001Alrighty, Mrs. Rnik, the webinar is live. Our YouTube stream is now also live. The meeting is yours. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Gilma. Welcome everybody to our February Safe School Committee meeting. We will start with our pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, can we start with the approval of the minutes of the January 27th, 2026 meeting? Can I get a motion? So, >> moved. >> Second. Excellent. That's a motion by Mr. Kaiser, second by Dr. Bell. >> Oh, Mr. Bell. There's so many doctors around me in education. I just I air towards that. All right. Thank you. Motion approve. Um, minutes approved. I will hand over
002to Mr. R. >> Thank you, Mrs. Rdnik. And good evening committee members and our student rep and also to the North Penn community at large. I'm going to uh get uh my slide deck up here ready to go. Everybody should be able to see the slide deck. Can I just get a thumbs up if we're good? All right. Thank you. So um as we have been accustomed to over the years presenting discipline data at benchmark times throughout the year um here we are at that time. So just some uh clarification and definitions when we talk about and we look at what exactly are we looking at here unique students uh percentage of populations and the number of suspensions. So just I I won't read it for you um but just so that we all are
003understanding what we're looking at in the numbers um and what what the definitions mean when we see unique student or percentage of population or number of suspensions. Um so uh when we look at uh over the course of the start of the school year up until January 21 um we can see sorry I need to move. There we go. Um we can see our out of school suspensions and our inschool suspensions um from 2425 and looking at 2526 there's been a little bit of a a dip uh across the board. Um obviously looking at 23 24 there was a little bit there was some uptick um in comparison but certainly numbers are on uh the right track uh on their way and the same thing for detentions right so um and we'll get into what
004some of the what the numbers represents the infractions here in a little bit um so as we look through here we go so we look at some of the infractions for out of school suspension Um, comparing last school year to uh the where we are in this school year, uh, we can see for some of our, uh, physical altercations, there certainly has been a little bit of an uptick. Um, and that really could be uh connected to a number of different things, right? Um, there's there's really not no one pinpoint like it is uh, bullying or harassment or that, right? It it could be a number of different things that that led to that uptick um from last school year to this school year. We'll also see the uptick in um vaping uh possession of
005vape materials, tobacco materials. Um I I do you know it's no secret across the um educational platform where uh organizations schools are seeing uh those upticks and it really is a nationwide problem. Um and there we have tried a number of ways to combat that with educating students. Um I know PE teachers are educating students uh talking about actually it's really worse. vaping is actually worse than like nicotine and all the effects it has and signage and um but also as much education and awareness and messaging and marketing that we're doing to inform students, the product manufacturers were doing as much work trying to entice students and making the product look um appealing and uh design and shapes and colors and and connection to things for kids. So, it is it is it's a challenge
006every single day um to try to uh inform kids but also help them make good choices and really steering away from that vaping sensation. There's I know for our yap program we have um programming about sensations where to really try to get kids to understand how addictive it is and how bad it is. Um and you know oftentimes I'll hear kids say well it's not that bad, right? Um, but I they they're really just not absorbing that it actually from a health standpoint, right? Like let's just take school rules aside for a second. From a from a health standpoint, it is it is really bad um for their bodies. Uh Dr. Bower and Mr. Bell, I'm not sure who had their hand up first. Um but I do see both hands. >> I think Mr.
007Bell's hand was up first, but I'm hopeful I'll address a little bit of his question. Um so thank you, Mr. Um I just wanted to point out you you do see the um the change in physical aggression. However, you also see a significant dip in fighting. So um let's do some quick math there and it's 88 and 99. Um so there, if you look at the two combined, it went from 88 to 99. I do think there's more consistency in reporting now. We've been working on that. Um was it truly a fight? because a a fight has two um perpetrators, if you will, in the coding. Physical aggression is where typically where one student is aggressive towards another. Um if it's mutual, that's a fight. If one student kind of goes after another student, that's
008physical aggression. Um so I I think delineating, yes, that's a big jump, but if you combine those two and we're trying to really um take into account what is it? So that goes to what we mentioned at last week's action meeting, which Mr. Jerome will address later in the presentation about um what is mapped towards violence versus not and addressing that. So um we did for our newer board directors we did move from the Swiss uh data model and Mr. Ran if you could on the back end Google what Swiss stands for again. Um Swiss is the behavior management program or platform that they use for PBIS and all of our elementary schools use PBIS. So to implement PBIS with Fidelity, they were using the Swiss platform. So as of last year, we were moving
009all of our elementary schools into Infinite Campus. So all the data from not just secondary, but secondary and elementary. It's been a transition, but we I we are now at a place where all of these infractions are in Infinite Campus, and that's why we saw some of the spikes over the last few years. Um Mr. Ran, did you get did I buy enough time? My my internet is not as fast as you are, Dr. Bower. >> Okay, I I'll get it quickly, but I think it's SWSS. Um data. Um I have it. All right, keep going, Mr. Rone. I I will remind the group I have the website up. I just got to read this article real quick. >> Okay. Um and thanks, Dr. B because I actually was going to differentiate the physical aggression
