Using and maintaining a School Calendar is important. It helps keep staff members on the same page, keeping them informed of school events. There are multiple ways of managing calendars. First, I'll go over the preferred method, using the Default School Calendar. Secondly, I'll go over the non-recommended method, using alternative Calendars.

Our preferred way of using and maintaining a School Calendar is through the default school calendar. Default school calendars are automatically created for each school, and are directly connected to the <schoolname>@saanichschools.ca mailbox. We recommend using these because they are consistent, can be viewed by all staff, and persist through employee rotation.

• Address: <School Name>@saanichschools.ca
• The default school calendar is distributed via the default school email address: <School Name>@saanichschools.ca
• All employees have “read” access, so they can see all events.
• Currently, each employee has to “add” this calendar to their outlook calendar page once.
• School Clerical can send invitations to access or edit the calendar, for ease of adding.
• School Clerical has “read write” access, so they can see and create and modify events.

All employees can follow these steps to add the Default School Calendar to their Calendars in web outlook.

1. Open up outlook calendar: https://outlook.office.com/calendar/view/month
2. Click “Add Calendar” in the left pane (if you can't see the left pane, click the 3 horizontal lines in the top left)
3. Click “Add from Directory”
4. Search from your account, by selecting your own email address
5. Enter the name of the account that you want the default calendar from, i.e. <School Name>@saanichschools.ca
6. Add it to any of your calendar folders

Everyone has the capability to create a Calendar, and share it with others. Unfortunately, it is more challenging to share these calendars. In some cases, they are deleted when the “owner” retires or leaves the district. These alternative Calendars are either created as personal calendars first, then shared with others, OR created as a non-default calendar of the Default School Mailbox (<School Name>@saanichschools.ca). Both have the same issue that they cannot be shared with all employees people at once, and employees cannot automatically request access to view them.

• Are not accessible to all employees by default, because they do not have a default “address”
• Must be distributed by School Clerical via distribution lists, or individual assignment
• When a new employee is added to a distribution list that has alternative calendar access after the fact, the employee does not get access. The invitation to that user must be re-shared.
• By default, only the creator of the Calendar has read/write access to the calendar.
• Invitations to the calendar are only sent out via email when you add someone new.
• Employees must be “invited” through a group invitation or individual invitation.

For Default School Calendars, this process is used to give other people permission to edit and modify the Calendar, or to just send out an invitation to read, which is not necessary.

For Alternative Calendars, this process is used to give other people permission to edit and modify and read the Calendar. Note: even though someone has “sharing permissions” to view or edit, they will not be able to see the calendar unless they have received and accepted the invitation.

This process sends out an email “invitation” link, which the recipient can use to add the calendar to their outlook calendars. The invitation link is only sent out once, so if you want to send it out again, you must remove the record and re-add it.

1. Open the Calendar tab of web outlook
2. Find the Calendar you wish to share
3. Click the 3 “dots” (…) to the right of the calendar name to open the menu
4. Select “Sharing and Permissions”
5. It may take a few minutes for the list to populate
6. You can add people by their email address
   1. Assign “can view all details” to give them reading permissions.
      1. Note: for Default School Calendars, all employees can view them already as long as they add the calendar by following the steps above. You do not need to give anyone “view” permissions in a Default School calendar.
   2. Assign “can edit” to give them editing permissions.
7. The added employees will get an invitation email shortly. They must accept the invitation to see the Calendar.
8. You can also add specific “distribution lists”, which will send out the invitation to everyone within the group.
   1. For example, try adding <your 3 digit school code>staff@saanichschools.ca, <your 3 digit school code>PVP@saanichschools.ca, <your 3 digit school code>Clerical@saanichschools.ca, <your 3 digit school code>teachers@saanichschools.ca, etc
      1. Note: You can NOT add distribution lists that have the format <schoolname>_<role>@saanichschools.ca
   2. Selecting the “search people” button does help it find the group.
   3. Once you've selected a distribution list, you can click on it to view the individual members
   4. Just remember that if new people are added to the group after the fact, they will NOT get the calendar invitation email

How can I tell if I am using a Default School Calendar, or an Alternative Calendar?

• When viewing the calendar from your account, the name of the calendar refers to your school name
• When viewing the calendar through the <schoolname>@saanichschools.ca account, the name is “Calendar”
• In the sharing settings of the calendar, You will see that “People in my organization” = “Can view”

• The name of the calendar is not the name of the school. It will have a name that was set by whoever created the calendar