Display Information for a Selected Period and Teacher
Print Scheduling Master Schedule Board
The Scheduling Master Schedule Board is an Aeries™ program that has been created to assist the user with updating the Scheduling Master Schedule.
In the past, the scheduling process usually involved a white board depiction of the Scheduling Master Schedule (SMS), which incorporated the periods, teachers and different colored labels with the names of the classes to be scheduled. The labels were then moved around to create a successful Master Schedule for the upcoming semester or school year.
To eliminate the two stage process of manually moving the colored labels around on a white board and then entering the changes into the Aeries database, the SMS Board was created. This page displays an overall view of the SMS. The user can quickly add, change, delete and move classes, and then schedule all students to see the results.
For the Flex Scheduling version of the SMS Board, see the following documentation: Flex SMS Board
Note: The information displayed on this page depends upon the size of the monitor. This page has been created to use a 17-inch monitor. If the monitor is less than 17 inches, the scroll bar will need to be used to display information outside these parameters. The monitor resolution setting should be a minimum of 1024 x 768
Filter Pages by "sms board" or navigate to Scheduling Process > SMS Board.
Alternatively, the SMS Board can be accessed from the Scheduling Process Dashboard > C. Build Scheduling Master Schedule > 2. SMS Board.
The Scheduling Master Schedule will be displayed in a familiar grid format. The teacher number and name are on the left side, identifying the rows of sections. Along the top of the grid, the periods are the column headers. Each cell contains an individual section's information: the course title, semester, and number of students. If a teacher teaches more than one section per period, they will be displayed on separate lines. Click on any period and the period cell will turn yellow, and that section's information will display at the top left:
The top right of the form displays the different options available. Four tabs are provided: Display, Scheduling Options, Color Codes, and Scheduling Statistics.
Display Options ↑
The Scheduling Master Schedule will open displaying the Semester selected. In the above example the Year term is selected. Available options include:
- Semester: Select the term to display: Year, Fall, or Spring. If Trimesters are set up, select 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.
- Group by Department: Selecting this checkbox will sort the classes by Department and display the department name in the teacher name column. The department codes are assigned on the Course Data form.
- Show Course Number: Selecting this checkbox will display the Course Number in the class cell.
- Show Department Colors: Selecting this checkbox will display the classes with the colors assigned to the departments on the Color Codes tab.
- Show Singletons in Red: Selecting this checkbox will display all Singleton classes for a course in red.
- Skip Inactive Sections: Selecting this checkbox will not display sections tagged as inactive.
- Skip Teacher Aides: Selecting this checkbox will not display sections of courses that are tagged as Teacher Aide on the Course Data form.
- Sort by Teacher Name: Select to sort by Teacher Name. If unchecked, sort will be by Teacher Number.
- Period Range to Show: can be used to limit the Period Range to display on the board.
In the following example, Semester will be changed to Fall, courses will be Grouped by Department, Department Colors will display, and only periods 0-6 will be shown on the board. Click Save and Reload to save the changes.
Scheduling Options ↑
Below are the Scheduling Options available. These options are also available on the Schedule All Students function under the Scheduling Process node.
NOTE: The first column of the Scheduling Options (Schedule Alternates, etc.) will all be ignored when using the Find Best Period feature because they are not used by the function.
- Schedule Alternates: If an alternate class was entered into a student’s course request and a student has a rejected course, the program will attempt to schedule the student into the alternate class.
- Ignore Class Maximums: All students requesting a class will be scheduled into the class, regardless of the maximum number of students set for the section.
- Include Inactive Students: Inactive students will be included when scheduling classes. Pre-enrolled students tagged '*' (asterisk) will automatically be included, even without this option selected.
- Prevent Gaps in Schedule: Will attempt to schedule every student into the tightest period range possible.
- Ignore Group Codes: This option will ignore any grouping/teaming that may be in place when scheduling.
- Balance Academic Weight: Uses the CRS.AC (Academic Weight) field to ensure academic classes are balanced across all 4x4 terms. Using this option may result in a higher number of rejects.
- Grade Sort/Student Sort: The default for scheduling students is alphabetically, without regard to grade level. To schedule by grade level, select Schedule Low to High or Schedule High to Low. Select Reverse Alpha to schedule backwards alphabetically. To schedule without regard to name select Randomly.
- The Find Best Period feature will also honor these options as selected. More information on this feature below.
Once any new selections are made, click Save and Reload.
Color Codes ↑
Colors can be assigned to up to 10 different departments.