010in the fights um when I on the very next point. So >> that was my question. So thank you Dr. Bower. >> Yep. Um so I will move on past fights um since Dr. Bower talked about that. Um moving down to uh where we are looking at right where um offensive actions or explicit threats again you see that number coming down. Um, and we work really hard to make sure students understand the power of their words, right? And they they can't say certain things. Um, you know, even when they're frustrated, right? Um, they they can't they and so we work really hard to to make sure our students understand that when you're frustrated, yes, you're allowed to be frustrated, but you also have to choose the right uh phrasing to voice that frustration, right? And
011and certainly making threats um is is not appropriate. So, a a lot of hard work uh went into that and I think we're we're seeing um the the fruits of that labor from an out of school suspension standpoint. Um uh the other numbers uh as you can see there's been dips across the sections or the categories going down um all the way through uh aggravated assault on staff. Um so, won't spend a lot of time there. We'll come back and kind of recap some of that when we break up um and talk about violent codes versus nonviolent codes and where some of these um description or these actions fall. So when we look at inschool suspension again uh you can see uh we can look at the same uh numbers for fighting and uh physical
012aggression. The same is true from an inschool suspension standpoint um from this year and last year uh with numbers going down uh in those categories uh numbers going up on the physical aggression and and down on the fighting. Um here where uh maybe we see an uptick versus uh in the in school where we saw a different pattern on the out of school for uh threats, right? Um, so working again working hard to make sure students understand and are still held accountable, but understanding the power of their words and how they make those comments, right? And we we just can't say all those types of things. Um, again, looking at vaping in school suspension, um, we're going down in that category. So, same thing, spending a lot of work trying to educate students and and
013make them really understand just how dangerous it is for their own physical health, uh, let alone it being a violation of our of our school rules. Uh, Dr. Bower, >> I was definitely first this time. All right. So, SIS, not SS, excuse me, is schoolwide information system. Uh, so just to provide clarity on that acronym. And Mr. own if you could hover with your mouse uh let's just go the first column in 2022 23 and let's go to that possession use sale of vape and I'm just going to elaborate a little bit just because this is the first time some of you are seeing this dashboard Mrs. as redneck has seen it for the last few years. So you'll notice that number 32 versus the number 33. The 33 is the number of incidents. The
01432 is the number of students. Okay? So that means one of those 33 incidents was done twice by one student. There was a student who had two of the infractions. So just to kind of delineate there. And then that percentage is a percent of unique students across our student population. So you may see like 33 instances of possession, excuse me, possession, use, sale of vapor, tobacco materials. That seems like a lot, but when you boil it down, it's less than a quarter of a percent of the kids uh in North Penn. So just kind of that perspective. So there aren't many on here. you'll see when he gets into detention that those numbers in parenthesis paint a much clearer picture of like class cuts for example or cell phones uh the number of unique kids
015compared to the number of incidents is a much uh more disperate number. So just outlining that and these percentages are really important because when you look year to year it may look like a lot and then you look at what percent of our students are engaging in these behaviors um it certainly sets your mind at ease. >> Mr. Bell Mr. Well, >> thank you. I also think it's interesting looking like 22 23 versus 25 26 for uh possession, use sale of vape tobacco materials between like combined across in and out of school because it actually would indicate a decline in total usage. But it does drive the question of it looks like the decision- making around in versus out of school is potentially changing. what is the determinant of what drives an in versus an
016out of school suspension for vaping or even physical aggression and things like that? >> Yeah, so it um you know obviously we have a progressive discipline uh rubrics, right? So for a student who has their first offense um around around this topic, right? That that could they could wind up in an in school, right? or subsequently a student who this is maybe let's throw out a number their fifth time right just uh right that could land them in um out of school right so and and it could be because maybe they got detention in school previously um maybe they yapped and didn't finish right so there is um there that progressive discipline model is what could wind you in that category from detention in school or out of school. Uh Dr. Ber, am I pretty
017accurate on that statement? >> Yeah, I I think when we take a look at this after the third marking period, you would see it increase in in school suspensions too. Um or you would see excuse me in school or out of school compared to a detention because it's not their first infraction, right? So it's progressive like Mr. Ran said and it just gets if the whole point is to deter behavior. You cut a class, you get a detention. You cut a class again, it might be an inschool. You cut a class a third time, you know, and so forth. So, um, you'll definitely see that kind of slide. Um, but this is really a cumulative effect from year to year. So, this is the first semester. That's why it's January 21st because that's when it
018it ended uh the first semester. So, great job, Mr. Run. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um so uh also let's looking at in school suspensions across for other infractions right so we have student code of conduct um so we see an uptick uh there right from uh previous years um and again that that could be a couple different things right but also going back to that percentage number right is really kind of where we shape this and put this in perspective uh Dr. Bower mentioned class cuts um right where we and we'll look at out of school next right so all of the so we see a little bit of a dip there from 2425 into 2526 but if you go back there is uh a little bit an uptick from 2324 in years 2425. Um
