As the new school year begins in Morgan County, the school system is gearing up to launch Infinite Campus, a new student information system that will integrate all five schools in the system into one system.Â

The new system, which is 100 percent web-based and updates in real time, will now allow parents to access a mélange of information about their children as well as offer educators the means to assess their students’ progress in new and innovative ways.Â

“It allows us to access a lot of information about students like we’ve never been able to,â€� says Sarah Burbach, assistant superintendent.Â

The new system, which will roll out on August 21, will feature a parent portal that will allow parents to view attendance records seconds after the roll is taken, check grades as soon as they’re reported and learn about assignments far in advance of their due dates, among other things.Â

“It allows parents real-time access to information about what’s going on with their children,â€� says Jay Cawley, Director of Technology for the school system.Â

The system will also help educators and administrators better analyze the performance and progress of their students, allowing them to identify trends and compare multiple factors like standardized testing and attendance.Â

“We’ll have hard numbers to back up what we know intuitively,â€� says Cawley, like correlations between attendance and grades, as well as identify new patterns in their programs.Â

The problem, however, that could be seen in the new system is that it is unhelpful for teachers and administrators who aren’t particularly tech savvy. However, Burbach and Cawley say that the new system is incredibly user-friendly, even to those who don’t usually attempt to traverse the technological waters.Â

“You don’t have to be very technologically proficient to make this work for you,â€� says Cawley, and every teacher in the county has already been trained on the new system, with follow-up training still continuing.Â

It isn’t only teachers that will find the system simple, say Burbach and Cawley. The parent portal, which Cawley says will navigate like a normal webpage, will also allow parents with children at separate schools to access the information for all of their children in one place.Â

For parents who aren’t the most tech-friendly, each school will be offering its own initiative to introduce parents to the system and set them up with important password information that will ensure that only they are accessing their child’s information.Â

As for alternatives for those families who don’t have consistent access to the Internet, school administrators stress that the new system isn’t a replacement for direct communication between parents and teachers and parents and students.Â

“What the parent portal does is augment communication,� says Cawley. “It doesn’t replace it.�

The system will be supplemented by a telephone messaging system that will alert parents to important information like attendance and face-to-face parent-teacher interaction will still be available.Â

School officials expect to be implementing more new features of the system as parents and teachers grow accustomed to it.Â

“We don’t expect it t do everything it can do this first year,â€� says Cawley, but administrators are excited about the possibilities that the system promises to open for parent-teacher communication and educational initiatives in Morgan County.Â