FAQs

Our reservations open in May for the upcoming school year. Reservations typically open on 3 separate dates for different regions: Southern California (South) includes Imperial, San Diego, and Orange counties; Southern California (Northeast/Northwest) includes Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, and Central/Northern California Counties includes Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Monterey, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sacramento, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. An email will be sent to all customers to inform of opening dates and times for reservations in each area. Lastly, schools reserving for the first time are able to reserve one week after the last region has been opened for booking. These include all counties. More information

Prior to reservations opening, check your school’s master calendar and choose a few date ranges in the Fall and in the Spring that don’t conflict with non-student days, vacations, testing, minimum days, etc. When reservations open, many people are on at the same time to reserve so having several options for available days will be helpful in case your first choice dates have already been taken. Fall dates work great as a frontloading activity for students. Many teachers who choose dates in the Fall comment on how their students are more invested in the unit after having experienced the Walk Through then they were when they did not have the Walk Through prior to the unit. Choosing a Spring date works great as a follow-up activity to show how much the students have learned, but either time of year has benefits for the students. If you have more than one class per grade level, we can present two presentations in one full day of up to 36 students. For example if you have 3 classes in one grade level, you will reserve two days. If one of the reserved days is on a minimum day, you will choose one presentation for that day and two presentations for the full day. We cannot fit two presentations into a minimum day without cutting content. If you have students in SDC/SAI classes, they can be included in any of the classes participating. The students can be spread out among their grade level classes or they can all participate with one class. It is better to stay as close to 36 students as possible but we do approve going over 36 students for inclusion purposes. Should you have students from SDC participating we can provided modified assignment cards and the day of we can provide a “preview” of sights and sounds for any sensory sensitivities. Please contact us at info@californiaweekly.com at least 1 month prior to your presentation so we can provide modified cards and be in contact with your presenter regarding needed modifications. Approval to go over 36 students, will need to be processed prior to your presentation day as well. If you think there is a chance your grade level will increase in the amount of students, we suggest booking an additional presentation and if that presentation ends up not being needed, you have up to 60 days prior to the reserved date to cancel. Please be sure and cancel as soon as you know student numbers and prior to the 60 day cancellation so other schools can have an opportunity to book.

There are a few options for discounts. Fall dates are discounted slightly from Spring dates and if payment is made by the end of July (if booked from May-July) or within 7 days of making a reservation (if made any other time of the year), there is a 5% discount. Payment is due by the last day of a reserved date on a single invoice at an already discounted price. If payment is made more than 7 days after the last day of a reserved date on a single invoice the non-discounted price will be due. You can read more about on our pricing page.

Travel fees are based out of the location of our offices in Tustin, California to each county. County fees are different depending on location and are applied per day, not per presentation. If your school has 3 days booked, 3 travel fees will be applied. Travel fees may increase from year to year depending on the current IRS mileage rate redemption, increase in hotel/lodging costs, and/or increase in cost of food. Your County’s travel fee amount may be found on the Daily Travel Fee/County Chart on our pricing page.

Cancellations/changes must be completed at least 60 days prior to your presentation. If a cancellation/change is made after this time period, your school is responsible for the full cost of the original invoice. A change in day or a cancellation that occurs after 60 days often results in a day that does not get booked due to the preparation time needed for a Walk Through. If you overbook due to not knowing how many classes you will have when booking, please be sure to cancel any presentations not needed prior to the 60 day cancellation period. Doing so makes that day available to others on the wait list and provides enough time for preparation.

Teacher Preparation Guides can be found on our Web site under the tab labeled Teachers at the top. Scroll over “Teachers” and a drop down list for your presentation type (California, American Revolution or Ancient World) will come up. At the bottom of the drop down list is the Teacher Preparation guide for that presentation type. Keep in mind that should any updates to student cards be made they will not be up until mid-August each season. If changes have been made, there will be a note on the Web site under the Teacher Guide page regarding what cards have been updated. Please refrain from printing out documents until the end of August. Upon reserving a Walk Through, a link to the Teacher Guide will also be sent to the person who made the reservation. This same link is provided in all confirmation emails (75 day, 30 day and 14 day) that go out to all teachers (for whom we have been provided an email by the person who made your reservation). The Teacher Guide has specific instructions regarding how to best prepare and answers many questions. A link to all pages that need to be printed can be found on page 2 of the Teacher Guide at the top “All Items For Printing” and contains 16-25 pages to print out (depending on type of presentation reserved).