019so again all of this the discipline regardless of the category is all progressive discipline. All right so and then here we are at out of school suspensions for the same category types. Uh and we can see again uh an uptick in this year year from last year in our student code of conduct violations and we see an uptick um in insubordination um but we uh for out of school suspensions and but we see a decrease um in out of school suspensions on the class cuts right so going back to Dr. Ber's point um you know those who have had uh those infractions at the lower level at the in school um I would say this data would suggest that there has been some behavior modification um re re uh reducing the that number from from
020last year uh on those class cuts. Um so let's look at detentions um for some of the same categories. Um and again gets into class cuts, tardy um and inappropriate use of electronic device. Um and you can see where the different um categories the numbers kind of change. Um and you can see where we see that the inappropriate use of electronic device has kind of made its way into the the the numbers game here on a detentions from detentions perspective. But overall um there is uh a we are on the right track moving down um for our our top three infractions um here for detentions. Let's see. My Did my computer just freeze? >> Mrs. >> Whilst you're doing that, Mr. Rone, I just want to uh point out again for uh our listeners at
021home, again, for those that have joined us at this meeting multiple times, you are aware that we are comparing the same time period. Uh so um just in case there any questions about that. I know when I first started my first meeting I was uh curious about that. Uh Mr. Ron are you ready to proceed? >> Yep. Yep. That is so I want going to pull up the next slide because I wanted to uh I want to talk about the codes right? what is violent versus nonviolent um codes and then and then we'll take some questions so we can kind of wrap this all in a in a bow for folks um so that it makes some sense. So when we look at what does the state says is is a violent infraction. So these
022are the infractions that the state say is a violent infraction. So when we think about um you know we we've heard that numbers have gone up uh you know we're we're more violent. Um so I'd like to use an example here. Um I would say the the majority of you on this call would agree with me that a good portion of these things on on this violent list certainly are violent infractions, right? But let's look at theft. Okay. um a student uh leaves their electronic device in a gym, in a cafeteria, wherever the case may be, they forget it. They walk away and another student says, "I'm going to take this, right?" Um they don't report it to the office. They don't turn it into lost and found. They possess it. They take it home.
023They carry it as if it is theirs. An investigation is done and it is determined that okay, we found out who took the device. That student is then uh addressed by an administrator and that student receives a consequence for theft. All right. Um that was not it was not forcibly taken from the individual. It was simply picked up from being left unattended. When that student is disciplined for the theft and it go the co it goes in our system and is reported as a theft, it is going to show up as a violent offense. It is not going to say uh on the public side, right, that um it was a theft. It's going to say you have a new violent offense. So when we um hear that we are x number of times more
024violent it doesn't actually equate to physical violence right so the example I gave of the theft could be that that situation right um so understanding what is actually meets the code and criteria for violent versus what is not violent uh from a code's perspective uh these are the nonviolent codes um by uh our state standards. So just so we it's I just want to make sure that um it is not you know that that violence is not kind of in a vacuum and always means some sort of physical serious bodily injury to an individual. Um it could be a theft um of a of a personal device or a school device, right? Something um that certainly would not you know there was no physical contact. There was nothing forcibly taken. It was just property that
025was taken left unattended. Um I Mrs. Rubnick and Mr. Bell. >> Great. Thank you and thank you for that clarification. Uh Mr. Ron, I know that we recently had a a question regarding this exact thing at our last board meeting. Um just for for my continued understanding and and I really appreciate the um the explanation, you know, that you've given. I mean, you look here, nonviolent is awesome, which shocks me. Uh, right. You know, but if you go back to the prior slide, um, as you said, theft is considered violent. So, I think that's an interesting, um, classification. Was this done recently in the last couple of years or can you give me a timing as to when these, um, new codes were put in place? >> Um, I don't know the exact timing. I
026I know like violent codes and nonviolent codes have been in existence for a very long time. I also know there are times where obviously things get added. Um so I I don't know I don't have like a you know a hard date of this day and this year. Um I would say vast majorities have have been on the books for for a long time. >> Okay. All right. So with that then uh so I just wanted to I I understood that the violent and nonviolent had been in place but I wasn't sure how frequently they go in and take a look at you know making updates to what is in each of those categories. So with that, what I'm understanding is that when we look at if we're reporting theft and we putting in as
027theft and we're thinking nonviolent, but when it goes in to the PA system, the Pennsylvania Department of Education system, it gets coded as violent and o and we we now have a better understanding of that of those differences. Uh are we going to take any particular action to ensure that we're not showing up particularly violent because it looks like other school districts have a different uh maybe they have a different approach to their reporting system. >> Yeah. So um a couple things. one is um ultimately I I monitor those u how information is getting put in to make sure that we are putting it in accurately but also appropriately, right? And so um you know nobody is interested in in um misinforming or hiding or or you know um being facitious about the coding, right?
