Building an Elementary Schedule - Part 10: Validating and Finalizing Your Schedule

This 12-part series on How to Build an Elementary School Schedule offers step-by-step guidance and proven scheduling strategies for creating a better elementary school schedule.

When you have finished the draft of your school schedule and have created alternate schedules as needed, it is important to validate your schedule to ensure all major conflicts have been resolved before sharing it with your team.

Ensure your scheduling efforts are successful by following these steps.

1. Ensure that your scheduling goals are met

Verify that the schedule meets your goals, includes all required subjects and minutes of instruction, and addresses all hard constraints.

2. Share it and get team feedback

The schedule is rarely perfect for everyone. Ensure that your team reviews the latest iteration and provides feedback. In addition to increasing schedule buy-in and adoption, scheduling as a team sport will ensure critical items are not overlooked and everyone is on the same page in terms of the status of the schedule.

3. Make revisions and incorporate feedback

Take into account any critical feedback you receive from your team. Whenever changes are made, ensure that your goals, subject requirements, minutes of instruction, and constraints are validated again.

4. Distribute final schedules

Announce your finalized schedule and distribute it. Make sure everyone is aware of the new schedule as soon as possible. Further, each member of the team needs to understand the schedules that are most directly related to their work.

In addition to the main schedule, individual homeroom, specials, and other teacher and staff schedules also need to be published. Publishing these schedules from a consistent and singular “source of truth” ensures that people are always on the same page.