How do I create a new calendar?

In SchoolInsight, district or school admins establish an academic calendar that reflects their academic year. At least one calendar must be created when setting up a new academic year, because calendars control attendance days, start and end dates of grading periods, and so on. An admin can create multiple calendars if needed. This is useful if different grade levels start or end the year at different time frames, or when some students attend classes at other schools.

Creating an academic calendar requires three basic steps. First, the admin will create the academic calendar. Next, the admin will view the calendar for details of the entire academic year and review the holidays. Finally, the admin will edit the months on the calendar to make changes, such as adding holidays, teacher institute days, and so on.

To create an academic calendar:

1. Go to School District Admin Main or Admin Main > Yearly Setup > Academic Calendars > Create Calendar
2. Type a descriptive Title
3. Enter the First day of attendance
4. Enter the Last day of attendance
5. Days school is scheduled: Select the days of the week that school is in session
6. Grade Levels: Choose the grade levels that apply to this calendar
7. If at the district level, select the Schools to make the calendar available to
8. Calendar for external school/district: Select this option to track external attendance for students that attend classes at a school outside of your district
9. Create Calendar

View Calendar

Once the calendar has been created, the admin should view the calendar and determine if the holidays are correct for their school. SchoolInsight will automatically create known US holidays in the calendar; however, admins can change these holidays or add to them. From view calendar, an admin can edit overall settings, add calendar days, assign cycle days and print the calendar.

To view the academic calendar:

1. Go to School District Admin Main or Admin Main > Yearly Setup > Academic Calendars > View > [Select Month] > View

Edit Months

Admins have the ability to make changes to the calendar by editing months. At the beginning of the school year, the admins will want to setup the calendar months to reflect school holidays, teacher institute days, parent-teacher conference days, and so on. Admins can also edit the calendar later on during the year, which can come in handy for unexpected weather days or when changes occur to the calendar. It is worth noting that changes to days on the calendar are restricted once period or daily attendance has been entered; therefore, it is suggested to make changes to the calendar before attendance is entered for these days.

To edit a calendar month:

1. Go to Admin Main > Academic Calendar > View > [Select Month] > Edit
2. Select the Attendance Key Code from the dropdown menu
3. Enter any notes in the text box, such as Pep Rally at 2:00 PM or Snow Day. Days with notes entered will be indicated with the asterisk (*) mark on them.
4. Set school time for shortened or late start school days
5. Save

Calendar for External School/District

SchoolInsight allows admins to create additional calendars for external serving schools. A school would have an external calendar when some of its students attend a different serving school.  In most cases, the serving school has a different calendar with other holidays, teacher institute days, and so on. The external calendar allows the school to track attendance properly for students that attend other serving schools with different calendars.

To make a calendar external:

1. Go to Admin Main > Yearly Setup > Calendars
2. edit
3. Check the checkbox Calendar for external school/district
4. Save

Adding Days to Calendars

The best practice for when a calendar does not have finalized start and end dates is to create a shorter calendar and add those dates at a later time. An admin can easily add calendar days; however, it is not possible to delete them. For instructions on how to add calendar days, please click here.