Building A Master Schedule

Introduction 01

October — Curriculum and Course Review 02

February — Preregister for the Coming Year 04

March — FTEs, Teacher Demand, and Course Loads 06

April — Scheduling Conflicts 08

April — Build Your Master Schedule 09

May — Simulations and the Final Schedule 16

June — Modifications and Adjustments 17

Summary 18

Table of Contents

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Building a Master Schedule

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Introduction

One of the more difficult tasks that school administra-

tors face is creating a master schedule. It can be an over-

whelming job that takes much of the prior school year to

develop in order to create a schedule that considers the

classes and services you are trying to provide, and

resources that you have available.

“...if your school has some concerns about the literacy level of a significant portion of the student body, then literacy intervention programs and prac-tices need to be built into the master sched-ule...”

Among the things that you must consider before build-

ing a schedule is the particular learning needs of your stu-

dent population. For example, if your school has some

concerns about the literacy level of a significant portion of

the student body, then literacy intervention programs and

practices need to be built into the master schedule in a

manner that they don’t conflict with other classes or the

teachers’ workload. If you don’t consider where they

should be scheduled right from the start, you may have dif-

ficulty inserting them as an afterthought. Similarly, if you

are located in a state that has mandated testing where a

passing grade is required for graduation, and you have

identified that there are some students who will need extra

support to pass one or more of the exams, then you will

want to consider how those subject should be reinforced,

and whether you will need to set aside time in the master

schedule for those interventions as well. This guide will

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review the order and timing of the steps that you will need

to followto ensure that the master schedule process goes

smoothly and successfully. The processes that are included

for discussion in this guide are:

• curriculum and course review

• tallies and sections

• teacher demand and course loads

• scheduling conflicts

• building the master schedule

• simulations and final schedule

• modifications and adjustments

With proper planning and organization, the difficulties

in the process for developing your master schedule can be

minimized. This guide will be useful in laying out the steps

and providing topics for reflection and discussion.

October — Curriculum and Course Review

As early as October you should begin working on your

master schedule for the coming year. Although the school

year has barely begun, it is time to begin reviewing the


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processes from the prior year that led to the development

of the current master schedule. You should be looking at

the courses that are presently in progress, and try to deter-

mine which ones will be renewed into the next school year,

which may need to be added, and which may need to be

altered or eliminated due to lack of success of the program

or the projected changes in the school’s population.

Course codes, DCT, Course Descriptions, and the Course

Catalog. You should review course codes, your district’s

curriculum table (DCT), course descriptions, and the cur-

rent course catalog. Having access to those items and mak-

ing sure they are updated with new information will make

the transition process to next year’s master schedule easier.

“October is also a time to revisit the current master schedule itself and some prior master schedules to deter-mine what steps in the process went well, and which steps caused dif-ficulty.“

October is also a time to revisit the current master

schedule itself and some prior master schedules to deter-

mine what steps in the process went well, and which steps

caused difficulty. Of the things that went well, try to decide

if modifications will make them work even better. For that

were problematic, you should decide how you can change

the process to ensure that you don’t run into the same

issues when writing the new schedule.

If you are aware of changes in the teaching staff or the

curriculum needs for the coming year, you should acknowl-


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edge those changes at this time, and try to determine how

the master schedule needs to be adjusted in order to

accommodate the differences. Discuss all of the potential

changes with the members of your staff so they can pro-

vide you feedback that may be valuable when you are writ-

ing the new master schedule. You should also share your

thoughts and decisions with your school community. By

doing so, you will prevent having to deal with any last-min-

ute objections or complaints.

February — Preregister for the Coming Year

The next step of the master scheduling process is to

begin to gather tallies. There will be some elective classes

for the coming year that you will have to consider when

constructing the schedule. Therefore, you need to establish

a method for determining the selections that the students

will make, and establish a time frame for gathering the

data. You should require that the students have a set

period of time when they can preregister for the coming

semester. Have your staff distribute a Student Course

Request form (SCR) to each student who will be attending

in the coming year. Students will be required to fill it out

before a predetermined deadline. Once the deadline has


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passed, students who have not preregistered will be placed

by the administration according to class availability.

