Calendar Concepts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• District Calendar
• School Calendar
• Calendar Events
• Cycle Days
• Snow Days and Emergency Closures
• Reconciling Attendance

District Calendar

There is one District Calendar.  

Any Calendar Events added to the District Calendar are "inherited by" and appear on each School Calendar.

The District Calendar can be viewed on the Calendar>District>Calendar screen:

On the District Calendar screen the following functions are available:

• Declare a Snow Day for the entire District (that is, for every school in the District)
• Declare an Emergency Closure for the entire District
• Edit colors for Calendar Events
  
  

To create a new District Calendar Event, you must go to the Calendar>District>Calendar Setup>New Event screen.

School Calendar

Every School has its own School Calendar.  

This will display all of the Calendar Events on the District Calendar, plus any additional Calendar Events that have been created just for the School.

The School Calendar is displayed on the Calendar>School>Calendar Screen:

On the School Calendar screen, the following function are available:

• Declare a Snow Day for a single School (the school selected just above the Calendar display).
• Declare an Emergency Closure for a single School.
• Apply the School's Cycle Days to the School Calendar (see Cycle Days below)
• Show the School's Cycle Days on the Calendar
• Link to the Setup>Schools>School Parameters>Sched Cycle screen where the School's schedule cycle is defined.
• Purge the School's Calendar
• To create a new school event, go to Calendar>School>Calendar Setup>New Event.

Calendar Events

A "Calendar Event" is essentially anything you wish to appear on your District or School Calendar.  

If the Event is occurring simultaneously for all schools in the District, it should be added to the District Calendar.

If the Event only applies to a single School, or applies at different times for different Schools, it must be added to the School Calendar.

A Calendar Event can identify:

• Holidays and vacations when school is not in session.
• Special goings-on when school is session (bake sale, PTO meeting)
• Teacher Conferences
• Snow Days and other Emergency Closures
  
  

How are Calendar Events Created?

• Create District Calendar Events on the Calendar>District>Calendar Setup>New Event screen
• Create School Calendar Events on the Calendar>School>Calendar Setup>New Event screen
  
  

What do Calendar Events specify?

• A Calendar Event can be a single day or a range of consecutive days. 
  • For example, Columbus Day is a single day (e.g. Oct 12), while "Teacher Conferences" may take place over a range of consecutive days (e.g. Oct 15 to Oct 17).   
  • An "Event" can specify either the one day or the range of consecutive days.
• A single Calendar Event cannot specify a set of non-consecutive days.
• A Calendar Event can specify either a day when "Attendance is taken" meaning "school is in session" or a day when "Attendance is not taken" meaning "school is not in session".
• A "Type"  - This categorizes the Calendar Event.  The Type of a Calendar Event determines the color displayed on the Calendar for the dates for the Event.
  
  

Events Types

Event Types are built-in. The existing Calendar Event Types include:

• School Holiday - default color is gray
• Teacher Workshop - default color is dark red
• State Holiday - default color is olive
• In-Service Day - default color is green
• National Holiday - default color is brown
• School Vacation - default color is dark blue
• School Closed - default color is medium blue
• Snow Day - default color is light blue
• Emergency Closure - default color is yellow

The School Calendar New Event screen:

Cycle Days

A "Cycle Day" identifies the 'schedule day' of a date.  

For example, if your school does not use special cycles, only Monday to Friday, your cycle days are M, T, W, R, F.

That is, you do still have "cycle days" but they are the normal days of the week.  

If your school does use a special schedule cycle (e.g. AB days or 1234 days, etc.) these are the "Cycle Days" for your Calendar.

Cycle Days - including MTWRF 'normal' cycle days - MUST be lain out on your School Calendar.  

Cycle Days only apply to School Calendars, not to the District Calendar.

The controls to place Cycle Days on your School Calendar are on the bottom of the Calendar>School>Calendar screen:

What are Schedule Cycles?

Your Schedule Cycle are the 'day names' you use to schedule when classes meet.

• A schedule cycle can have from 2 to 15 days
• Day Names:
  • You can use Alpha or letter names for your days.  E.g. A day, B day, C day, etc.   If your schedule cycle is more than 9 days you can only use "Alpha" or letter names.
  • You can use Numbers (single digits) for your days:  E.g. Day 1, Day 2, etc.  Numbers can only be used if your cycles are between 1 and 9 days.
  • You can use regular "Daily" day names: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday but only if you are on a 5 day "normal" schedule cycle.
• Alpha (letter) and Number schedule cycles can run either forward (A, B, C, D) or in reverse (D, C, B, A).
• You can have two alternate schedule cycles for each school and these are all specified on the Setup>Schools>School Parameters>Scheduling screen:
  
  
  

Snow Days and Emergency Closures

Snow Days and Emergency Closure days are simply Calendar Events that are (most often) created with the special links on the Calendar>District>Calendar and Calendar>School>Calendar screens.

They specify that an unplanned school closure has occurred for the day.

What is the Difference between a Snow Day and an Emergency Closure day?

Essentially nothing.  Genesis uses "Snow Day" to mean a day closed specifically because of snow and "Emergency Closure" to mean a day closed for any other reason (E.g. power failure, hurricane).

The color coding of the days is different, but both represent days on which school was closed for an unscheduled reason.

Both represent the loss of a previously scheduled day on which school was supposed to be in session.

Attendance must be reconciled after a Snow Day or Emergency Closure day was declared in order to remove the day as a "possible day" from students' Attendance Records.

Reconciling Attendance

Any time a School Calendar is changed Attendance must be reconciled.  

What this means is that the changes to the Calendar must be applied to each student's Attendance Record.  

A change to the School Calendar can be made directly to the School's Calendar or occur to every School's Calendar because you have made a change to the District Calendar.

Because changing students' Attendance Records is a lengthy process, it is not done automatically when you update your School Calendars.  

You must reconcile Attendance before your students' Attendance Records are correct again, but you can do this at a more convenient time, such as at the end of the school day.

You reconcile attendance using the "Reconcile Attendance Records" tool on Calendar>Setup.