028like if if if we have a legit assault, it's an assault, right? And it it will get coded that way. Um but if it's not, then it needs to be coded what it is, right? And um what I have come to learn is is that we we need to make sure that um we're educating our our folks as they're using our system is to what is an actual assault or what is a fight or what is a minor altercation. Um so there's that piece, right? making sure we're using the codes appropriately and if the incident is not appropriate then then we we look at okay what is the appropriate code right so that's one piece >> um and then the other piece is if it is um you know if it meets the standard of
029of what it is right theft or whatever it is right then that's that's what it is however we can then alo also inform folks to say please know that you may see this x number percentage of violent incidents but in that could be theft right um people aren't thinking that we have this physically violent atmosphere in our buildings >> so I it's it is it both things are true >> okay understood >> I don't know if Mr. Dr. B wants to go first before uh Mr. bell because you tend to answer our questions. Um, you tend to predict our questions. So, >> yeah. No. Uh, great. I appreciate the questions. I appreciate Mr. Ran's answers. Uh, we did speak with all of the administrative team. We met with the technology staff to kind of identify
030what the issue was here. And we met with all of our administrative team to talk through with them. Um, just so you're aware what is being coded as violent or not. So now in infinite campus when that is selected there's actually a V next to the discipline category. It says V to indicate vi so you know that you're picking something that will be reported as violence. The example another example that Mr. Ron and I used when we were talking to our principles and assistant principles was here an apple in a cafeteria. Throwing an apple can be a violent act. It can also be an immature irresponsible act. Right? A student who picks up an apple and just launches it in the air because they think it's funny and it hits someone, that might not be
031violence, but it's inappropriate and should be dealt with. A student who gets angry at another student, picks it up and throws an apple into another student's face, that is an act of violence and you could inflict harm and hurt someone intentionally. Um, so just really taking a look at was this an act of violence or was this picking up a cell phone that's sitting on the sidewalk. Um, so kind of delineating. So we spent some time really going through it and then all we created a report too so that our principles can actually run a report and see all the incidents that were coded as violent acts this year. >> Um because Mrs. Rednick I think it was you or maybe it was Mrs. Coin uh who asked if like moving forward not only moving
032forward but we're going we went back to the beginning of the year to address it because we identified this and as I said the other evening I don't often give Mr. linear uh credit, but he did call this out and like, hey, something doesn't add up here. The suspensions are the same, but the violent acts are not. What's going on? And we were able to delineate what was happening. So, >> great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bell. And then, Miss Ka, Mr. Kaiser, >> uh just to piggyback on Dr. Bower's comment there, my curiosity was around who gets to make the coding choices like who is it administrators? Is it teachers? like and then what is the process to make sure that we're supporting uh an effective norming process and training process to what goes
033into that? It seems like there was some level of training and development recently about that. Um is this an ongoing norming so that what is of getting a Vcode at Penfield looks the same as what's getting a V code at Northcut High School and so on and so forth or what what is the process there? >> Yeah, great. Um so what we ended up doing was um mapping these violent incidents to all of us. So when a teacher inputs a discipline infraction, let's say a teacher, a counselor, you know, anyone who works in the building, they input it and it goes to the the administrative team at that building. They call the kid down, they investigate, they would call their parents, and then they finalize the consequence. And then if it is coded as something
034violent, it goes to Mr. Ran, to myself, to Dr. Waters, Dr. Hart, depending on, you know, that decision tree. And we review it as well. So that is a way to increase the fidelity. Um, and we're able to, you know, I I'll get something. One time someone uh input destruction of school property um and it they like broke up an eraser. Um, and it probably not a violent act. It might be a violent act against erasers. Um but not really something you would consider to be violent. Um so I see it, Mr. Ran sees it. We kind of touch base like, "Hey, did you see that one?" "Yeah, yeah, I'll call the principal." Um so we've added those checks and balances, Mr. Bell, to address this. Um and it allows for that spot checking, you
035know, an an audit of the things that are coming in, making sure they're consistent. It also allows us to see consistent names. you know, if if Dan Bell keeps coming across my desk, I'm like, you know, I've seen Dan Bell's name four times this year and only serious stuff comes to me, um, then I reach out to the principal and say, hey, tell me about Dan. Um, because it's just another way to protect the schools and the administrative teams, uh, to address. So, all your questions are very valid and things that we've kind of uncovered and layered in. >> Very helpful. But let's not unpack my best, please. Let's let's thank you. >> Go ahead, Mr. Kaiser. Yeah. >> Yeah. I thanks Mr. Ran for showing all those charts and the the charts that showed
036the differences between the different school years. Didn't you just um I think I remember being in one of these meetings and seeing like last year seeing you reclassified a lot of them and that's why there's empty space empty rows on some. Is that is that right? >> Yes, that is accurate. with moving over from Swiss to the new system, some of the categories got shifted over and some of the codes are like now obsolete and the state recategorized and said, "Okay, you can't use that code anymore. You got to use this one." So, we had to kind of migrate over. Uh, so where you're seeing the blanks, it's really, oh, we it's not that we've resolved that issue alto together, it's that we have to map it differently. >> Right. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know