Master Tally. When you have gathered up the preregistra-

tion information you will be able to enumerate the results

on a tally worksheet, which in turn will be used to create a

master tally of student requests. That tally will generate an

Enrollment Request Tally Report that can provide useful

information to predict how many sections you will need to

accommodate the number of students taking each class.

“Based upon the num-ber of sections you determine will be needed to accommo-date the student requests for each department, and deci-sions about which courses you will need to cancel, you can to begin determining the number of staff mem-bers you will need to fill the student’s requests.”

You will need to know the number of sections for each

course and each department. You may have to cancel

some courses based upon lack of interest or low preregis-

tration numbers. Based upon the number of sections you

determine will be needed to accommodate the student

requests for each department, and decisions about which

courses you will need to cancel, you can to begin determin-

ing the number of staff members you will need to fill the

student’s requests. A staff projection worksheet can be

helpful to determine what kind of scheduling demands will

be placed upon your staff. It can also help you decide

whether those demands will be met by the current teach-

ers and support staff, and illustrate where you need to

make adjustments in your work force for the next school

year.


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March — FTEs, Teacher Demand, and Course Loads

States have formulas that they use to generate ADA

reports , average daily attendance reports, which are used

to determine a school’s need for teachers. Schools use the

ADA numbers to decide the FTE, full-time equivalent

teachers that are needed to cover the school’s workload.

The reports are useful in determining how many students

will be attending school in the coming year, and how many

teacher will be needed to cover the population. Depend-

ing upon classroom size and the number of students

enrolled, the master scheduler can use FTE reports to help

determine the number of classes and sections that will

need to be filled for the coming year.

Teacher Demand . FTEs for staff and students numbers

should be considered along with enrollment figures to

determine the teacher demand, and how that will affect

the master schedule. It is not simply enough to say that

there is an average classroom size of “x” students, so we

need “y” teachers to cover the classes. Course loads must

also be put into the mix. If there is a considerably greater

demand for Spanish than French courses, for example,

then you will likely have more sections for the Spanish

teacher(s) to cover. You may find that you need to hire an


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additional Spanish teacher to meet you course load. Con-

versely, you may reduce the French staff or cut the

teacher(s) hours because there aren’t going to be enough

sections in French class to warrant additional teachers.

Budget changes may also affect whether you can hire addi-

tional staff to cover personnel shortages. Use FTE numbers

along with budgetary changes to decide how to creatively

problem solve discrepancies between teacher numbers

and teacher demand.

“...try to come up with ways that you can include your staff’s preferences into the master schedule pro-cess without compro-mising the needs of the student body.”

Teacher Preferences. Teachers also have preferences that

you need to at least consider when creating the master

schedule. Some teacher prefer to teach earlier in the day,

for example. If they are part-time staff, they may need to

get to another school for the end of the day. To the best of

your ability, try to come up with ways that you can include

your staff’s preferences into the master schedule process

without compromising the needs of the student body.

Department heads may be valuable resources for deciding

how to accommodate staff members by providing alterna-

tive solutions. Work with the department heads to deter-

mine possible teacher course loads.


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April — Scheduling Conflicts

Singletons. One of the earliest thing that you need to con-

sider to help reduce conflicts in the schedule is to deter-

mine where to put any singletons or doubletons. They are

classes that will only be offered onceor twice during the

year, so they may be challenging. They are among the

hardest things to schedule at the end without creating

conflicts, so thinking about their placement early is crucial

to your planning.

“If there are a high number of students who are enrolling in both classes, it is best if you can schedule them in different periods of the day to avoid con-flicts in the individual schedules of the stu-dents who are request-ing both.”

Conflict Matrix Report. You should also use and under-

stand the information on a conflict matrix report, which

you can generate from the data you have already taken. On

the report, you will see a comparison between two classes,

with a numerical value that shows the number of students

who are requesting to take both classes. If there are a high

number of students who are enrolling in both classes, it is

best if you can schedule them in different periods of the

day to avoid conflicts in the individual schedules of the stu-

dents who are requesting both.


