Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is quietly working to bring part of PowerSchool back into the district, less than two years after the company was caught in a sweeping data breach. The move shows up not in a splashy announcement, but in the fine print of the school board’s consent agenda, where a staff-only contract is up for approval. The one-year deal would leave Infinite Campus in place for grades and attendance, while reviving PowerSchool for human resources, hiring and educator evaluation tools. That split has some parents and privacy advocates once again asking who holds which data, and how safely.
What the contract would do
District agenda materials recommend that the Board sign off on a one-year, $347,592.45 contract with PowerSchool to keep three staff-facing products running: Hire Enterprise, NCEES and the MyTalent instance CMS uses for employee functions. The agreement covers software subscriptions, hosting, ongoing support and the systems that handle job applications and internal transfers for the district, according to BoardDocs.
How this sits against the data breach
PowerSchool disclosed in late December 2024 that its systems had been breached, exposing student and staff information in districts across the country. State updates and independent reporting have listed Charlotte-Mecklenburg among the many large districts hit in the incident. Local coverage reported that hundreds of thousands of North Carolina teachers and students may have had highly sensitive details exposed, including Social Security numbers and birth dates, as detailed by WFAE.
What officials say
District leaders are pitching the new contract as a back-office move for adults, not a return to PowerSchool for student records. They emphasize that parents will still see Infinite Campus when they log in to check grades. School Board Vice Chair Gregory "Dee" Rankin told WBTV he did not have many details on the staff-focused deal but underscored that "the platform we use for our grades ... is Infinite Campus."
State response and context
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has already moved the statewide student information system to Infinite Campus and has said it will not renew the state’s contract with PowerSchool after the breach. That shift is part of a larger transition DPI has been documenting for districts and families. The agency has also posted resources and FAQs explaining the incident and the rollout of the new SIS, according to NCDPI.
Why CMS is still buying staff tools
Board materials note that CMS operates its own MyTalent instance and that the proposed contract is essentially a keep-the-lights-on purchase for those employee systems. The district says the tools at issue are used to evaluate educators, assign professional learning courses and manage hiring workflows, all on the staff side rather than in the student information system parents see. The superintendent formally recommended the contract so those services would continue without interruption, according to BoardDocs.
Legal scrutiny and security promises
At the state level, the breach did not just trigger IT upgrades. Officials, including Attorney General Jeff Jackson, opened inquiries into what went wrong and how impacted North Carolinians would be protected, according to the N.C. Department of Justice. PowerSchool later told reporters it had wrapped up its internal investigation in March 2025, released an incident report and was putting money into additional security technology and closer collaboration with school districts and regulators, according to WBTV.
What families and applicants should watch
For now, parents should know that Infinite Campus remains the main public-facing portal for student grades, attendance and schedules. If the new contract goes through, staff members and job applicants would be the ones logging in to the PowerSchool-hosted hiring and talent systems. Families who want the fine print can dig into the school board packet or contact CMS Human Resources to ask which data lives on which platform. For official background on the breach and the state’s transition away from PowerSchool as the student information system, the education department directs families to NCDPI.