037if there was any mapping um specifically. In other words, a a key to show what went to what. >> There was actually Brandon, you may know better than that, but um there was a chart where we went from one to the next. That was probably two years ago. >> Okay. >> Back. >> So, going forward, we'll be just apples to apples then. >> Yeah. Hopefully, um they don't, you know, move the field goal posts again. But um one thing that was asked by all of you kind of collectively is um we're working on right now a like when we do interviews we have questions and then we have look force right so you ask a certain question these are the things you're looking for the candidates to say um for discipline we're going to have
038a look force chart you know give examples of what is an assault what is disorderly conduct what is inappropriate classroom behavior what's in subordination and provide examples of each So, um, you've all been kind of hidden at that, too. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. Great. >> Um, any other questions around the discipline report out before moving on to the next agenda item? >> I'm seeing none. Thank you, Mr. Rome. >> I had a question. >> Oh, you do? Okay. Sorry. >> Yeah. Sorry. I just wanted to know if you ever internally or maybe publicly um um do a demographics uh chart of who you know by grade or by gender or by anything like that. Yeah, that is a part of our um summer leadership academy and then our data retreat to try to identify disproportionality
039in our buildings and over and under representations in certain areas whether it's for identification for gifted services, over identification for special ed, discipline, attendance, all those things. Um so yes, we have that demographic data and we can kind of disagregate by whichever category. Happy to share examples of that as well. >> Okay. Yep. Okay. Um, Mrs. Rubnik, uh, good to move on to the next? >> Yes, it looks like we're good to move on. Thank you, Mr. Ron. >> Um, so, next agenda item. Want to follow up. Uh, I know I just gave kind of like a brief state of where the whole school police officer conversation has been since the the last board meeting. Um but wanted to um kind of do uh an update to that since prior to that when we had
040that conversation we did not have the um presentation at the high school and that was one of the things we were we were um doing as as the next step. So that presentation to the entire high school uh did take place and so just give you some information about that. Um Dr. Bower myself uh conducted a uh video recording that was narrated and hosted by Mr. Gilmer um really uh explaining the school police officer position, what a school police officer is, what the qualifications are going are required, uh what is the expectation, uh and most importantly what the role of that officer would be in the district. Uh and so like I said that video was about 20 minutes. We really took the two public presentations, so the the committee meeting and the work session
041um and all of that information and some of the questions that came out of that um and put in that 20 minute uh video for for the students. After immediately following the video, the students had uh opportunities uh at all lunch periods for that Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday um to come down and ask questions. Dr. Dr. B was there, Dr. Ward was there, Mr. Hassel was there, certainly I was there. Um, and they really they could come down and ask any question they had uh about the the school police officer conversation. Um, and so over the course of those 12 lunch periods, we spoke with um 17 students and and answered their questions. And then to the right of what we did are some of the questions that came uh that were asked uh by
042students. Um so uh you know a lot of students asked about you know will the firearm be secure? Will it be easy for someone to just come up and take it? Um and we talked about that and the answer is no. There are uh retention level holsters and so we would be uh purchasing the highest level retention holster uh to make sure that it is it is not that simple. um questions around what will and what will won't the police off the school police officer be involved in. Um some asked how soon this would happen. Uh others asked how will an officer be selected? Uh others asked about are there special is there special training um that they will have to go through. Uh certainly all things that we talked about um in our our
043public meetings. Um, uh, another student asked, "Will the officer, uh, will the officer replace the evolve system?" Right? So, will we still have the evolve, uh, with the school police officer in place? Um, and another asked, um, um, will an officer be stationary at at one fixed post? Um, and typically, um, these were the same questions asked amongst the students. Um so I I kind of put the the heavy hitter questions um for for the slide here. So um we you know while we we look at a number 17 students participating out of a 3,200 uh student population and some may be discouraged and say well you know that's really a really a small sample size of a student population. Um and and I would say I will look at it this way, right? And
044I always try to look at the glass half full perspective. Um you know, I think the information that was shared in the video, I think help answer some some folks questions uh about it and they're like, "Okay, now I I really have an understanding. If this all makes sense, I don't I don't need to ask any further questions." Um those who did come down needed some clarification and and certainly that's why uh we wanted to do that. So um while in the beginning I was like man 17 people like that's that's really not but in having some conversations walking around the halls there was some chatter among students at change of class um you know I just kind of randomly talked to students in the hallway and like hey what did you think what do
