Preferences

The School Setup menu includes a Scheduling-related link, Preferences, used to access the Scheduling Preferences page, which you use to define scheduling preferences, teams, houses, buildings, and section types. The page is divided into five functional areas: Preferences, Teams, Houses, Buildings, and Section Types. By default, the Preferences tab is selected.

This information is either captured as part of the PowerScheduler commit process or you can manually define it (add, edit, and delete) using these pages.

Define Scheduling Preferences

Use this page to define parameters that determine how long the system spends scheduling each course, section, and student.

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 

3. Use the following table to enter information in the Automated Walk-In Scheduling section:

   Field	Description
   Use Buildings	Select the checkbox if this scenario uses buildings.
   Use Houses	Select the checkbox if this scenario uses houses.
   Close Sections at Max Enrollment	Select the checkbox to ensure that courses close at their maximum enrollment numbers.
   Use Global Course Alternate Substitution	Select the checkbox to ensure that the system automatically inserts any global course substitutes after student course substitutes have been tried and rejected.
   Use Student Request Alternate Substitution	Select the checkbox to ensure that the system automatically inserts student course substitutes in the order chosen, if needed.

4. Use the following table to enter information in the Load Optimizations section:

   Field	Description
   Percent of schedule combinations to evaluate for each student	The default value of this field is 10. Change this value only if you encounter problems with the amount of time the system is using to build the master schedule. For example, if you enter 25, the system evaluates one-quarter of the possible schedule combinations for each student. If you enter 75, the system evaluates three-quarters of the possible schedule combinations for each student.
   Minimum number of schedule combinations to evaluate before skipping	The default value of this field is 10,000. Change this value only if you encounter problems with the amount of time the system is using to build the master schedule. Entering a high number forces the system to sample a minimum number of student schedule course possibilities.

5. Use the following table to enter information in the Sorting section:

   Field	Description
   Class Day and Period Precedence	Choose an option from the pop-up menu to determine the sort order of the enrollments' expressions on the Modify Schedule - Enrollments student page. If sorted by Day then Period, enrollments are listed by day and sub-sorted by period, such as 1(A), 2(A), 3(A), 1(B), 2(B), then 3(B). If sorted by Period then Day, enrollments are listed by period and sub-sorted by day, such as 1(A), 1(B), 2(A), 2(B), 3(A), then 3(B).
   Modify Schedule Enrollments	Choose an option from the pop-up menu to determine the sort order of the enrollments on the Modify Schedule - Enrollments student page. Select Expression to sort the student's enrollments by schedule expression, such as 1(A) then 2(A) or 1(A) then 1(B), depending on the sort order selected in the previous field. Select CourseNumber-SectionNumber to sort enrollments by course number and section number, such as ART100-2, PE101-1, then PE101-2.

6. Use the following table to enter information in the Student Alert section:

   Field	Description
   Incomplete Schedule	Select the checkbox to enable. If enabled, the alert "This student's schedule is incomplete." appears on the student pages for students who have an incomplete schedule. To complete a student's schedule, navigate to the Modify schedule page.

7. Click Submit. The Changes Recorded page appears.

Add a Team

Some schools, most often middle or junior high schools, assign students and teachers to teams to provide the best support and monitoring system.

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Teams tab. 
4. Click New. 
5. Enter the name of the team (limited to 10 characters).
6. Click Submit. 

Edit a Team

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Teams tab.
4. Click the name of the team you want to edit. 
5. Edit the information as needed. 
6. Click Submit. 

Delete a Team

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Teams tab. 
4. Click the name of the team you want to delete. 
5. Click Delete.
6. Click Confirm Delete. 

Add a House

Some schools separate students into houses. For example, assume your school has House A (Grades 9 and 10) and House B (Grades 11 and 12). Determine which rooms, teachers, and students belong to each house. If the Use houses checkbox is selected on the Scheduling Preferences page, the system references which house a room is assigned to before scheduling courses in that room and gives scheduling priority to the appropriate house.

Also, sections are scheduled for houses based on the house assignment of the teachers scheduled for those sections. Students assigned to a house are assigned to a section either without a house or with the same house, whereas students not assigned a house can be assigned to any section.

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Houses tab.
4. Click New. 
5. Enter a name for the house (limited to 10 characters).
6. Click Submit. 

Edit a House

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Houses tab. 
4. Click the name of the house you want to edit. 
5. Edit the information as needed. 
6. Click Submit. 

Delete a House

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Houses tab. 
4. Click the name of the house you want to delete. 
5. Click Delete.
6. Click Confirm Delete. 

Add a Building

If your school campus contains several buildings, you can define each of them. Then, you can associate these buildings with students, teachers, and rooms. This way, the system knows to schedule courses in the appropriate building, taught by the appropriate teacher, and taken by the appropriate students.

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Buildings tab. 
4. Click New. 
5. Enter a name for the building (limited to 10 characters).
6. Click Submit. 

Edit a Building

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Buildings tab. 
4. Click the name of the building you want to edit. 
5. Edit the information as needed. 
6. Click Submit. 

Delete a Building

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Buildings tab. 
4. Click the name of the building you want to delete. 
5. Click Delete.
6. Click Confirm Delete. The Selection Deleted page appears.

Add a Section Type

Section types are special sections of a course. For example, your school might offer separate sections of courses for bilingual students. In this case, one section of the course is identified as bilingual. The teacher who instructs this section has a bilingual section type assignment. The students' requests also reflect the bilingual section type.

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. 
3. Click the Section Types tab.
4. Click New. 
5. Enter a name for the section type (limited to 20 characters).
6. Enter a section type code (limited to two characters).
7. Click Submit.

Edit a Section Type

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences.
3. Click the Section Types tab. 
4. Click the name of the section type you want to edit. ars.
5. Edit the information as needed. 
6. Click Submit. 

Delete a Section Type

1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. The School Setup page appears.
2. Under Scheduling, click Preferences. The Scheduling Preferences page appears.
3. Click the Section Types tab. The Section Types page appears.
4. Click the name of the section type you want to delete. The Edit Section Types page appears.
5. Click Delete.
6. Click Confirm Delete. The Selection Deleted page appears.