General Information  

Helpful Information  

Master Schedule/Scheduling Master Schedule  

Class Calendar 

Flex Periods 

Calendar  



Flex Secondary Scheduling is a feature of Aeries intended for use by early adopters and can only be turned on by a System Administrator. Please contact Aeries Support for information on enabling this feature for your district. Once Flex Secondary Scheduling is implemented at a school, it is not possible to return to Traditional Scheduling either in the current year or next year.


Before proceeding, please ensure you are running the most recent version of Aeries and that you implement new versions of Aeries in a timely manner.


The following will need to be set up before using the Flex Secondary Scheduling features:

  • After contacting support to enable Flex Secondary Scheduling, what you do next is dependent on your current status in Scheduling. If you have already rolled your SMS table to MST, please follow the instructions to Initialize Flex Scheduling in MST, otherwise, follow the instructions to Initialize Flex Scheduling in SMS. 
  • Initialize Flex Scheduling in MST
    • Navigate to the School Options page and change the Scheduling Type to 'Flexible'. The Use Staff In Sections field will be selected by default. Navigate to the Flex Secondary Scheduling - School Options Setup
      support page for more information.
      • The Scheduling Type should not be changed for the school in the year where regular scheduling has already taken place. This is to preserve the regular scheduling view of the Master Schedule page. This step should happen after the rollover in the new year.
    • When Flex Secondary Scheduling is enabled, the school Calendar will now display an additional dropdown below each day of the year with the ability to assign a bell schedule time to that day.
    • See article Scheduling Setup - Convert to Flex Scheduling. 
  • Initialize Flex Scheduling in SMS
  • Add and adjust Class Calendars and Flex Periods on their respective pages.
  • Ensure all teachers have been added to the staff (STF) table.


NOTE: The values for these settings are stored in cache and can take up to 15 minutes to refresh throughout the system.



General Information  ↑


Flex Secondary Scheduling allows school with a master schedule to build a master schedule using new features such as Class Calendars, Flex Periods, and the ability to associate multiple staff members to a section (Section Staff Members) while still designating one person as a primary teacher.


NOTE: It is important to maintain the STF table as Flex Secondary Scheduling since this table is dependent on staff being assigned to sections. 


Helpful Information  ↑

Below is information on the various options related to Flex Secondary Scheduling and Section Staff Members:

  • School Options-> Use Staff in Sections: This option will turn on the Section Staff Members area on the Master Schedule page (SSE table). 
  • Scheduling Setup -> Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year: This option will activate the Flex Periods, Class Calendars, and Flex SMS Board on the Navigation menu without the need to change School Options in the current year.
  • Scheduling Setup-> Use Staff-Section Association instead of Teacher Numbers(TN) with SMS sections: This option will display the Section Staff Members (SSM) area on the Scheduling Master Schedule (SMS) page. This is on by default when the Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year option is selected.
    • Early adopters who will set up regular scheduling for next year using the current year database but will use Staff (STF) in place of Teachers (TCH), can turn on this option without changing the School Options. The option to Use Flex Scheduling for Next Year should NOT be selected in this case. This option Use Staff-Section Association instead of Teacher Numbers(TN) with SMS sections will display the Section Staff Members (SSM) area on the Scheduling Master Schedule (SMS) page, while continuing to use regular Period and Days data.


NOTE: Use Staff In Sections option not available to Elementary and Elementary w/Master scheduling types.


Master Schedule/Scheduling Master Schedule  ↑

The Master Schedule and Scheduling Master pages will display new fields while hiding others used in traditional Secondary scheduling. New fields displayed are Flex Period (FTF), Class Calendar (CCL), and a new area for Section Staff Members (SSE,SSM) which will read from the Staff table (STF).


The following fields will be hidden from the form when the Flex Secondary Scheduling feature is enabled.

  • Period
  • Block
  • Split Term
  • Days ( M, T, W, Th, F)
  • Teacher ( #1, #2 #3 )
  • HQ (#1, #2, #3)



Class Calendar ↑

Multiple Class Calendars can be added and assigned to various sections. The Class Calendar records can be customized to use specific days of the week while accounting for school holidays as stored in the DAY table.



Flex Periods ↑

Flex Periods can be created with start and end times which will then be assigned to particular sections in the Scheduling Master (SMS) / Master Schedule (MST) tables. Times listed under the Bell Schedule Times section default from values stored in the BSD table. The times can be modified and assigned to particular days of the year such as Minimum Days. Assigning the modified Bell Schedule Times to specific dates takes place on the school Calendar page. 


Note: Data from the BEL table is not used with Flex Scheduling.



Calendar  ↑

When Flex Secondary Scheduling is enabled, the school calendar no longer displays the bell icons to the left of the date unless the school options is set to use Attendance Time. Each day of the year has a drop-down with the ability to assign a Bell Schedule Time to that day. Permission to update the DAY table is required for this action.


To access the Calendar, navigate to School Info > Calendar

Select the day where a Bell Schedule Time should be honored and select Save.



Note: Configuration of the Bell Schedules occurs on the Bell Scheduler page.