| name | Add School Calendar |
| description | This skill should be used when the user asks to "add a school calendar", "import school calendar", "save school calendar", "import PA day dates", "import PA days from PDF", "add a school to the planner", "save school dates", "load school calendar from URL", "import school year", or provides a school calendar PDF or URL and wants it saved as reference data for camp planning. Extracts and saves structured calendar data from school board or private school sources. |
Add School Calendar
Overview
Locate research directory: Read .claude/kids-camp-planner.local.md to get the research_dir path (default: camp-research). All user data paths below are relative to this directory. The family profile is at <research_dir>/family-profile.md.
Extract school calendar data from a URL, PDF, or web search and save it as a structured reference file in the school-calendars directory. This makes the data instantly available to all planning skills (plan-summer, plan-march-break, plan-pa-days) without requiring web searches for known schools.
All planning skills use the School Calendar Lookup pattern (see below) before asking the user or searching the web. This skill is what populates the internal library that those lookups check first.
School Calendar Lookup (3-Tier)
This is the standard lookup pattern used by all planning skills in the plugin. When any skill needs school calendar data:
Tier 1: Check Internal Library
Search the plugin's pre-saved calendar data:
- Public boards:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/public-boards/
- Private schools:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/private-schools/
Use Glob to find files matching the school name or abbreviation. If a matching file exists and covers the required school year, use it directly. Inform the user: "Found [school] calendar data in the internal library for [year]."
If data exists but is for a different school year, inform the user and proceed to Tier 2.
Tier 2: Ask the User
If no internal data is found, ask the user:
"I don't have [school name] calendar data saved. Do you have the school calendar available? You can provide:"
- A PDF file path
- A URL to the school calendar page
- Or I can search the web for it
Tier 3: Web Search
If the user doesn't have the calendar handy, conduct a web search:
- Search for "[school name] school year calendar [YYYY-YYYY]" or "[school board] PA days [YYYY-YYYY]"
- Prioritize the official school/board website - avoid third-party aggregator sites
- Ensure the correct school year is retrieved (verify dates match the expected year)
- If a PDF is found: download it using Bash (
curl -L -o) and save to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/pdfs/[abbreviation]/[abbreviation]-[YYYY-YYYY].pdf, then read the PDF to extract data
- If the information is only on a webpage: extract directly to markdown (no PDF to save)
After extracting data from any tier, proceed to the extraction and saving workflow below.
Workflow
Step 1: Identify the School
Collect the following (skip any the user has already provided):
- School name (full name)
- Abbreviation for the filename (e.g., TDSB, GIST, UCC, BSS)
- School type: public board, Catholic board, or private/independent. Note: Catholic boards (e.g., TCDSB, DPCDSB) are treated as separate public boards with their own PA day schedules, not as private schools.
- Region (e.g., Toronto, York Region, Peel Region)
- School year(s) being added (e.g., 2025-2026)
Then run the 3-Tier Lookup above. If Tier 1 finds existing data and the user just wants to verify it, show them the saved data and offer to update it.
Step 2: Extract Calendar Data
Read the source (PDF via Read tool, URL via WebFetch, or web search results) and extract all of the following. If a field cannot be found, mark it as "Not specified" rather than guessing.
Required Fields
| Field | Example |
|---|
| First instructional day | September 2, 2025 |
| Last instructional day (elementary) | June 25, 2026 |
| Last instructional day (secondary) | June 24, 2026 |
| PA days with dates and day-of-week | Sep 26 (Fri), Oct 10 (Fri)... |
| March break dates | March 16-20, 2026 |
| Winter/Christmas break dates | December 22 - January 2 |
| Summer break start | Day after last instructional day |
Optional Fields (extract if available)
| Field | Example |
|---|
| Fall break dates | November 3-7, 2025 |
| Early dismissal dates | June 26 (1:15pm) |
| Exam periods | January 26-29 |
| PA day purposes | "Parent Teacher Conferences" |
| Special events affecting scheduling | "Camp Pine Crest Sep 16-19" |
| Next year start date | August 31, 2026 |
Holidays (extract all with dates)
Standard Ontario holidays to look for:
- Labour Day
- National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (Sep 30)
- Thanksgiving
- Remembrance Day
- Family Day
- Good Friday
- Easter Monday
- Victoria Day
Step 3: Cross-Reference (Private Schools Only)
For private/independent schools, identify the nearest public board (typically TDSB for Toronto schools) and create a comparison:
- PA day alignment table: Compare each private school PA day against the public board's PA days. Count how many overlap.
