All schools strive to have all students successfully scheduled into a full-complement of classes on the first day of school (or earlier!). To achieve this goal, building an effective Master Schedule requires sequential planning and processes to be performed starting almost a year in advance!
Outlined below is a sample timeline for a full master schedule building project at a secondary school (high school or middle school) - this timeline can be modified to suit the specific needs of each school and master schedule project.
| Month | Activity | Aeries Tools related to each Scheduling Phase |
| October - December | - Begin planning 2022 Course offerings
- Obtain approval for any new Course offerings
- Update Course Catalogs, course request documentation, resources for parents and students
| Managing Courses in Aeries |
| January - February | - Sign-up for Scheduling Training
- Coordinate with feeder schools to capture student enrollment data and identify instructional needs of incoming student groups
- Gather student course requests and alternates
- Identify any changes to bell schedules, periods offered, and Master Schedule structure
| Aeries Training Workshops & Webinars
Creating Pre-Enrolled Student Records in Aeries
Scheduling Setup
Building Flex Periods
Student Course Requests
|
| March | - Tally Course Requests
- Identify numbers of sections needed for each course
- Identify hiring needs based on staff departures, new Course offerings, and enrollment growth
- Define Master Schedule requirements and constraints
- Begin building Master Schedule
| Course Request Reports
Building a Master Schedule Using Flex |
| April - May | - Continue to build and analyze Master Schedule
- Mass schedule students
- Are classes balanced?
- Across sections of the same courses
- Across periods
- Across teachers
- Across student instructional groups
- Does the Master Schedule support the school's priorities?
- Do student instructional groups have access to the classes they need?
- For graduation requirements
- To advanced/challenging coursework
- To remediation coursework
- Begin adjusting student schedules due to conflicts, course completion, or course non-completion
| Grouping Students - Teams
Grouping Students - Houses/Academies
Schedule All Students
|
| June | - Continue to adjust student schedules due to conflicts, course completion or course non-completion
- Take a summer break!
| Managing Student Course Requests |
| July | - Adjust Master Schedule to account for staffing and/or enrollment changes
- Continue adjusting individual student schedules to account for conflicts, summer school completion, etc.
|
|
| August | - Finalize student schedules for the first day of school
| Copy SMS to MST
Class Rosters
Student Locator Cards |