You can view your existing reservations by logging into your account and selecting the second bar down “Existing Reservation: Provide Required Itinerary Details/View Invoice”. From that page you will see on the top left of the screen “Enter Required Details”. Click on each reservation day and enter all the required information. The system has certain pre-sets such as one hour between presentations and you will not be able to enter anything different or save any changes until all items on the itinerary have been filled in. Please read any pop-ups that may come up and if you have problems entering your start times or any other details, please contact us at info@californiweekly.com. You may complete these Details up to seven days prior to your presentation.

You can make changes to your itinerary or you can cancel a reservation by logging into your account and selecting the second bar down “Existing Reservation: Provide Required Itinerary Details/View Invoice”. From that page you will see on the top left of the screen “Enter Required Details” where you can click on each presentation day reserved and update the itinerary or on the right of the screen you will see “Cancel a Reservation” where you can cancel the entire reserved day. When canceling a reservation online, you are only able to cancel an entire day. If you have reserved two presentations in one day and only need to cancel one of the presentations, you will need to contact us at info@californiaweekly.com. Please note that any cancellation must be completed at least 60 days prior to your program date.

When you click on “Reservations” on our Web site and choose “make a reservation” you will be able to sign in to your online account. Under the password option there is a link for you to click on if you forgot your password. If the retrieval email is not coming to your Inbox, check you Junk Folder. If our emails are not coming through to a district assigned email address please consider “Creating a New Account” to be sure that our confirmation and reminder notices will reach you. If you are still unable to retrieve your password, please contact us at info@californiaweekly.com

There is a pro forma invoice available online as soon as the reservation has been placed. This is an estimate and not the actual invoice. The actual invoice will be mailed in September and quarterly thereafter. If you are not the billing person and would like a copy of the actual invoice for your records, please contact our office at info@californiaweekly.com.

Payments are due on the last day of the last presentation scheduled for your invoice. Please do not give payment to our presenters. They travel each day and we ask them to not take payment. Please mail payment directly to our offices.

A suggestion is to book presentations to take place later in the year or to wait after the initial May opening and get on the wait list. The wait list opens about 2 weeks after the initial May opening of reservations. Should a presentation be reserved and need to be cancelled, cancellations must be made at least 60 days prior to your reserved dates to avoid full payment of invoice.

No deposit is needed to reserve your dates. However, we do offer a 5% discount if payment is made in full before July 31st for the next school year or if reserved later in the year, within 7 days of booking. If you are not going to be at the school in the season of the reserved presentations, please contact us at info@californiaweekly.com and provide us with a contact who will be taking over your reservation.

We suggest that you book for the largest amount of classes that your school may have. It is much easier to cancel an extra presentation than find available dates once you return to school in the fall. Please keep in mind that cancellations/changes must be made at least 60 days prior to your program date. We suggest putting a note on your calendar to cancel 65-70 days prior to the reserved date if you end up not needing it. We ask that you try and reserve two presentations in a day rather than one presentation per day in order to give days for other schools to book.

Presentations are designed with a 36 student maximum per presentation. This is to allow for the engagement of all students in various aspects throughout a presentation from assigned student cards to activities. When reserving, please consider the number of students in your entire grade level including combo classes and SDC or SAI students and reserve accordingly. We can approve a few students over the maximum for inclusion of students from SDC/SAI classes. Should you need approval to go over the maximum of 36, please email us at info@californiaweekly.com.