045you hear what are your what are your feelings um and and my general consensus from the responses I was getting was once students had the information they were like okay I'm I I I'm good Um and and that was my you know I I asked some folks you know in and in and different leaders in the building on sports teams and clubs um student government um you know I I asked just a good what I think is a good mixture representation of the population in the building and and that's the general feeling of and consensus I got um from that Dr. Ber anything from your experience or perspective and I know I saw Dr. orders. Um, please feel free to add anything as well. >> Um, the only things I'll say is aside from the
046kids who came down during their lunches, which you referenced was not many. U, one student said, you know, we said, "How come more kids aren't coming down?" They said, "Cuz we don't really have any questions." Um, and there were other kids who emailed separately, and we've met with those students as well. The one student I met with today who uh actually emailed the board. Um, I won't say the student's name, but you all received an email. I got back to that student said, "When would you like to discuss? I'd be happy to sit down with you. We had a great conversation. We met for like 40 minutes today." Um student did say, you know, I came in here as absolutely not and you've answered all my questions. I certainly see the benefits. I'm not sure
047where I am right now. Uh but appreciate your time and I appreciate the fact that the board is interested in our feedback which I thought was great. Um so I agree with Mr. grown that what we heard from students was it's a shame that we're talking about this. We wish we didn't have to in 2026, but we get it. Um there are some students who you know have had trauma in their lives and um might not feel comfortable and how could we address that and will um one of the questions today was will a school police officer have training on traumainformed practices and um have information about students um who need you know special attention all those questions. I mean the kids are so insightful. So uh in the end Mr. Drone, you did a
048great job of summarizing. Um, I wish there was more engagement, but maybe the fact that there wasn't is a good sign. Um, so yeah. Any other questions? Dr. Waters, we miss anything? >> No, I don't think so. I just think that um the video covered a lot and maybe that's maybe all their questions got answered ahead of time. That's how I look at it. >> That was a polite way of saying the video was too long. No, >> because it was 20 minutes of Brandon and I and Bob Gilmer talking. It was a little long. >> If I made the video, we would say that, but you made it. >> Go ahead, Mr. Bell. >> More than anything, I actually want to commend uh the three of you for taking so much time and for
049investing in making sure that this was communicated so clearly to uh kids and staff uh at the high school. I The Night Zone video was very clear. I thought it was really thoughtful. Uh it was a little long, but it was really it was it covered everything that needed to be covered. Um I teased my 10th grader. I asked, "Did you go down and ask questions?" And she said, "No." And I I thought it was cuz she didn't want to skip lunch. But her comment back was that it was it made sense and it was very clear and she didn't have any questions left when it was done. Um and she shared that the thing that made her most comfortable with it was the staff selection process. Um, and so I think that the way
050that this was intentionally done to make sure that this was proactively communicated in a must come to night zone structure, um, rather than sort of hoping that somebody would click on a link that got sent out. I think that that was a really proactive approach. Um, that showed your investment in getting feedback from our students. Um, so I really just want to say thank you because that was that was the charge was to go out and figure out where do people stand and help make sure that we're communicating clearly the benefits and opportunities that could come from this even if again it's not something we want to be talking towards. So I I wanted to share my gratitude uh for that artwork. >> Mrs. Rnik. >> Yeah. So uh similar to Mr. about um you
051first of all thank you you this is we we talked about this at length in the past and um it was certainly important for me to have a statistical representation of our students um and so yes my reaction to the 17 would have been similar to you Mr. their own. But I did I did exactly the same thing you did, which is I asked the two the 100% of students that live in my house. And both of them uh 100% said it was clear to them. Um and they didn't see a reason why they they didn't have additional questions. Um and uh one of them actually said you know she was feeling helpful and pulled uh some of her co colleagues and and students as well and and got similar reactions and actually also had
052maybe a similar discussion Dr. Bau as you did today with a student that was maybe not quite sure where they wanted they would be landing on this. So thank you for doing so. I also think it's important to mention to the community um because I also sit on the North Monco uh JOC. So, as you all know, we have a number of sending schools that uh attend North Monco uh JOC. And what it became also clear to me because they have uh SPOS's is that our students and students from other school district that attend North Monco are actually pretty familiar with this model. And uh so while it seems new to the North Pan school district, we have a number of students over the years and currently that attend North Monco and for those students
053this is the norm. Um and um I it it dawned on me the other day that we've actually not um made that expressly clear to the community. Uh Mr. Kaiser. >> Yes. Hi. Uh thanks again. Thank you uh Mr. Ron for for that uh presentation. Um sounds great. I I appreciate that um you're presenting the the benefits. I would just say going forward we would have to think about um the measurements of success and I'm not sure if you had that already set but um you know student surveys or reduction in fights or you know there must be some um thing that the other schools through school districts might do um but that we could um you know look at that and make sure that we can measure it properly. >> Yeah. Uh thank you