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April — Build Your Master Schedule

You’ve now been working on you master schedule for

about six months, and the current school year is already

winding down. Your focus to this point has been on num-

bers (tallies, sections, FTEs, etc), and departments (course

loads, conflicts). Now it is time to put to use all of the infor-

mation from the reports that you have gathered and start

making programs for your students. To do that you will

need to consider what issues you may encounter, the rules

that will guide you and support you along the way, and the

steps you will need to take to complete this stage of the

master schedule process.

Issues

Some of the following issues will affect every school dis-

trict, while others may or may not apply to your school.

However, they are included to afford you the opportunity

to determine whether you should consider them.

Special Programs. The first issue you may encounter in

the building stage is special programs. They service a

group of students and you have to provide adequate

space, equipment, and staff for special program to take

place. It is likely that they will cause scheduling conflicts for


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teachers or students. Therefore, consider them as early as

possible so you don’t have to rearrange large portions of

your schedule to accommodate them.

Singletons and Doubletons. In a similar manner, single-

tons and doubletons will need to fit into the master sched-

ule in a way that they don’t conflict with the rest of your

calendar. Therefore you should plan them in early and

build the rest of the schedule around them. Once they

have been scheduled, try not to move them or they may

cause problems elsewhere.

“...you may also need to provide a CPT, com-mon planning time period, so they can work on the curriculum for the class together.”

Team Teaching. Team teaching may be another area of

concern for the master scheduler. There are many advan-

tages to using a team teaching approach in some classes,

so it may be inevitable that you have to accommodate

their special circumstances into the schedule. If you have

some classes that are taught by more than one teacher

simultaneously, then you may encounter some scheduling

issues that you wouldn’t normally see. For example, your

staff members who are teaching the class may have con-

flicting preferences. Also, apart from making room in the

schedule to accommodate two teachers in the same spot,

you may also need to provide a CPT, common planning

time period, so they can work on the curriculum for the

class together. For teachers to be successful in a team envi-


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ronment, they have to choreograph their individual plans

so that they are perceived as working together. Therefore,

coordinating both the class and preparation time in a

team-taught class may be a difficult challenge.

Parallel Classes . Sometimes students may be offered par-

allel classes. These are classes that are related to each other

enough so that they may have a need to switch from one

to the next during the year. In order to accomodate those

changes, it is best if they are scheduled during the same

period of the day. If a student has to change to a parallel

class, and it meets a different period, then the student’s

other classes have to change as well. Making many

changes can cause your job to become much more compli-

cated. Therefore, it is best if you can schedule the parallel

classes together from the start.

Staggered Schedules. You may also be faced with a situa-

tion where students are on a staggered schedule, so some

students arrive earlier than others, while others leave late.

In this case, you need to be aware of the size of the student

population at any given point in the day, and create a

schedule that is equally accessible to the entire student

body.


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Use the space below to add other issues you think

that you may encounter for your particular school:

Rules

This section provides some rules that you may choose

to follow as they are or customize in order to minimize the

potential for conflicts in the master schedule.

Table 1: Additional issues you may encounter

Issue Anticipated Problem/Resolution


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1. The first rule you should follow before you start building

your master schedule is to block out specific times for pro-

gramming that relates to special groups and interventions.

Their needs may be difficult to accommodate later in the

process, so put them in early.

2. Singletons are courses that are offered only once in the

schedule. You should place singletons into the schedule,

based on the data from the conflict matrix report. Once

you have decided where to put them, avoid changing

them. If you try to move them later, you may need to move

around much of your schedule to accommodate them.

3. Another good rule is to decide how many teacher prep

periods you will allow, and decide where they should go.

By setting the rules early you may find that you will

encounter less problems down the road. Below is a chart

where you can customize the rules to meet your needs.

“Once you establish the rules, stick to them and you will find the sched-uling process will go a lot more smoothly.”

