In June 2023, the Southern Lehigh School Board approved a switch from the Sapphire student information system to Infinite Campus. Beginning with the 2024-25 school year, all grading, scheduling, and district notifications will now be conducted over a new website—or even over a new app, as Infinite Campus provides a mobile application for students and parents to download.
Superintendent Dr. Michael Mahon’s September publication outlines the reasoning behind this change.
“[We will] focus on improving data quality, streamlining processes, accessing meaningful information, and enhancing internal and external communication,” Dr. Mahon said.
The change is mainly based on a need for one synthesized program, as, before, notifications were pushed to the district through both Sapphire and BlackBoard Connect, and sometimes even Remind as well. High school principal Mr. Joshua Miller believes that this way of communication is too complicated.
“We had some small issues with Sapphire and it wasn’t doing all we wanted it to do,” Principal Miller said. “Sapphire wasn’t always talking to these other platforms. The major issue was that it didn’t make student lives easier.”
Since the district’s contract with Sapphire expires at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, the administration evaluated the benefits of five alternative programs and came to the conclusion that Infinite Campus offered the best features.
As mentioned, Infinite Campus provides a mobile app for students to download on any device. The software will send them real-time notifications of grade updates, district announcements, and more. Principal Miller feels that, while many aspects of navigating Infinite Campus will be similar to those of Sapphire, the app’s intuitive features set it apart.
“It’s very direct for students, very straightforward, and makes it a lot easier for them to find their grades, attendance, and so on,” he said. “Also, parents get much more information about their students. It makes communication much easier.”
Freshman Akshaya Guduru, who recently moved to the district and can compare Sapphire to her previous school’s grading system, feels that it provides comparatively better access to student information and past grades. Still, she feels that Infinite Campus’ included app will be beneficial.
“I’m going to like having an app, I really appreciate that,” she said. “I can’t really access my grades on my phone that easily, compared to the Canvas Student app where I can see my assignments.”
Another feature of Infinite Campus is that it will interact directly with Canvas, the learning management system where many teachers post assignments. As a result, the program will not only provide deadline reminders for courses, but also auto-update student grades when scores are posted.
Additionally, Infinite Campus offers a form feature, allowing students to fill in first-day forms, parking applications, and medical information for the school nurse directly on the site. Principal Miller feels that these features will save staff members’ time.
To ensure that the transition goes smoothly, Southern Lehigh administration will soon begin guiding certain department heads through Infinite Campus, and later introduce all employees to the software. Mr. Ryan Haupt, subject area leader of the math department, said that his training for the new system is scheduled for May 29th. Having been part of the transition team when Southern Lehigh last changed grading systems, he feels that increased communication would smooth out the process.
“With any change, it’s going to be an adjustment. Anytime we go through those periods of change everyone has to adapt to it, whether that happens in May or August,” Mr. Haupt said. “Until it’s up and running, we’re still not going to know how it operates. I don’t anticipate there will be many growing pains, just getting used to doing the things I do now on a different system.”
To introduce students to Infinite Campus, the administration plans to publicize step-by-step videos of the login process and site navigation sometime over the summer in hopes of helping everyone accustom themselves to the new program. Principal Miller admits that will be the most difficult part of this process, and emphasizes that the best way students can prepare for the transition, as of now, is simply to ensure that their contact and demographic information is up to date in Sapphire, so that it can be copied over to Infinite Campus correctly.
“We as administration will have to make sure everything is set up and running smoothly by August 26th, when we start the new school year,” he said. “We might be a little slow there in the beginning, but long term, we will see more advantages than disadvantages.”