Click on any of the color bands to display the list department codes. Select a department for that color.
To assign a different color to the Department, click the paintbrush icon on the color band to select the color of your choice. Click Save and Reload to save your changes.
Scheduling Statistics ↑
If Scheduling has been run from the SMS Board, the Scheduling Statistics tab displays the results of the last scheduling run.
Display Information for a Selected Period and Teacher
To display more information for a particular period and teacher, click the selected section for the teacher. Detailed information will display at the top of the form. The selected class will be highlighted in yellow.
NOTE: When scheduling for current year, no changes are allowed to any SMS record if the section number also exists in MST. If Save, Move, or Drop are used, an error will display. This also applies to the Crs Changes feature.
Change Class Data ↑
To change data on an existing class in the Scheduling Master Schedule, click the selected Period and Teacher and the class will be highlighted in yellow. The class information will display at the top of the form. Change any necessary information for this class and click the Save button.
Note: If a section number is changed, the Save will create a copy of the section and not change the existing section number.
Add a Class ↑
To add a class to the Scheduling Master Schedule, click on the selected Period and Teacher and the cell will be highlighted in yellow. Click the Add Class button at the bottom of the form.
NOTE: Before you can add a class, you must add one section via the Scheduling Master Schedule or SMS Builder.
A message will display verifying that the teacher/period selected will be added to the Scheduling Master Schedule. Click OK to complete the Add.
The cursor will now display at the top of the form in the period field. A section number will be assigned. Change any necessary information for this class and click Save. The class will be added to the teacher and period selected.
Move a Class ↑
To move a class in the Scheduling Master Schedule, click on the selected class to highlight it in yellow. Click the Move Class button at the bottom of the form.
Notice that the Cancel Move button is now displayed to allow you to cancel the move if needed.
Click on the period to which the class is to be moved. The class will be moved and will display in the selected period.
Copy a Class ↑
To copy a class in the Scheduling Master Schedule, click on the selected class to highlight it in yellow. Click the Copy Class button at the bottom of the form.
Notice that the Cancel Copy button is now displayed to allow you to cancel the copy if needed.
Click on the open period to which the class is to be copied. The class will be copied and will display in the selected period.
Drop a Class ↑
To drop a class from the Scheduling Master Schedule, click on the selected class to highlight it in yellow. Click the Drop Class button at the bottom of the form.
If there are students scheduled in the class, the following message will display. To continue with the delete, click Yes. To cancel the delete, click No.
Clicking Yes will display the following message. It is important to note that clicking Yes again will delete the students' course requests for this course and delete the section from the Scheduling Master Schedule. Clicking No will still delete the section from the Scheduling Master Schedule and drop the students from the section, but it will not delete the students' course requests.
Class List ↑
To display a listing of students in a class, click on the selected class and the class will be highlighted in yellow. Click the List Stus button at the bottom of the form.
The following report will be generated with all students currently scheduled into the selected class.
SMS Builder ↑
The SMS Builder button will display the Interactive Scheduling Master Schedule Builder. This form allows you to add one or more sections of a selected course. To begin, click the SMS Builder button at the bottom of the page.
The SMS Builder popup will be displayed:
To add sections for a course, enter a course number or title in the Select a Course field in Area 1.
Once the course has been selected in Area 1, the number of course requests for this course will display by grade on the right.
Area 2 will now display all of the scheduling conflicts by term for each period. To display the conflict details, click the cell for the Period and Term.
The following table will display with all potential conflicts for this course in the selected period and term.
In Area 3 the number of sections to be added can be entered for each period. As each number is added the information for the period will display in Area 4. In the example below one section will be added in period 1 and two sections will be added in period 2. Area 4 now displays a line to enter information for each new section.
To set up All sections the same, enter the information in Area 4 on the top line with the period identification of All. As information is entered, the lines below will now display the same information.
Note: Entering the Teacher name or number will input the associated Room and Max values from the Teacher Table (TCH).
To set up each section differently, enter the information in Area 4 for each section in each period.
After all section information has been entered, click the Add Sections button and the sections will be added to the Scheduling Master Schedule Board. Click the Reset button to clear the form for new data entry, or click Exit to close the form.
Find Best Period ↑
After a section on the SMS Board is selected, if the Find Best Period button is pressed, the process will "virtually" move the selected section to each period in turn. As the section is "virtually" moved, scheduling will be conducted and the number of students with incomplete schedules (one or more sections have a conflict) will be tallied and displayed, by period.
