Define and initialize District (Root Organization), Intermediate Organization and School calendars

Before you can enter attendance in any of the schools in your district, you need to define and initialize the district and school calendars for the school year.

Note: Intermediate organizations can initialize and modify calendars for themselves and their schools if allowed by their root organization’s preferences. The root organization must first initialize a calendar specifying its start and end dates and in-session dates. Then, the intermediate organizations can initialize their own calendar(s) using those dates as a framework.

When you initialize a calendar, you determine the session dates and the dates that school is not in session.

Note: When you initialize a district calendar, you can also select schools you want to initialize calendars for.

To initialize district (Root Organization), intermediate organization, and school calendars:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • To initialize district calendars, log on to the District view, District tab.
    • To initialize intermediate organization calendars, log onto the Intermediate Organization view, and the associated tab.
  1. Click the School Years side-tab. Select the school year you want to initialize a calendar for.
    Note: See "Define and Set the District School Year" if one does not already exist.
  1. On the School Years side-tab, click Dates. The Calendar page appears.
    Note: If the district has not initialized a calendar for this year, the page is blank. If the district has already initialized a calendar for this year, the dates appear in the list.
  1. You can modify the district calendar. If you re-initialize school calendars, you overwrite the existing school calendars with the same name by repeating the initialization process. You can also re-initialize to create additional calendars for schools.
  1. To initialize the calendar, on the Options menu, click Initialize Calendar. Step 1 of the Calendar Initialization wizardClosed appears.
  1. Use the table to fill in the fields:
  2. Field

    Description

    Saturdays in-session/

    Sundays in-session

    If schools in your district are in session on Saturdays or Sundays during the school year, select the appropriate checkbox.

    Note: The district enters these fields.

    District start/District end

    Define the start and end dates of the district calendar. This is typically the same as the fiscal school year.

    Note: The district enters these dates.

    Session start/Session end

    Define the session start and end dates. This defines when school is actually in session during that district calendar year. Although the root organization enters these dates, an intermediate organization may edit them, using dates within the specified date range.

  1. Click Next. Step 2 of the Calendar Initialization wizard appears.
  1. The session dates you defined in Step 1 appear at the top. Define all the days that attendance will not be taken during that calendar year, such as in-service days, holidays, and vacations.
  1. To add a date that is not in session in the district calendar, click Add. A line for that date appears.
  2. Click Select Date icon. to select the date, or type the date. Then, use the drop-down in the DayType column to select the reason school is not in session.
    Note: We suggest defining all known not-in-session days before you complete initializing. Re-initializing an existing calendar to include new not-in-session dates deletes the existing calendar and replaces it with the new calendar you initialize. After you initialize the calendar, you can use the Modify Calendar option to add or remove not-in-session days, particularly if you do not want to change the day number assignments for given dates.
  1. Click Next. Step 3 of the Calendar Initialization wizard appears.
  1. Type the Calendar name. This is the name that will be used for the calendar at each school you select to include in the initialization.
  2. Select the Create staff calendar checkbox to create a staff calendar for the district.
    Note: Creating a staff calendar ensures the system deducts leave time for only days that school is in session. To access the staff calendar, in the District view, on the District tab, click the School Years side-tab, then Staff Calendars.
  1. When selected, the Initialize schools checkbox places a check in the Initialize column next to every school listed in the Name column, so you can initialize calendars for all of the schools at the same time. If only some of the schools listed will use this calendar, deselect this checkbox, and check the Initialize box next to the names of those schools.
  2. Use the table to select or enter information in each column for each school:
  3. Field Description

    Initialize

    Select this checkbox for each school you want to initialize this calendar for.

    Saturday, Sunday

    A checkbox appears in the Saturday and Sunday columns if you determined they are in session in your district in Step 1.

    Start, End

    The session dates you defined in Step 1 appear in the Start and End columns. You can edit these for a specific school.

    Example: If the high school begins a day later than the elementary schools, change the date in the Start column.

    Static schedule days

    Select this checkbox if calendars at these schools do not adjust schedule days for not-in-session dates. For example, if the schedule operates with Days 1-7, and the day before a holiday is Day 4, the schedule day when school resumes is Day 6.

    Note: If you use the Modify Calendar option to mark a day not-in-session, the ability to reassign day numbers is disabled. Once the system assigns numbers to days during this initialization, they cannot be changed.

    First day number

    Select the schedule day number to use for the first in-session date in the school calendar. This option is disabled for schools that do not use scheduled day numbers.

  1. Click Finish. Now, for any schools you initialized this calendar for, the calendar appears in the School view.