Small schools have the harder scheduling problem.
Fewer sections and more courses that run only once leave less room to work with.
What nOS does for small schools
nOS is master scheduling software that builds the master schedule for a small school, where many courses run once and there is little room to move a student. It builds around your singletons and explains every request it can’t place.
The singleton problem
A course that runs once has exactly one period, and every student who wants it must be free then. Two singletons in the same period means somebody gives one up, and a third makes it worse.
A large school runs a second section. A small school can’t, with one teacher and eleven students in AP Physics, so everything else has to fit around the singletons.
Freeing a stuck student often takes a chain of swaps that is hard to track by hand. nOS searches for those chains, and they matter most when there is nowhere else to put anybody.
It stops living in one person’s head
Data, rules, notes and schedules live on the school's account. When someone leaves, their work stays and the reasoning behind it is written down.
You pay a small school’s price
You pay per enrolled student per year, under ten dollars each, so the total follows your enrollment. The count is the enrollment you expect, so you can start before your roster is in. There is no setup fee.
Nothing to install
It runs in a browser. You only need IT to connect your student information system; from a spreadsheet, you don’t need them at all.
Questions small schools ask
We only have about 200 students. Is this overkill?
Probably not. Two hundred students with a rich elective catalog can be a tighter problem than two thousand with a narrow one. The real test is whether your build takes weeks, and whether requests go unfilled in ways you cannot explain. If both are no, you may be fine as you are.
One person does our scheduling. What happens if they leave?
Their work stays. Data, rules, notes and schedules belong to the school's account, not to one person, and notes keep the reasoning beside the schedule.
Do we need IT involved?
Only to connect your student information system, which needs credentials and an account administrator. Coming from a spreadsheet there is nothing to install. nOS runs in a browser.
Can nOS handle rotating days and flex blocks?
Yes. nOS handles A/B days, rotating cycles, flex mods, block and trimester schedules, and a fall course and a spring course that share a period. Build against your own structure during the trial.
What if we start and it does not work?
Start with the free trial, which is the whole product on your own data, before you pay anything. If you stop later, everything exports as CSV, Excel or PDF: student schedules, section summaries, rosters, teacher and room schedules, and unfilled requests. If you came from a student information system, it stayed the system of record the whole time.
Related guides: Singleton courses, How to build a master schedule, Comparing scheduling software, The master schedule timeline.