NOTE: There is no guarantee that Find Best Period will give a different result for a particular section. However, it should be easy to find a section that has at least one period with different results.
Click on a section to select it and press Find Best Period:
As the process is running, the Incomplete Schedules column is updated and a Status message is provided:
When the process is finished, all periods 0 - 9 will display a Status of Analysis Complete and the tallies can be compared. From the period range when the course could possibly be offered, the period with the fewest number of Incomplete Schedules is the best period for the section, based solely on how many students would have complete schedules, if the section were moved to that period.
In the example below, the school offers sections during 1st - 7th periods. If the selected section were moved to 1st period, the fewest number of students (642) would have incomplete schedules. If no other factor prevents the move, the section should be moved and students rescheduled.
NOTE: The first column of the Scheduling Options at the top of the page (Schedule Alternates, etc.) will all be ignored because they are not appropriate for Find Best Period. However, t\The selected Grade Sort/Student Sort options will be honored when using the Find Best Period function.
Rejected Courses ↑
After running the scheduler, the Rejected Courses can be displayed. Click the Rejected Courses button at the bottom of the Scheduling Master Schedule Board.
The following table will display courses that have rejects. Clicking any button in the SMS column will display all of the sections for the selected course. The Total column will display the total number of student rejects. Clicking any button in the STU column will display a list of rejected students for the selected course. The columns to the right will show the number of rejected students, broken down by the reject reason.
In the example below, the SMS button was selected for course 0010 - PE 9. The sections for PE 9 are displayed in the table.
The report also shows that there are 6 students rejected from English 10 CP. To view a list of the students, click the STU button.
To delete a student’s course request, click the remove button.
Course Changes ↑
To change section information for a specific course, click on the selected class to highlight in yellow. Then, click the Crs Changes button at the bottom of the form.
The following table will display with all sections for this course.
Changes can be made for each individual section by entering the change in the selected field. These changes will be saved immediately; there is no Save button!
To make a change to all sections displayed, enter the information on the bottom line, then click Change All.
In the example below, the maximum class size will be changed to 28 for all sections of course 0608 – Geometry Cp.
A message will display verifying the change. Click OK to continue.
A message will display indicating the Scheduling Master Schedule Board has been updated with this change. Click OK.
Note: Changing the Teacher name or number will also change the Room and Max values to the new teacher's Room and Max values from the Teacher Table (TCH).
Rejected Students ↑
To view a list of rejected students, click on a selected class to highlight it in yellow. Then, click the Rejected Stus button at the bottom of the form.
A popup will display listing the students who have been rejected for the selected course.
To delete a student’s course request, click the remove button.
Schedule All Students ↑
Select the Scheduling Options tab at the top of the form. Verify that all options have been correctly selected.
Click the Schedule Students button at the bottom of the form.
The following prompt will display. Click YES to proceed or NO to cancel.
A Please Wait message will display while the scheduler is running.
When the scheduler has completed, the following message will display.
Select the Scheduling Statistics tab at the top of the form to display the scheduling statistics.
If mass scheduling of students has been disabled, the following error message will display:
Mass scheduling of students can be disabled/enabled on the Schedule All Students page. Admin permissions to SMS are required to disable/enable mass scheduling of students.
Backup/Restore ↑
To Backup the scheduling tables or to Restore the scheduling tables to a previous backup, click the Backup/Restore button at the bottom of the form.
The Backup and Restore Scheduling Results page will be displayed.
Click Backup Current Scheduling Tables (SSS, SMS and related tables) to display the Backup Settings form. Enter a Description for your backup and a Comment if you choose. Click OK to save your backup, or click Cancel to stop the process.
The following confirmation message will display. Clicking OK will complete the process.
The Backup will now display in the list.
To Restore a previously saved backup, click on the selected backup from the list. The backup will highlight. Then, click
Restore SSS, SMS and related tables from Selected Backup.
The following confirmation message will display. Click OK to continue. An email will be sent to you when the process is complete.
To Delete one of the saved Scheduling Backups, click on the backup to be deleted. It will now be highlighted. Then, click Delete Selected Backup.
The following confirmation will display. Click OK if you wish to continue.
Print Scheduling Master Schedule Board ↑
Click the Print button at the bottom of the form to print the Scheduling Master Schedule Board.
The Report Options will display. Select the Report Format, Report Delivery, and whether to Print Legal Size. Then, click Run Report.
The following is an example of the Scheduling Master Schedule Board printed in PDF format on Letter Size paper.
