District to migrate student records from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus with July 1 go-live; teachers to train on new platform

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools officials told the board on Jan. 14 that the district will migrate its student information system from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus under a state-directed two‑phase conversion. The district’s target production go‑live date is July 1, 2025.

What staff said Kevin Sherrill, chief technology officer, told the board the district chose Phase 2 of the state conversion timetable to learn from other districts’ first-phase experience. Kelly Moore, director for student information systems, said the district will receive a testing (staging) site in early February and that production will follow on the July 1 timeline.

Key impacts and timelines - Go‑live: July 1, 2025 (Phase 2 production target). - Trial/staging site: expected in early February 2025 for conversion testing. - Scheduling: schools must finalize master schedules earlier than in prior years; district staff said scheduling needs to be complete by early May so data pulls after the last day of school can be converted on time. - Modules and features: district will implement the Infinite Campus CS (student data, parent/student portal), campus online registration (enables online in‑district enrollment), campus messenger (built‑in communications), campus analytics and campus passport (training/knowledge base). The district is not implementing Infinite Campus’ learning‑management module in Year 1 and will retain Canvas for instruction; Moore said Infinite Campus integrates with Canvas. - Training: the district will use a “flipped” model with campus passport training modules assigned to staff for prework followed by trainer-led sessions; principals and teachers will use a practice training site prior to production. District staff plan to use reserve days at the start of the school year for hands‑on training.

Questions from board members Board members asked how master schedule edits over the summer will be handled; Moore said small edits and collapsing/adding sections remain possible but rebuilding a master schedule on a new system is not practical over the summer. She stressed the importance of earlier schedule finalization to avoid conversion errors. Board members also asked about Canvas integration and whether the district would later adopt Infinite Campus’ learning module; staff said Canvas will remain in Year 1 and there is no board decision yet on future consolidation.

Why it matters The migration affects teachers, counselors, registrars and families: staff and parents will need new apps and logins, teachers will enter grades and attendance on a new platform, and the district expects the analytics suite to replace some existing external reporting tools.

Next steps and preparations District conversion activities include monthly data‑manager cleanups, staged testing, train‑the‑trainer sessions, and district implementation team meetings. Moore said data managers who reviewed early extracts were “extremely pleased” with the initial conversion quality but emphasized continuing cleanup work and trainings.

Ending note Officials emphasized the state-driven timeline and said the district elected Phase 2 to minimize first-wave conversion risk. The board and staff will return with further updates and training schedules ahead of the July go‑live.