Below is a table that you can use to customize the rules

for creating your master schedule. Decide on the rules

based upon the suggestions in this guide, and the prob-

lems you have discovered from past scheduling difficulties.

Once you establish the rules, stick to them and you will find

the scheduling process will go a lot more smoothly.


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Steps

At this point in the building process it is time to deter-

mine how you are going to build your master schedule.

One plan is to build it by program. In using that method,

you will create a schedule according to academics, ESL, AP,

Honors, Special Education, and various other programs

that you must accommodate. Another method for building

your schedule is to write it according to parallel classes.

Table 2: Setting the Rules

Rule How you will apply it


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That method will allow you more flexibility to facilitate

movement. Finally, you can build your master schedule by

grade, considering the student population and their aca-

demic needs. There may be other methods you can use to

organize your work. Consider which method will be most

advantageous and stick to that plan.

Checking for Conflicts in the Master Schedule

Student Conflicts. Once you have built the schedule, you

will need to check it for conflicts in a number of areas. One

important area you should check is the individual student

schedules. You need to ensure that they have all of their

required classes, and that you haven’t scheduled them for

more than one class in the same period. You should also

check the sections per period that you need, and deter-

mine whether your master schedule meets those needs.

Special Equipment. Room usage is an important area to

check. Special programs like art, gym, lab, computers, and

special needs each require equipment that may be specific

to different classrooms in your school building. You should

confirm that all of these classes are meeting in the proper

place, and that only one group is scheduled to use that

space at a time.


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Staff Conflicts. Finally, you should check for teacher con-

flicts, including preferences, prep periods, and classes. If

staff members are less than full-time teachers, be sure they

are only scheduled for classes during periods when they

are in the building.

Can you think of other ways you can check your mas-

ter schedule for conflicts?

May — Simulations and Final Schedule

Now that you have built the master schedule, it is time

to see how it will work in practice. Therefore, you should

conduct a simulation. By it’s nature, a simulation should be

designed to make any issues in the schedule become obvi-

ous. It will also help you decide how to cap classes if you

have additional enrollment.

“...reports will help you analyze the data to determine whether the schedule need to be adjusted.”

Generate Reports. You should use the data from your sim-

ulation to generate a Simulation Report, a Scheduler Status

Report, and a Master Capacity Balance Report. These

reports will help you analyze the data to determine

whether the schedule need to be adjusted. Simulations

should be repeated after the changes to show the effect

that they have on the master schedule. Your final simula-


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tion and master schedule should be loaded into the Stu-

dent Information System (SIS), and you can begin placing

students into class sections. While loading students you

will find that it is best to start with the classes that are the

hardest to schedule, singletons and interventions.

June — Modifications and Adjustments

“...you may need to make modifications or adjustments from June until the next school year is underway.”

As the school year comes to an end, you should be

aware that your master schedule may need to be modified

to accommodate end of the year surprises, like a teacher

deciding to retire, budgetary changes, families selling their

homes and moving away, or new families moving into the

district. You may also need to make changes due to courses

that students take over the summer for credit. There are

many situations you may encounter that will necessitate

accommodations in the schedule. Therefore, you may need

to make modifications or adjustments from June until the

next school year is underway.


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Summary

Building a master schedule that takes all of the variables

into account is not a small task. It is a process that pro-

gresses slowly from shortly after the school year begins,

through summer vacation. You may even need to make

modifications in the beginning of the school year to adjust

for new enrollment or students requesting class assign-

ment changes.

“...if you are prepared for issues, establish rules that will guide you, and decide what plan of action you will use to build you master schedule, you may find that the process will go more smoothly than it has in prior years.”

Along the way there are many issues that, if you are not

prepared, can make the master scheduler’s task very diffi-

cult. There are special circumstances that can cause con-

flicts in the schedule if they are not planned in from the

beginning. However, if you are prepared for issues, estab-

lish rules that will guide you, and decide what plan of

action you will use to build you master schedule, you may

find that the process will go more smoothly than it has in

prior years.


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