For the 2025-2026 academic year, WHS is set to undergo a change to its online student information system, making the switch from Infinite Campus (IC) to PowerSchool due to PowerSchool’s more customizable and flexible interface.

 This change came about after growing concerns about the quality of IC which led to a thorough search for the optimal new option.

   “At the district level there was a consensus that there are better student information systems out there, so last year they began the search for a new vendor,” said guidance counselor Marla Schay. “There were various presentations and proposals.”

   For many teachers, navigating Infinite Campus was a challenge as the site’s interface was not as easily understandable. 

   “It’s never been a very intuitive program; there were many difficulties for me in the beginning, and there was definitely some trial and error involved,” said history teacher Robin Wanosky. 

   PowerSchool offers several advantages and updates that were lacking in Infinite Campus.

   “PowerSchool has a much better user interface, and people in various levels at WHS find it a more user-friendly system,” said Schay. 

    The most common issue faced by those using Infinite Campus is the outdated grading system that requires some manual entry for many common revisions. 

   “With a report card for example, if [a teacher needs to make] a grade adjustment, the guidance department has to manually change the grade on both the grade report and the transcript,” said Schay.

   PowerSchool offers a highly adaptable grading system, and it also allows easier access to important information teachers need to serve all their students, such as individual education plans (IEPs) and 504 accommodation plans.

   “The major benefit [with PowerSchool] is that teachers can very easily view student accommodations without logging into another system,” said technology information specialist Neil Trahan. “I also like that we can digitally publish IEP progress reports to the PowerSchool Parent Portal.”

   The comparable systems in IC require far more complicated processes for teachers who want to review a student’s individual plan. PowerSchool allows for easier and smoother access to these documents.  

   “I think [504 plans are] a really important part of education today and should be prioritized in our student systems,” said senior and 504 plan user Alex Jylkka.  

   Some students have expressed mixed opinions on this imminent change, not feeling totally confident that it is even warranted.  

  “In my opinion, the switch is unnecessary as I’ve never had any issues with Infinite Campus,” said sophomore Eva Ferris. “I just think it will be tedious to have everyone in the school learn a whole new system.”

   But other students at WHS have felt the ramifications of Infinite Campus’s drawbacks and support the switch. 

  “I feel like the site has gone down for a day or so a lot in the past couple years,” said senior Alex Darling. “And I rely on it really heavily during the school day, so when it’s not working it’s pretty problematic for me.” 

  In addition to its interface advantages for usability, PowerSchool is also a cloud-based host, which reduces the risk of hacking, helps increase data security for users, and can reduce the maintenance that falls on a school’s IT department. 

   “For K-12 school districts to host an application such as PowerSchool locally, [it] requires a tremendous amount of resources both in internal infrastructure and in IT expertise,” said Trahan. “Having the application [cloud] hosted also ensures backups are completed nightly, which is part of a larger PowerSchool disaster recovery plan.”

   PowerSchool has won a myriad of awards in software systems such as EdTech Breakthrough Award 2023, the 2023 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and BIG Innovation Award 2023, all building its reputation as one of the best student information systems available.

   “PowerSchool has become a greater portion of the market share because of their ability to deliver what the teachers and administration need,” said WHS technology integration specialist Michael Sanford. “They really focus their efforts on the people that use their site everyday.”

  The change-over has already begun as the WHS guidance department begins to feed student information from Infinite Campus into PowerSchool in anticipation of the coming academic year. 

   “We in the guidance department are feathering the two systems together right now, rolling grades and upcoming schedules onto PowerSchool so we can be ready for next year,” said Schay.