OUTER BANKS, NC — Summer will soon be coming to an end for Dare County Schools families and the 2024-2025 school year will begin. Dare County School leaders are hoping a new student navigation system called "Infinite Campus" will make communications better than they have been before.
“Our parents need to know what's going on in our schools. They need to know what their children are doing, how they're performing, the classes that they're taking. And improving that communication at whatever level we can is always something we're striving to do," said Steve Basnight, superintendent of Dare County Schools.
In the fall of 2023, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction made the switch to "Infinite Campus." Dare County Schools wanted to be a part of the first phase of its implementation across the state.
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Dare County Schools leaders are excited that teachers, students and families can have everything they need on one platform.
“It's a one stop shop, it's comprehensive, it has features that we don't see in any other platforms. Such as significant academic planning, the ability for parents to be able to access academic records, such as transcripts, so they can print them in the comfort of their own home," said Holly King, director of technology for Dare County Schools.
"It has a finance element so that parents can pay for prom tickets, pay for a field trip that's coming up right there within the portal, those have not existed in any previous student information system," King mentioned.
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The technology is a breath of fresh air for Dare County Schools, especially after voicing to the state the challenges they had with the previous vendor.
“I think the state did a very good job of looking for exactly what we had asked for and providing us with a lot of those resources, it has been a big lift," said Basnight.
The portal has been open for new students and families of current students should be on the lookout for information on how access it starting this week.