PowerScheduler Constraints

Constraints define many different relationships between courses, students, rooms, and teachers. Scheduling Constraints are copied from the previous year by district and must be reviewed by each building’s Data Specialist and adjusted if necessary.

There are six types of load constraints in PowerScheduler.  Glenbard schools typically use two of them.

Section Link:

The section link constraint allows for specifying relationships & ordering between two sections.  These are used for all of Glenbard’s year long classes which have a semester 1 section and a semester 2 section.

1. Click Constraints under Resources from the navigation menu
2. Click Section Link from the navigation menu
3. Click New to create a new link or click on the course name to edit a link
4. Type the course numbers in Course Number 1 and Course Number 2.  For year long courses, the course numbers should be the same except the last digit should be a 1 for one and a 2 for the other.
5. Type the section numbers in Section Number 1 and Section Number 2.  For year long courses, these two numbers should be the exact same.
6. Click Submit

Student Preference:

The student preference is used to place students in specific sections or with specific teachers.

1. Click Constraints under Resources from the navigation menu
2. Click Student Preference from the navigation menu
3. Click New to create a new link or click on the student name to edit a link
4. Type the student number in the Student field.
5. Type the Course Number
6. Fill in at least one of the following fields:
   1. Section Number-To place the student in a specific section
   2. Teacher-To place the student with a specific teacher
7. Click Submit

Constraints Not Typically Used By Glenbard:

• Balance Adjustment-Allows seats to be reserved in a section to prevent filling the section to max capacity
• Student/Student Avoid-Keep two students from being scheduled together (This prevents scheduling together for any classes the entire year)
• Student/Teacher Avoid-Keep a student & teacher from being scheduled together (This prevents scheduling together for any classes the entire year)
• Student Free-Prevents a student from scheduling for a specific period & term combination