Troup County school officials are getting ready to roll out Parent Portal, a new system to allow parents to check on their students’ grades and attendance and receive online messages from teachers, the school system and school administrators.

“We’ve had a major, major transition in our student records system,” Superintendent Ed Smith said at Monday’s caucus meeting.

Parent Portal, a part of Infinite Campus Inc. in Blaine, Minn., will replace EdLine, the previously used online access system for student information.

Combining records of student attendance and grade records, Parent Portal is set to be a one-stop shop for school-related information.

Beginning Monday, high school students will be issued information as well as an Internet Acceptable Use Policy form. When students return the form, parents will receive an activation key which will allow them to sign in and create a user ID and password for the system.

Set for a staggered rollout, middle school students will bring home the information Oct. 26.

Along with student records, parents will receive important messages from the system and their students’ schools ranging from information on seasonal flu to upcoming state test schedules. Information will be listed on all the people in the students’ household, courses being taken, upcoming assignments and assessment scores.

Parents also will be able to print copies of their students’ schedules and check scores from state tests administered by the system. The assessment scores for students in middle school will be viewable all the way through high school.

Teachers and parents can use the system to contact each other through e-mail.

For those not computer savvy, instructional manuals will be provided on Parent Portal and through the school system’s Web site, www.troup.org.

“That in a nutshell is where we’re heading,” chief financial officer Don Miller said. “It’s a big task, but I think folks are gonna like what they see here.”

To access the portal, head to campus.troup.org.

At its board meeting scheduled for Tuesday because of a Thursday furlough day, the board is expected to:

n Approve a purchase order of $35,637 to Hewlett Packard for 25 laptop computers, printers and accessories for exceptional education teachers. The computers will be used to streamline Individualized Education Program information for parents and caretakers.

n Approve an order of $109,446 to Insight in Tempe, Ariz., to renew 5,100 Microsoft Office and Expression, FrontPage, license agreements.

n Appoint Daves Nichols as legislative liaison to serve on the Georgia School Board Association’s legislative liaison network for the 2010 session of the General Assembly.

n Approve a resolution stating the school board’s support of Gwinnett County public schools in its opposition of the Georgia Charter School Commission. The state commission approved a charter school to be created in the system without the system’s consent while giving funds meant for the system to the charter school and asking for monetary support from the school board.

Trey Wood can be reached at twood@ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.