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District technology committee recommends Infinite Campus; staff outlines one-year migration plan and training needs
Summary
A district technology committee that included teachers, administrators and IT staff presented a multi-stage evaluation of Skyward, PowerSchool and Infinite Campus and recommended Infinite Campus for the Moline Coal Valley School District, describing an expected one-year implementation window, training and budgetary considerations.
Technology staff and committee members on Monday described a multi-step evaluation of student-information systems and said the committee recommends Infinite Campus as the district’s preferred replacement for Skyward.
Craig Reed, the district technology director, told the Board of Education the process began after Skyward announced a rewritten product (referred to as Skyward Cumulative) and that the district convened two committees — first to assess district needs for Illinois state reporting and system integrations, then a second, expanded teacher group to test user workflows.
Committee demonstrations included Skyward Cumulative, PowerSchool and Infinite Campus. According to committee members, Infinite Campus scored highest on key items teachers raised: modernized interface, Google Classroom and Google services integration, translation and language supports, and more accessible reporting for staff who generate state reports.
“The big thing here is to keep note of is that it’s going to take us a full year to implement this thing,” Reed said, outlining a tentative timeline that would run Skyward for one more year while the district works with Infinite Campus on procurement, training and data migration. The tentative implementation goal given in the presentation was to be ready for registration by June 30, 2026, after phased training throughout the 2025–26 school year.
Staff presented budgetary comparisons as preliminary: Infinite Campus is shown in committee materials as the lower-cost option in the initial estimate and does not carry what the presenters described as an annual 3% surcharge some vendors impose. Reed said that even with a lower subscription estimate the first implementation year is costly because the district will pay for the new system while renewing Skyward during the transition.
Committee members and at least one district staff member who is a parent described Infinite Campus’s parent portal as user-friendly and noted the vendor’s built-in language translations and Google integrations as strengths for Moline’s diverse community.
No formal board vote to switch systems was recorded in the meeting; Reed said the timeline and training schedule would be sharpened “upon approval” from the board. Committee members said if the board approves procurement the district will immediately define specific training dates for administrative assistants, counselors, teachers and other user groups and run a parent- and student-facing onboarding campaign before the system goes live.
The IT group said the district had budgeted some initial funds from EdTech and teacher-device grants to cover parts of the first-year cost.
Board members asked questions about parent and student support; staff described plans for online FAQs, instructional videos, community training nights and school-based support during the rollout.
