District sets 75% target for parent portal and Campus Messenger; staff outline outreach and data-cleaning steps

Tracy Barnes and Sandy Quincy of Nash County Public Schools' student information team told the Student Support Services committee they are working to increase parent participation in the Infinite Campus parent portal and in the district's Campus Messenger notification system.

The district set a goal to increase parent-portal enrollment and Campus Messenger contact to 75% by June 2026 and described a set of outreach and data-quality actions to reach that target.

Key points

- Baseline and progress: Barnes said last school year was the district's first full year on Infinite Campus and that the parent portal closed that year with about 54.6% of parents signed up. She and Quincy said targeted reminders and event-based sign-up tables led to a recent rise in portal enrollment; presenters cited a rise to about 62.2% after targeted emails and outreach over 10 days, though other counts cited in discussion (for Campus Messenger) were reported around 54'55% after roughly 50 days of use.

- Target and tactics: staff plan dual goals (parent portal and Campus Messenger) of 75% and will pursue repeated reminder emails (added 5:30 p.m. sends to capture working parents), principal-level reporting on sign-up rates, parent-portal tables at school events, weekly data reports for data managers and monthly analytics reviews.

- Opt-outs and data accuracy: board members asked whether parents who opt out of notifications should be excluded from the participation rate. Presenters said opt-outs change counts dynamically and that the district cannot reliably auto-select notification boxes for parents because of data-quality and parental-rights concerns; staff emphasized a data-cleaning focus on families not receiving messages and training for parents on portal settings. One board member suggested breaking metrics out by school level (elementary, middle, high) because high schools trailed elementary levels.

- Language access and system costs: presenters said Campus Messenger supports Spanish-language messages and that the Campus Messenger function is provided through the state platform at no additional district cost.

Discussion and next steps

Board members and staff agreed to focus first on families who are not receiving messages and to share school-level breakdowns with the board. Staff said they will continue to run weekly reports (sent to data managers) and monitor delivery success for email, voice and text channels.

Ending

Presenters said they are committed to sustained outreach, to cleaning contact records and to supporting principals with event-based sign-up opportunities. Several board members framed the goal as a multi-year effort to approach near-universal parent contact while respecting parental choice.