054Mr. Kaiser and that's something I failed to mention in particular a question conversation today with the student kind of said you know what will the benchmarks be and I I spoke to and Mrs. Redneck has asked some of these questions in meetings as well. Um I spoke to us codifying that in policy you know saying that it just like the the presentation you saw tonight with the discipline data we put that into policy. We said quarterly it will be shared with the safe schools committee it's actually in a schoolboard policy. Um so we would have to do the same if we move forward. So certainly we need to talk about what the next steps are going to be if the we would like this to come before the board again. Um, and then a kind
055of an outline of all those steps and those policies. So, well, another example of a policy that Mrs. Rdnick referenced in one of the board meetings was, you know, I would like it to be somebody who's worked in the school district at least two years, who knows the students. Um, so those types of things being memorialized in our board policies. Thank you, Mr. Kaiser. Okay. >> Any additional questions for Mr. R on this uh on this topic. So we we do need to figure out next steps now. Um Mr. Ron and Dr. Ba, we'll give you some time to think through it. Uh perhaps um unless you have a response right now, I'm not going to put you on the spot, but u I know that we need to u move on with the next
056steps uh on on this topic. Um, so I I do have like I'm sorry to go back to the to the discipline data, but something Mr. Ran said has just been nagging at me and this is around the the vaping in particular and I think Mr. you said that as much work as we do um around so I'm moving from SPO I'm sorry this actually really distracted me and it it's it stayed with me that we're you know when as much work as we do to encourage our students to to stop vaping and we and all the marketing that the the companies are working harder to keep them addicted and I and I think this is such a shame Um, and it's I'm going to be on a high horse for for a minute here
057because I, you know, that realization it took us probably 30 years as a public to put some pressure on big tobacco uh to, you know, to get uh that to a point where they wouldn't they they stopped doing, you know, uh, animation to entice students, you know, and we got the same place with with opiates. I do I do hope that we can put some pressure on our um policy makers to really help us in this space. But cuz you are right, we can do a lot and parents can do a lot. But if if these um vape manufacturers are are doing all that they can to keep our kids uh addictive, then it is um it is I don't want us to be in another 20ear cycle. So I don't sorry about that. I
058just it's just been on my mind since you said it and it's just um so I put it out there. you know, maybe I'll be writing a couple couple of letters to state senators this evening to to get them to support us in this. Um, so that was our um twoformational items today, the district discipline data and our and our update on SPOS's. Thank you very much. Do we have any additional um business any new business? Uh we also have our student representative. Uh any updates for us, Grace? >> Um not as of now. I was going to mention about like the student responses to SPOS's, but pretty much it was all covered. That's like the general consensus of how like students feel. Um the only other thing the project I mentioned last month, um
059we haven't been able to meet unfortunately. So our next meeting is tomorrow. Just wanted to update. That's very helpful. And yes, thank you. Also, if you want to share anything, even if it's repetitive on SPO, please feel free to do so. To hear your voice is probably more important than my second, you know, um me me giving a narrative of what I heard in my house. >> I feel like just students didn't really have any questions. I think the video is very comprehensive if anything. Um, also I feel like there was like a even if students were very on the edge about this, number one, there's resources to get their questions answered. And number two, um, I think that, you know, the majority of students weren't able to comprehend the video enough to explain to
060others >> um, how they feel or how like to understand what's going on in the school. Um, and either way, I think like the only like biggest question at least among the seniors that I've heard is like when is this going to get implemented? Is it going to be before we graduate or next year or like kind of just like the timeline of things? Not really like concerns about safety or anything like that. >> I I will echo I found it interesting, Grace, that that was some of the the answers I got from seniors. They were like, why why are you going to do this after we leave? Right. Um, uh, it was like like they were missing out on something. I was like, I I don't Okay, I understand, but I don't know that
061that's like the flag on that one. Um, but I I I do understand, right? It was kind of the same response about some of the renovations and upgrades, right? It's like all this cool stuff happening and then I'm out the door. Um, so I I did hear some of that, Grace, uh, as well. So, thanks for that. >> Yeah, a lot of like the students are talking about renovations and like the seniors are all like, "Oh, we're going to graduate so there's no point." like it's going to be gone like we're going to be gone long gone. And I remember talking to my little sister and she graduates class of 2031. >> So she's the year they finish. >> Well, but we will always welcome you back to be educators and >> I will always
062come back. >> Yes, we will always welcome you back to be educators at North Pen. Thank you very much, Grace, for that and for sharing. All right, Mr. Gilma, do we have uh anyone in the audience? >> Yep, we do. And the hand is raised. >> All right. Uh tonight's meeting is our regular reg regularly scheduled committee meeting. In order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania's sunshine law, it is necessary to record the names of all the citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting. To ensure compliance with this requirement, it is essential that those planning to address the committee state their name and municipality. Members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to and members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes.
