selected in the Stacking pull-down, etc.

Teacher Constraints

The Teacher Constraints tab is where you can set the rooms, periods available, consecutive periods allowed, max periods, allowed courses, and allowed subjects for teachers.

List of users set up as teachers on your site.
Use the Rooms column to assign a room(s) to each teacher.
Use the Periods Available column to restrict which periods the teacher can be scheduled in. ** We do not recommend using this on your first run through.**
To restrict the number of consecutive periods the teacher is allowed to teach, enter the maximum number of Consecutive Periods Allowed.
To restrict the number of total periods the teacher is allowed to teach, enter the Max Periods. If the Max Periods is left blank, the Builder will assume the teacher can be scheduled in all periods.
Select the Allowed Courses for the teacher. *
Select the Allowed Subjects for the teacher. *

*Allowed Courses & Allowed Subjects:

Setting the Allowed Courses and Allowed Subjects parameters allows Focus to assign teachers to sections that are missing a teacher in the Assign Teachers tab.

The Allowed Courses fields will be automatically populated with the courses teachers have taught in the last three years.

For new teachers, you must assign the Allowed Courses or Allowed Subjects that they can teach.

Setting both Allowed Courses and Allowed Subjects for a teacher acts as an OR condition.

NEW Feature!- Import from Planning Periods

If you're utilizing the Planning Periods feature for assigning departmental planning periods, individual planning periods, duty periods, and unavailable periods to teachers, utilize the "Import from Planning Periods" button to refresh the "Periods Available" column for all teachers. This column will show periods that aren't designated as planning periods, department planning periods, duty periods, or unavailable periods. Access to the "Import From Planning Periods" button is restricted to users with the View permission for the Planning Periods screen.

Courses

The Courses tab is used to add, edit, or delete sections in the master schedule.

Here you will see the Course Number, Course Title, and Subject. From the Max Size column, you can enter a maximum number of students that can be scheduled into each instance of the class.

In the Student Reqs column, you can see the number of course requests that have been entered for each course.

The Recommended column takes the number of requests and divides it by the max class size to determine how many sections you will need to satisfy the number of requests for each course.

If there are any existing sections of the course built that number will display in the column labeled Current.

If the Current column is highlighted in yellow it means you have too many sections compared to the number needed and red means that there is a deficit between the number of sections you need and the number you currently have.

There are two ways to resolve the deficit.

Option 1: Use the optimize feature:

This feature will automatically create the number of sections listed in the recommended column and will delete unneeded sections automatically. By default, Focus will optimize any course that has requests and a max size set. The new sections added by the optimize feature will not have a teacher assigned.

Deselect the Optimize check box next to any course you do not want to optimize.

After you review/update the optimize checkboxes for each of the courses and save, click Optimize the Number of Sections button.

Option 2: Manually build sections:

If you would prefer to manually build class sections, clicking the circular button on the left column will display a pop-up box that allows you to manually build new sections.

Here you can select a Teacher from the pulldown, confirm/ update the Max Size, Room, Lock Period (locking the period the class will meet, not recommended), MP (marking period), and How Many (sections you would like to create).

**The period column will update once the builder is run and the section is assigned a period.**

Once you make all of your selections, hit enter on your keyboard to add the next line.

The data will highlight yellow until you click the Save button.

Delete unneeded sections by clicking the red minus sign next to the class.

When all of the yellow and red highlighting has been removed from the page you are ready to move on to the next tab in the builder titled Sections.

Sections

The sections tab is used to finalize your section settings.

Teacher - Use the teacher pull-down to assign teachers to sections without a teacher.
Subject - This column displays the graduation subject assigned to the course/ section.
Course - This column displays the course number and title. If the course needs to be changed use the pull-down menu to select a new course.
Section - This column displays the number of sections that have been built for this course.
Requests - This column displays the number of requests that have been made for this course.
MP - This column displays the marking period assigned to this class. Use the pull-down menu to update the marking period.
Followup - The follow-up pull-down is used to indicate a course that will be paired with the class selected. A good example of this is Econ and American Govt. In most cases, students take Econ one semester and American government one semester. Select a course from the pull-down that will be taken in the other half of the year than the main course.
Rooms - This column displays the room that is the class will take place in. Use the pull-down menu to update the room number if necessary.
Max Size - This column is the maximum amount of students that should be scheduled for the class. This can be updated as needed.
Periods Spanned - This column is the periods spanned for the class selected. If a class is to be spanned for 2 consecutive periods enter a 2 here.
Lock Period - This column can be used to select or lock a specified period in which the class will meet. Otherwise, the builder will pick the period.
Scheduled Period - The scheduled period column will be populated once the builder runs and assigns a period to the class.
Scheduling Issues - The scheduling issues column will populate once the builder runs and will display any issues that have kept the builder from assigning a period. A common example is when a teacher is overscheduled the scheduling issue will read "Teacher Unavailable".

A. Use the red minus sign to delete a class.
B. Click the Copy button to make an exact copy of the section.

When you are finished updating the sections screen click Save and navigate to the next tab, assign teacher.

Assign Teachers

The Assign Teachers tab is used to assign teachers to sections that are missing a teacher.

Focus will suggest teachers for sections based on who taught those courses in the past three years. The settings we covered earlier from Setup> Teacher Constraints tab are also taken into account. Suggestions are highlighted in yellow. To take all of the suggestions, click the Assign Suggestions button.

A teacher must either have taught in the district in the last three years or be assigned in Setup > Teacher Constraints for Focus to suggest them. So if you have a brand new teacher and do not want to add them to Teacher Constraints you will need to manually assign them here. You can manually assign the teachers using the teacher pull-down in the Assigned column.

Schedule

Once you have set all the rules for this scenario, the Schedule tab is used to run the builder and the scheduler.

The builder will assign periods to sections based upon all the rules you have set up in the previous tabs.

When you are ready. Click Run the Builder. Once the builder is done running the screen will update and show you any classes it was unable to assign a period to.

The Problem column will give you a good idea as to why a period could not be assigned.

Click the Examine button to resolve the issue

The Teacher, Course, MP, Max Size and Lock Period for the section can be edited and saved as needed at the top of the window. The section can also be deleted. Refer to the available teachers at the bottom of the window if a new teacher assignment is needed. Click the X to close the pop-up window when finished.

Once you have resolved the scheduling issues, click save and return to the schedule screen.

After all the corrections have been made Run the Builder again.

Navigate to the Sections tab to view the period suggestions. Note the period's assignment and the reason the period was assigned for each section.

Feel free to make changes to the Section screen to tweak the schedule. After changes are made you must return to the schedule tab and re-run the builder.

When you are satisfied with your schedule, exit the builder. Any changes to the schedule from this point forward will be made manually under Scheduling > Courses and Sections.

Do not run the Scheduler from inside the builder.

The next step in the scheduling process is to review the Builder Reports before scheduling students. Please click here to review our article titled Builder Reports.