Flex Scheduling Permissions  ↑

In order to use the Scheduling Setup form at the start of the scheduling process, a user needs Admin permission to the SMS table. 

Additional permissions will be required to continue with other scheduling tasks. When the scheduling master schedule is "rolled" to the master schedule, a user will need to use the Copy Scheduling Results to SEC & MST form. 

To use the Copy Scheduling Results to SEC & MST form, a user needs:

• Admin permissions to SEC and MST 
• Read permissions to SSS, SMS, SSE, and SSM which contain the staff assigned to sections.  
• Additional access to other scheduling-related tables may also be required for other actions associated with scheduling. For example, in order to add or modify Courses, a user would need permissions to the CRS table. 

Scheduling Setup ↑

Filter Pages by "Scheduling Setup" or navigate to Scheduling Process > Configurations > Scheduling Setup. 

The Scheduling Setup Options form is divided into four areas: Scheduling Status, Scheduling Options, and SMS & SSS Initialization.

If the district has enabled Flexible Scheduling, new options will be available on this page. Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year will display under the Scheduling Status section. Selecting this option will also turn on a new option under the Scheduling Options section Use Staff-Section Association instead of Teacher Numbers(TN) with SMS sections.

Note: If using non-flex scheduling in the current year and when the option to Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year is selected on this page, the pages for Class Calendars, Flex Periods, and Flex SMS Board will also be available in the navigation menu.

Scheduling Status ↑

Under Scheduling Status, choose the correct option for your scheduling needs: Scheduling Students into Classes for the Current School Year, Scheduling Students into Classes for the Next School Year, Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year. Scheduling for next year in this year’s database will use the Next Grade field and will schedule active students and students with a status tag of ‘*’ (i.e., pre-enrolled).  

If a school is using traditional scheduling in the current year and is going to transition to Flex Scheduling for the following year, selecting the option Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year will allow scheduling for next year using the Section Staff, Flex Periods, and Class Calendars on the Scheduling Master Schedule page. The Flex SMS Board will also be available. It is important not to change School Options until after the rollover.

Choosing the Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year option will not interfere with the current year's Master Schedule.

Scheduling Options ↑

Under Scheduling Options, select the option Do NOT allow an Alternate Course Request that has already been selected as a primary or alternate request to prevent a student from requesting a course as an Alternate Course if the student already has that course as a primary or alternate course request.

Wait Lists are not used in Flex Scheduling. 

The option to Use Staff-Section Association instead of Teacher Number(TN) with SMS sections will appear only when the Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year option is selected under Scheduling Status and will be pre-selected by default. It will read the records in the Staff (STF) table to allow them to be assigned to sections. With this option enabled, existing TCH records will be ignored.

If a school is using regular scheduling but would like to use the Section Staff Members feature to assign staff records to sections, selecting this option will display the Section Staff Members area (SSM table) on the Scheduling Master page.

Selecting this option will store the value in OPT with name 'SchedUseStaffInSMS'.

The option for Track Primary Classes for Students for Next Year will display only for schools who are using a master schedule and the Scheduling Status option of Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year is selected.

For schools currently using the Flex Scheduling and Primary Class Tracking flags on the School Options page, the Track Primary Classes for Students for Next Year option will be automatically selected on the Scheduling Setup page when scheduling for next year.

Schools who are currently not using Primary Class Tracking and will set up to use this feature for the next school year, the rollover process will enable the feature on the School Options page in the new year database by setting the OPT value 'TrackingPrimaryClasses' to True. 

SMS & SSS Initialization ↑

If scheduling has previously been performed, the SSS and SMS tables will contain data.

When copying data from the Master Schedule (MST) into the SMS, always blank out the SMS table before copying the MST into the SMS.  For more information on how to blank out the SMS, see:  Mid Year Scheduling and Finalization.

Select which terms to copy for scheduling on the right. These choices apply to both the student classes copied and the master schedule sections copied. 

Other options:

• Do Nothing with the SSS Table or Do Nothing with the SMS Table will leave all existing data in the two tables.
• Do Nothing with the SMS Table, but Copy Flex Periods (FTF) will leave existing data in the SMS table but will delete existing Flex Period records assigned to the next academic year and create new Flex Period records for the next academic year. This option is only available in schools using flex scheduling in the current year.
• Selecting Blank out the SSS Table or selecting Blank out the SMS Table will delete any existing data and leave empty tables.
• Selecting Copy Current Student Classes to SSS Table, Keep as Prescheduled will keep the students in the same sections they were in during the previous term. This function is normally used during mid-year scheduling.
• Selecting Copy Current Student Classes as Course Requests Only will copy students’ current classes as course requests only.

Note: If the SSS table is already populated with course requests and either of the last two options are selected, a message will be displayed to indicate that the SSS table already has records in it and that selection of this option will append the new records to the existing records. If the SSS table has records in it, you will be asked to confirm if you want to continue copying the current classes to the SSS table.

The final option, Copy current master schedule (MST) table to the new SMS table will:

• Copy your school’s Master Schedule into the new Scheduling Master Schedule table. 
• Existing Flex Periods for the next academic year will be kept and copied for the next Academic Year. New FTF records will be created only if they do not exist and will be assigned to SMS records. 
• Existing Section Staff records from SSE will copy to SSM. 
• When this option is selected, more options will be displayed, allowing you to choose how to handle inactive sections in the MST. Select the appropriate option for your scheduling situation.
• Class Calendars will NOT be copied and should be evaluated separately. At least one class calendar record assigned to the next academic year is needed in order to begin scheduling in the current year for next year.
• If the current year is using Flex, then existing FTF records for next year will be matched to FTF records for the current year based on short title (FTF.STI). Any flex periods that match will be mapped when setting SMS.FSQ. Any flex period that does not have a match will cause a new FTF record to be created.
• If the current year is NOT using Flex, then existing FTF records for next year will be matched based on the period naming convention (e.g., FTF.STI = '2' for period 2). Any flex periods that match will be mapped when setting SMS.FSQ. Any period that does not have a match will cause a new FTF record to be created.

Copy Scheduling Results to SEC and MST  ↑

During the Copy Scheduling Results to SEC and MST process, the following will occur: 

• The Feature Flag for Staff ID Based Counselor Tracking will be enabled. (DPT)
• School Options - Staff ID Based Counselor Tracking will be enabled for the school. (OPT)

The process will warn the user that the process will convert the existing teacher numbers in STU.CU to Staff IDs in STU.CNS.

• If Staff ID Based Counselor Tracking was not already enabled for the school, a pop-up warning will display: Also, existing Teacher Numbers in STU.CU will be converted to Staff IDs in STU.CNS. Once converted, there is no method to revert back to using Teacher Numbers (TCH). 
• If Staff ID Based Counselor Tracking was not already enabled for the school, then counselors will be converted from TCH to Staff (STU.CU to STU.CNS).  

This is a long running process (LRP). A separate email notification will be sent to the user upon completion.

For more information on Copying Scheduling Results to SEC and MST, see School Startup.

Additional Information  ↑

For traditional scheduling schools who will transition to using Flex Scheduling for the next year or after the rollover while the school is set up as traditional scheduling, it is recommended that the Convert to Flex Scheduling process be run. See Scheduling Setup more information.