063Okay, over to you, Mr. Gilma. >> All righty. Up first is Mr. Laneir. Jason, I've enabled your microphone. So, when you're ready to begin, please state your name and municipality for the record and begin your comments, please. >> Jason Lairer Landdale. Um, regard regarding the the the violence and the mismapping of activity that might not be violent, but is mapped as violent by um PTE, safe schools. I'm not sure I fully buy into that. And I tell you why. because I'm sure at some of our surrounding or neighboring districts at Solderan or or Mthactton, there's stolen uh cell phones and the same sorts of things happen generally uh at those middle schools as do um at our middle schools. and and I I want to focus on middle schools because that's primarily where uh all
064the data I was looking at is is uh the most stridently different than than it is across the state average and or even the county average. So in and these numbers come it's it's per 100 students. So if at uh Penfield it's a 6.16 and the average is is really uh 2.3 that means that we are roughly three times higher than than the the county average meaning there's 6.16 per incidences uh of sorry I say incidences per 100 students. So we have to do the math to actually figure out how many kids there are if they're mapping it. Basically, it seems like we're trying to say that the other school districts are mapping it in uh correctly and we're mapping it incorrectly or vice versa. Either they're not quite doing it right and we're doing
065it right or what have you. And the solution seems to be sort of monitoring that and trying to make sure that I don't know if you would say thumbming the scale or just whatever's going on there. If there's an inconsistency, it's it's at our neighboring schools. Uh like I mentioned, Solderton for 2024 is 64 incidences per 100 students. Uh McFactton is 1.5 and again our schools same year 7.6 5.3 6.1. So we're higher and it can't just be from cell phones or or or sort of nonviolent but classified violent incidences. That doesn't seem it doesn't seem to square to me. Um, regarding the police uh uh security officers or police officers uh school police officers I should say. Uh there is a lot of questions and and I mean I guess talking with the students
066is fine. I'm not sure how much that really is going to measure things going forward, but um my instance, my questions have to do with is this going to be the police departments in each area coming to bring officer in or is this going to be you know North Penn Police Squad in which case there's a lot more questions if we're going to go that route and we didn't touch on any of those and I've brought these up in some of the public um online things that happened in the middle of the day. I was able somebody told me that was on and I called in or texted in or whatever. But these this there's got to be a lot bigger presentation to the taxpayers and and we need to have a bigger discussion in
067that way. I'll leave it there. Thank you. >> All right, Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Lair. >> That'll conclude public comment. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Laneir. Uh Dr. B, any comments? Mr. Yeah, I mean I can respond. I'd be happy to sift through. Um I I don't think um I don't interpret it the same way that Mr. Linger does. I'd say that um I believe we were um coding things improperly. Um when there are and you can have a discipline behavior that is inappropriate behavior and if we coded that as something that gets mapped to violence it results in an increased violence rate. We don't have more incidents overall per 100 kids. We don't have uh more suspensions in school suspensions those types of things. So there was a discrepancy which we believe
068we've identified that we didn't have enough options for our folks to select and they were choosing things that were went to the state as violent. That was the explanation we're providing. So I think I agree with him on a lot of things. I don't agree with him on that last point. Um regarding the school police force, um this is was not a presentation. This was an update on our conversations with students. We did give a presentation that was about an hour in safe schools roughly um November >> uh maybe no August >> whenever we gave the safe schools presentation and then we gave it to the full board in November. >> Um so this was not that this was not the here's the motto here's what um I think we addressed a lot of the
069questions about school police versus school resource officers in those presentations as well. So not sure what the next steps will be. Um we have to talk to certainly internally and then speak with Mrs. Rnik and Mrs. Ramich as a board president and vice president about next steps and when it could come before the full board. So we'll be in touch. It is not imminent right now. Thank you Mrs. Rnik. >> Thank you Dr. Bower. And with that, I think that we can get a have a motion um to close to move. >> Excellent. Thank you so very much to the community. Have a good night everyone.