Room Assignments
Room Assignments is a companion Excel spreadsheet to the Master Schedule
Board tool and is dynamically linked to it. For this tool to work properly, the
Master Schedule Board tool needs to have specific cells filled in:
1) The teacher name
2) The room number the teacher is in each period as in the example below
Saroyan
Rm 9
Rm 9
The Room Assignment tool does not require the other Master Schedule Board
entries of course name and seat counts.
Additional Requirements:
3) Since Room Assignments is linked to the Master Schedule Board tool, Room
Assignment must be able to “Find” the Master Schedule Board tool when it is
opened. The best way to make this happen is to place the Room Assignment tool
and the Master Schedule Board tool together in the same folder.
4) Always open the Master Schedule Board tool first then open the Room
Assignment tool. Following this procedure, the Room Assignment tool will “Find”
the correct information in the Master Schedule tool.
File Names and Issues when Names are Changed
Because of the dynamic link between Room Assignments and Master Schedule
Board, changing the name of the Master Schedule Board will cause the
following warning box to appear:
(This warning will also appear if Room Assignments is opened before Master
Schedule Board or if the two spreadsheets do not reside in the same folder)
From year to year you may want to keep copies of these files. It makes sense to
rename the file to something like Master Schedule Board_2014-15 (changing the
name of Room Assignment causes no issues). One solution is to create a Master
Schedule 2014-15 folder and place the two files in it. Each year keep a new pair
of files in another folder. This is the recommended method. By the way, if you
keep more than one Master Schedule Board and one Room Assignment in a
single folder, unpredictable results will occur. If you really need to change the
name of the Master Schedule Board, the next slide will guide you through the
process.
Changing the Name of the Master Schedule Board and
Re-Establishing the Link with Room Assignments
1. Begin with both files closed and together in a single folder
2. Change the names of the files to the names you want to use
3. Open the re-named Master Schedule Board spreadsheet
4. Open the re-named Room Assignment spreadsheet
5. The following warning box will appear
6. Click on Edit Links…
7. The Edit Links dialog box will appear
8. Click on Change Source
9. A navigation dialog box will appear
10. Navigate to the re-named Master
Schedule Board file
11. Click on the re-named file to select it
12. Click on OK
13. You will be back at the Edit Links
dialog box
14. Click on Close and you will have
re-established the link
Room Assignments Setup
List
Room
Numbers
Down
Column A
Rm1
Rm2
Rm3
Rm4
Rm5
Rm6
There is a small amount of setup for Room Assignments to work. In column A,
list the room numbers exactly as they are listed in the Master Schedule Board.
As you enter the room numbers, the names of the teachers who are assigned to
each room for each period will appear. If the names do not appear, check back
on the Master Schedule Board to make sure the room numbers are spelled
exactly the same (spaces make a difference – Rm9 and Rm 9 are not a match).
Location by Room
PERIOD 1
PERIOD 2
PERIOD 3
PERIOD 4
PERIOD 5
Adams
Smith
Clark
Jones
Adams
Smith
Clark
Adams
Smith
Smith
Adams
Clark
Jones
Key
Watkins
Key
Watkins
Clark
Jones
Key
Watkins
Clark
Jones
Key
Watkins
PERIOD 6
Adams
Jones
Key
Watkins
Once room numbers are listed in column A,
teacher names appear in the chart.
The final setup step is to list the teacher names in column L. Again make sure the names
are spelled exactly the same as in the Master Schedule Board.
Location by Teacher
List Teacher
Names Down
Column L
SPECIAL
NOTE
PERIOD 1
Adams
Smith
Clark
Jones
Key
If teachers are assigned to the same
room during the same period, the
room number will appear in RED
strikethrough
Rm1
Rm2
Rm3
Rm4
PERIOD 2
Rm1
Rm2
Rm3
Rm5
PERIOD 3
Rm1
Rm1
Rm3
Rm4
Rm5
PERIOD 4
Rm1
Rm3
Rm4
Rm5
PERIOD 5
Rm2
Rm1
Rm3
Rm4
Rm5
PERIOD 6
Rm2
Rm4
Rm5
Two teachers scheduled into the same room
Now Room Assignments is all filled in. As originally set up, Room Assignment prints on
one sheet of legal sized paper. Adjustments to this can be made as necessary. From year
to year, just save a copy and you won’t have as much setup to complete.
Making a Room Assignment
Normally making room assignments is fairly straight forward, but there is one
situation that can cause issues. With tight budgets, it is fiscally responsible to keep
the staffing allocation on the conservative side. If a school site is given a staffing
allocation that is too low, adding teachers (usually after the school year begins) will
provide the relief to balance classes, but can be disruptive if adding teachers results
in room sharing. There are some things you can do to diminish the disruption:
• When you are faced with the above situation, inform teachers of the possibility of
adding teachers along with room sharing before it happens
• If you can, manipulate the master schedule when you build it to overcrowd either
English or Social Science classes. If you have to hire a teacher after the school
year begins, you have a higher probability of finding teachers with these
credentials. If your master schedule is perfectly balanced, but crowded in all
areas, it is very difficult to add one section each of English, Math, Science, History,
PE and …… well, you get the point
• Limit the number of room changes to one change per teacher – including the new
teacher
• Make room changes following a prep period or lunch
The next page is a sample of how to shift rooms to make space for a new teacher
Making a Room Assignment
6 Rooms, 6 Teachers, No sharing
6 Rooms, 7 Teachers, Sharing
Per 1
Per 2
Per 3
Per 4
Per 5
Per 6
Rm 1
X
X
X
X
X
X
Rm 2
X
X
X
X
X
X
Rm 3
X
X
X
X
X
Rm 4
X
X
X
X
X
Rm 5
X
X
X
X
Rm 6
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Just one room change for each sharing teacher
with the move following a prep period.
Thank You!!
Patricia Clark
510.504.3826
patricia510@gmail.com
Phil Saroyan
707. 246.2078
jp9@jps.net
This tools and many more resources are available
on our web site
http://casn.berkeley.edu/