If your current student attendance will cause a presentation to go over 36 or if you believe more students will be added to the school, we suggest reserving an additional presentation and making a note on your calendar 65-70 days prior to the reserved date, to cancel if it ends up not being needed. This will ensure you get your dates while not having to pay for a presentation you don’t need (60 day cancellation policy).

Should you have a combo class that is too large to join other classes without exceeding the 36 maximum, we provide specialized small class instructions. Please contact us at info@californiaweekly.com for these instructions.

A Walk Through is not intended to be “observed” but rather interacted with so please do not plan on having students observers. All students from SDC/SAI in the grade level of your Walk Through should be included in the presentation and assigned a part. They can either buddy up with a peer or we have modified versions of the assigned cards to provide. Accommodations can be made for students to leave at anytime if they need to. For students in the combo class of a different grade level that are not participating, please arrange a separate room or space for them during the 2 1/2 hour Walk Through presentation. If your school is unable to accommodate this, please contact us at info@californiaweekly.com.

Yes, presentations are a full 2 ½ hours. There is a lot of information covered in a Walk Through while students are actively engaging with the presenter and material. The first priority is to make sure all students come up and recite their assigned parts. Based on the dynamics of the class, content may need to be adjusted to make sure everyone has time to come up. There is a quick 5-minute bathroom break provided about 90 minutes in to the presentation. We do not have time to take a longer break to accommodate snack or recess. California state law, determines that employees must have a 30 minute uninterrupted lunch break. Should your school be having two presentations in one day, we require 60 minutes between presentations to provide the presenter with this lunch break and time to re-set the display. If the morning presentation is delayed due to room not being ready, presenter not being able to get on campus, or late arrival of class, we may need to delay the start time of the afternoon presentation and content may need to be adjusted to ensure students are out by the end of day bell.

Classroom Setup Diagram
The presentation can take place in a classroom, multipurpose room, library or portable. It cannot take place outside. For liability due to equipment/display and safety, we must have exclusive use of the facility from set up time (60 minutes prior) all the way through to break down of equipment (up to 45 minutes after the last presentation). If your presentation will be in a classroom, please remind students who normally have access to the room that it will not be available the day of the presentation. Also, be sure there is adequate space as outlined in the setup diagram and meets fire safety regulations. Amplified sound, loud music, and party poppers are used in the presentation so if possible, please choose a space that is not close to other classrooms as the presentation will be disruptive to other classes. If the presentation is taking place in any type of multi-use room, we ask that other groups who typically have use of that room are rescheduled to an alternate space for the day.

A presentation runs a straight 2 1/2 hours with a quick 5-minute bathroom break provided about 90 minutes in. We do not break a presentation for a school’s typical recess (there is a lot of movement built in to the presentation), snack, or lunch schedule. We also do not provide snack breaks (unless needed for medical reasons) so please make sure students have snack either prior to arrival to presentation or immediately after.

Afternoon groups typically need to adjust their normal lunch schedule to eat prior to the presentation as we do not break in the middle of a presentation for recess, snack, or lunch periods. Each presentation runs a straight 2 1/2 hours with a quick 5-minute bathroom break provided about 90 minutes in. We also do not provide snack breaks (unless needed for medical reasons) so please make sure students have snack or lunch prior to arrival to presentation. This may require working with school lunch staff to accommodate. Some schools like to have a special “lunch” that coincides with the presentation type for their classes either after they participate (for morning groups) or before they participate (for afternoon groups).

Presenters arrive 45-60 minutes prior to the start of the first presentation of the day. The presenter will need all of this time to set up equipment/display. Please be sure that the room is ready at least 60 minutes prior to the scheduled start and that a school staff member is on campus at that time to let the presenter on campus and into the presentation room, especially if the office is not open 60 minutes prior to the time you scheduled your first presentation to start. Please also ensure that no other groups (play rehearsal, band, basketball practice etc.) are in the room while the presenter is there setting up (or during break down of equipment at end of day). Delays in check-in and/or set up can cause a delayed start time and activities or content to be cut from the presentation in order to end at the scheduled time.