- Break differences: Note any breaks that differ (extended March break, fall break, early starts).
- Coverage challenge ranking: Rank unique coverage gaps by difficulty (see the GIST file at
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/private-schools/gist.md for the format).
To cross-reference, check if the public board's calendar is already saved (Tier 1 lookup). If not saved, offer to add it first or note that cross-referencing will need the public board data later.
Step 4: Calculate Summer Coverage Window
Compute the summer coverage window:
- Coverage start: First weekday after last instructional day
- Coverage end: Last weekday before the fall start date
- If fall start date is unknown, use the day after Labour Day as the default
- Run the summer dates calculator for precise numbers:
python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/plan-summer/scripts/summer_dates.py \
--year YYYY --last-school-day YYYY-MM-DD --first-fall-day YYYY-MM-DD --format text
If the script is unavailable, calculate manually: count all weekdays (Mon-Fri) between the day after the last instructional day and the day before the fall start date, excluding Labour Day.
- Note the total weekdays and approximate weeks
Step 5: Save the Calendar File
Save the structured markdown data following the established format.
Markdown file location:
- Public boards:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/public-boards/[abbreviation].md
- Private schools:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/private-schools/[abbreviation].md
PDF file location (if a PDF was downloaded in Tier 3):
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/pdfs/[abbreviation]/[abbreviation]-[YYYY-YYYY].pdf
File structure: Use the full template at references/calendar-template.md. Key sections:
- Header metadata (name, type, region, website, contact info)
- Key Dates table
- PA Days tables (elementary and secondary)
- PA day alignment table (private schools only - compare against nearest public board)
- Holidays & Breaks table (private schools add public board comparison column)
- Early Dismissal Days
- Summer Window calculation
- Planning Notes and Coverage Challenges (private schools only)
Step 6: Confirm and Update References
After saving:
- Confirm the file was created and show a summary of what was extracted
- If a PDF was downloaded, note the saved PDF path for reference
- List any fields that were marked "Not specified" - ask if the user can fill them in
- If this school is used in the family profile (
<research_dir>/family-profile.md), inform the user that other skills will now automatically use this data via Tier 1 lookup
- Offer to add another school year or another school
Handling Ambiguous or Incomplete Sources
- PDF won't parse: Ask the user to open the PDF and paste the key dates manually, or try reading it with the Read tool
- Dates are unclear: Present what was extracted and ask the user to confirm before saving
- Multiple calendar versions: Ask which version to use (draft vs final, revised vs original)
- Missing PA days: Some schools release PA days later. Save what's available and note "PA days TBD - check [source] for updates"
- Web search returns wrong year: Refine the search with explicit year. Check the source document for revision dates.
Additional Resources
Templates
references/calendar-template.md - Blank template matching the established file format
Existing Calendar Files
Reference these for format consistency:
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/public-boards/tdsb.md${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/camp-planning/references/school-calendars/private-schools/gist.md
Scripts
scripts/scrape_board_calendar.py - HTML calendar page scraper. Produces draft-quality markdown from school board websites. Requires human/agent review. Use for boards with HTML calendar pages; PDF-only boards still need manual extraction.scripts/validate_calendar.py - Calendar file validator. Checks required sections, parseable dates, school year format. Use --all to validate an entire directory.
