Foundations of Focus
The following items below are very important to know before you attempt to enter the master schedule in Focus. The information below is not designed to teach you how to build your master schedule. Instead, the information is designed as building material to give you a solid understanding of the mechanics behind Focus so you will have the prerequisite knowledge needed before you attempt to piece your master schedule together. Before you can build something, you need to understand all of the materials you will be building with and how those materials go together so you can build a strong a solid structure. Start with learning about the four (4) foundations of Focus.
Before building your master schedule, you must know and understand the four (4) foundational pillars of Focus that govern how everything else works within the system.
Foundations of Focus:
Bell Schedule / Periods
Attendance Calendars
Marking Periods
Courses & Sections
Know your non-negotiables for building a master schedule based on the needs of your students and the makeup of your faculty. What has been promised to any teachers? Do you have any new programs for the upcoming school year? What time restrictions do you have? When are itinerant teachers on campus? Does my schedule meet the needs of the IEP’s of my students? Have I reviewed test data on my students? Have I reviewed test data by teacher (Pass/Fail Rate)? These are just a few questions to think about when setting up your master schedule.
🦉Additional Knowledge on Building your Master Schedule
Review the 4 Foundational Pillars of Focus before you look at the resources below.
Course Requests: If you are using course requests, you need to know what your students have selected. Are your students requesting the correct courses? Do you need to make any changes based on new test score data?
Scheduling: Review the scheduling resources for the level you are scheduling:
Elementary Scheduling Resources
Elementary School Scheduling Guide
The elementary scheduling guide provides an outline for what is required to build a master schedule. The guide also goes over how many periods are required per subject.
Teacher Schedule Template by Period (Clicking on the Link will ask you to make a copy) (Please note, this template has been updated so the data file can be updated remotely for new courses or other values. Please make sure you are using the latest template for the upcoming school year with a revision date of May 7, 2021 or later.)
This template is required for the Data Specialist to enter the master schedule and build the appropriate package. The school administration is required to complete the template and provide a copy for approval from their level director and then submit to the Data Specialist to enter or update the master schedule. (Note: For questions, see the level director.)
Questions to Ask when building the Master Schedule
Review the questions to make sure you are prepared to build a master schedule.
Final Thoughts: Before starting the process, review the 2 FOCUS University Instructional guides listed below:
FOCUS University Instructional Guide - Course Requests
Items in the document include the following: Automatic Course Requests (ACR); Mass Add Requests; Mass Delete Requests; Individual Student Requests (Elective Priority, Schedule First, Alternates, Approved by Counselor, Locked for Students); Delete Individual Course Requests; Teachers Enter Requests for their Students; Students Enters Requests; Teachers Approve Requests; Request Reports; Requests by Course; Duplicate Requests; Students with Too Many Requests; Students with Too Few Requests; Print Requests by Student; Print Requests by Course; Elective Priority Addendum with Sample ScenariosFOCUS University Instructional Guide - Tweaking the Master Schedule
Items in the document include the following: Pre-Building/Tweaking Preparation; Tweaking the Existing Master Schedule; Tweaking Using the Builder Reports; Sections with Zero Seats; Courses with too many Requests; Courses with too few Requests; Overlapping Requests (a.k.a. Conflict Matrix Report); Overlapping Singletons; Period Counts; Overscheduled Teachers; Viewing/Editing Sections; Copy an existing section to create additional sections of a course; Adding New Sections when none exist; Delete a Section; Make a Section Inactive (Version 9 feature); Move Section, with the teacher, to a different course number; To change sections to different periods; Tweaking by building Co-taught sections; Tweaking by building Inclusion (Support) Sections (For the 19/20 School Year forward. This is a new way then what we have done in the past.); Tweaking via the Teacher Schedules Report; Filter for Teacher; Creating a Report from the Teacher Schedules Report; Linking or Parenting Courses (Creating Packages); Removing a Linked Section; Removing a Linked Section from Create Packages; Tweaking via the Master Schedule Report (Sections Tab, Courses Tab, Co-Teacher Sections Tab, Linked Sections Tab, Inclusion Sections Tab)
