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Community group criticizes Infinite Campus rollout, calls out school overcrowding and trip-fee practice
Summary
Paul Wanas, speaking on behalf of ISOCCS, told the Cabarrus County Board of Education at its Aug. 11 meeting that the district’s rollout of the Infinite Campus parent portal left parents unable to view districtwide information and that overall facility planning has left some schools overcrowded.
Paul Wanas, speaking on behalf of ISOCCS, told the Cabarrus County Board of Education at its Aug. 11 meeting that the district’s rollout of the Infinite Campus parent portal left parents unable to view districtwide information and that overall facility planning has left some schools overcrowded.
“This could have been a much smoother rollout from the community, and the county, not just the teachers,” Wanas said, describing the transition from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus as an improvement for staff but difficult for families who had only days to learn the new system.
Wanas said district staff had up to six months to prepare for the change while the community had about six days to adapt. He said the portal requires parents to create an ID tied to a student profile, which limits a user to the single school associated with that student and prevents districtwide browsing of assignments, bulletins or interschool activities.
Wanas also raised facility-capacity concerns, saying Cabarrus County Schools has a higher student-per-site load than several other large North Carolina districts. He asserted site occupancy figures “as much as 183%” higher and that individual elementary schools carry 30–80% more students per site when compared with other districts, which he said increases workloads for principals, cafeteria staff, school resource officers, psychologists and special-education teachers.
On school trips, Wanas cited board policy “33 20 (school trips),” saying section C states students must not be charged a fee when credit is granted. He told the board that parents are being told an annual fee structure for class trips and urged the district either to provide district funds or to change policy.
Wanas asked the board to improve communications and planning for both the parent portal and long-term facility strategy to reduce the workload strain on staff and to make district activities more accessible to families.
The remarks were made during the meeting’s public comment period; no district response to the points was recorded on the meeting transcript.
