Take a look at any school and you will find that one of the major challenges for the principal is setting a master schedule and managing it. According to Lee Fleming, principal at Bonsall High School in San Diego, the master schedule is an ongoing job as it involves iterations at various stages during the course of an academic year. If not done properly, the master schedule can boomerang causing chaos and the one person tasked with doing the firefighting is the school principal.
Master schedules are similar to an architect’s blueprint upon which the entire school system operates. It is not just limited to allocation of teachers and students, but also incorporates additional study time, and provisioning of resources to students with a wide range of needs.
This made Fleming think about a new scheduling tool developed by Abl, a California based startup that helps principals like Fleming plan, schedule, and manage entire schools.
Abl recently announced its success in raising funds valued at $7.5 million in a round of Series A funding. The funding round was led by Rethinking Education and other participants included: Sinovation Ventures, a New York based venture firm; Owl Ventures, Reach Capital, and First Round Capital. Adding to the previous fundraising exercise of $4 million, to date, Abl has raised $12 million.
Adam Pisoni, the CEO of Abl, said the funding aims to bring new enhancements in the product and expand the company’s current portfolio of clients and schools. He said the ultimate objective of this system is to remove the notion that scheduling is a once-a-year activity. He wants to provide the flexibility to principals and school administrators to be able to tweak and make necessary changes to the master schedule year round.
Last year, Abl invited schools to a pilot test of the first version of the scheduling software. Its initial plan was to work with 6 schools, but because news about the software spread like wildfire, the company ended up working with 12 traditional schools.
Anirudh M. for TechFunnel.com
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