What is the difference between School Calendar and Marking Periods?
When you signup for openSIS, a school start date (of the current school year) is collected and the system creates a default 365-day calendar. This school calendar is connected to student enrollment records and also a course section and is used for attendance. A Marking Period is a division of a school year and is used for grading. Schools do not wait for the whole year to grade students and it is a common practice to break down the school year into Semesters, Quarters, or Trimesters.
Why can't I extend or change marking period dates?
A marking period's begin and end dates cannot be changed once it is associated with a course section and transactions like scheduling, attendance, and grades are recorded using that course section. The system uses data associations to determine scheduling conflicts and resource availabilities. Allowing date changes will cause the algorithm to generate incorrect results.
How can I extend the default calendar's end date and make it a multi-year school?
Under the School menu click on Calendars. Then edit the calendar by clicking on the pencil icon. When the calendar dates open, change the end date to a date that is far in the future and save the calendar by clicking on the update button.
How can I temporarily turn off portal access for a student?
Open a Student's record and click Edit Information. Scroll down to the Access Information section and turn off the Portal Access switch. Update the record. The student will be active in the system but will not have the portal access.
Note: If you check the disable student switch and update the record, then the student will become disabled and you will not find the student for transactions under the active student list.