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Teacher Maximum Load

Use the Teacher Maximum Load function to prevent teachers from being scheduled to teach more students in a day than is allowed by their contracts. Activate the Teacher Maximum Load function at the district level and give each teacher who has a maximum load a value of the number of students they can teach in a day. To activate this function, see Set Up Miscellaneous District Settings. To specify a maximum load per teacher, see Staff Scheduling Preferences.

For sections to count towards a teacher's daily maximum load, you must modify the section to not be exempt from the maximum load calculation. Since you may not want some classes (such as supervised study hall) to count towards a teacher's maximum load, you can set sections as exempt from the maximum load calculation. 

When specifying a teacher's maximum load, the number must be a numeric integer representing the total number of students that a teacher can be scheduled for on any given day. Also, the aggregation of the number of students scheduled for a teacher is be based on seats scheduled; that is, if a student is scheduled into more than one of that teacher's classes, then the student is counted as many times as they are scheduled in that teacher's classes.

There are two ways to report on teacher maximum load information. One reports on the sections' maximum enrollment and the teachers' maximum student load for the term in which the specified date is included. However, since a section may have added or dropped enrollments, the report displays aggregated numbers for the maximum load. For more information, see Run the Teacher Maximum Load Report. The other recalculates the teacher maximum load and displays each enrollment violation for the current date. 

Calculate Teacher Maximum Load

Use this function to display load violations and to refresh the maximum load information by recalculating teachers' maximum load information. Events that require recalculations include:

  • When modifying the school calendar: changing a lettered day (such as making an A day a B day), marking a day as "in session," or switching bell schedules
  • When modifying a section: changing the expression [such as from 1(A) to 1(B)], changing the maximum load status to or from Exempt, or changing the assigned teacher
  • When changing a teacher's maximum load, specifically to a lower number

Note: Using USM to modify the course records (CC) table invalidates the daily count for the affected teacher, thereby circumventing the preventative controls of Teacher Maximum Load function. Also, running the special operation "Recover from mass transfer out" also invalidates the maximum load count. After performing either of these activities, perform the Teacher Maximum Load Setup function to recalculate and report violations of load counts.

  1. On the start page, choose System under Setup in the main menu. 
  2. Under Scheduling, click Teacher Maximum Load Setup. 
  3. Select a teacher or select All Teachers from the Select a Teacher pop-up menu.
  4. Click Submit. The Maximum Load Table Setup Progress page appears. After calculating and updating the daily load counts for the selected teacher(s), the report lists any load violations. If no violations exist, the message "No violations found" appears.

Years and Terms

Define years and terms for your school. Years and terms affect many aspects of PowerSchool, such as the calendar setup, scheduling, enrollment, and final grades.

First, create the year term for your school. Then, define additional terms for the school year, if necessary.

Terms created on the Years & Terms page are "scheduling terms," which define the entire length of a school year (year term) as well as the length of sections offered during the school year (semester, quarter, etc.). Classes offered during the school year determine the required scheduling terms. If students have the same teacher, room, and section throughout the year, only the year term is needed. However, if students change teachers, rooms, or sections throughout the year, create additional terms of varying lengths (semester, quarter, etc.).

Note: Scheduling terms differ from "grading terms." For information about defining grading terms, see Final Grade Setup.

Add a School Year

Once you add the year term for a school, you cannot delete it.

  1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
  2. Under Scheduling, click Years & Terms. 
  3. Click New. 

  4. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

    Type

    Description

    Name of School Year

    Enter the school year name.

    Abbreviation

    Enter the abbreviation of the school year. For the year term, use numbers. For example, enter 09-10 for the 2009-2010 school year.

    First Day of School

    Enter the start date of the school year using the format mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy. If you do not use this format, an alert appears. If you submit the date with an incorrect format, the date field is submitted as a blank entry.

    Last Day of School

    Enter the end date of the school year using the format mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy. If you do not use this format, an alert appears. If you submit the date with an incorrect format, the date field is submitted as a blank entry.

  5. Click Submit. The Years & Terms page displays the new school year.

Edit a School Year

Once you add a year term for a school, you can edit the elements of the term.

  1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
  2. Under Scheduling, click Years & Terms. 
  3. Click Edit Terms.
  4. Click the name of the year term. 
  5. Edit the information as needed. 
  6. Click Submit. 

Define Terms

Define terms shorter than the year term in order to schedule sections of varying lengths (semester, quarter, etc.).

  1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. 
  2. Under Scheduling, click Years & Terms. 
  3. Click Edit Terms next to the school year for which you want to define terms.
  4. Click New.

  5. Use the following table to enter information in the fields:

    Field

    Description

    Name of the Term

    Enter the name of the term, which indicates when it occurs during the academic year. For example, enter Semester 1.

    Abbreviation

    Enter an abbreviation for the term. For the year term, use numbers. For example, enter 09-10 for the 2009-2010 school year.

    For additional terms, the first character of the abbreviation must be a letter. For example, enter S1 for Semester 1.

    First Day of Term

    Enter the date of the first day of the term using the format mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy. If you do not use this format, an alert appears. If you submit the date with an incorrect format, the date field is submitted as a blank entry.

    Last Day of Term

    Enter the date of the last day of the term using the format mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy. If you do not use this format, an alert appears. If you submit the date with an incorrect format, the date field is submitted as a blank entry.

    Hide Classes For This Term From Parents/Students

    Select the checkbox to hide classes for this term from parents/students in the PowerSchool Student and Parent portal and  PowerSchool Mobile app. Otherwise, leave blank. Once submitted, an asterisk appears next to the term indicating that classes for the term are hidden from parents/students in the PowerSchool Student and Parent portal and PowerSchool Mobile app.

    This setting is only applicable to the selected term. If a term contains subterms that you want to hide, you will need to select this setting for each of those subterms.

    You may also want to disable the My Data feature in the PowerSchool Student and Parent portal so that course information is not available through this feature. To disable My Data Download for parents, go to the Security Settings page in the System Administrator > System Settings and set Enable MyData Download for Parents to Off.

    What portion of the school year this term represents

    Select the fraction or item that represents the portion of the school year during which the term takes place. For example, if you define Semester 1 and your school operates with trimesters, Semester 1 represents one-third of your school year.

    Import File Term #

    If you plan to import schedule or historical data from another system and the data is different from the abbreviation you define, enter the term code the other system uses to represent this term.

    For example, you might want to import data from a system that uses 1, 2, 3, and 4 to represent quarter terms Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. When you define Q1, enter 1 in the Import File Term # field. Then, when you import any data from the other system, PowerSchool saves information from term 1 as term Q1.

  6. Click Submit. The Term Setup page displays the edited terms.
  7. Repeat steps 4-6 for each term, including semesters, trimesters, or quarters.

Edit Terms

  1. On the start page, choose School under Setup in the main menu. The School Setup page appears.
  2. Under Scheduling, click Years & Terms. The Years & Terms page appears.
  3. Click Edit Terms next to the school year you want to edit. The Term Setup page appears.
  4. Click the term you want to edit. The Edit Term page appears.
  5. Edit the information as needed.
  6. Click Submit. The Term Setup page displays the edited term.
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