001give this a moment for a YouTube feed all right YouTube likes us tonight that was super Speedy Mr CA the meeting is yours thank you very much M uh Mr Gilmer and welcome everyone to the August 2024 safe schools committee meeting as always we'll begin with the 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 all right thank you as always for our North pen High School flag um we'll begin with the U the approval of the minutes from the was a June I'm having trouble with my board docs here that is correct June 24th thank you very much um it's not loading uh as fast as usual so YouTube
002is winning the race but um so do we have a motion on the June 24th 2024 minutes for the safe schools committee so moved all right second sorry thank you do we have any comments or questions about the minutes none hearing none all those in favor say I or raise your hand I any opposed okay minutes are approved unanimously with that we'll move on to informational items and see first up we have the U navigate 360 visitor and Emergency Management uh system or platform go ahead Mr Ron all right good evening everybody uh so I'm bringing this uh to the committee for approval to move forward um as you know we we use currently have Raptor in housee and for visitor management and we are using navigate uh for some other e-learning PL platforms um
003and other uh professional development things that we are using for staff in the district um it is my opinion that moving and having one uh vendor makes things a lot cleaner a lot simpler um when you're dealing with trying to move uh things forward from a pricing standpoint and um using a particular product it's it's a lot easier dealing with one if then versus having to go to this vendor for that and this vendor for that and this vendor you have a whole bunch of vendors doing a a bunch of different things uh so uh for visitor management and Emergency Management the two top industry leaders are navigate 360 and Raptor again Bingo that we're using navigate for some other products um I think it's best that we shift our visitor management and Emergency Management
004over to navigate 360 for those in the community who don't quite understand what visitor management and Emergency Management is um Mr chair if you don't mind allow me a couple more minutes to just kind of give some some details so uh if you visit our buildings during the school day you you come into the building you you scan your license and you get this visitor pass right and that's um that allows you to move about the building for your appointment you're meeting if you're volunteering for a classroom or whatever the case may be so that is the visitor management side it it's a process that's logging our visitors in and out so that in the case of emergency we have the best accountability that we could possibly have from an emergency management side the Emergency
005Management allows us to digitize our platform for scheduling drills completing those drills um it gives us another uh you know you hear me talk a lot about redundancy it gives us another capability for notifications um uh in connection with alert but it will also allow us to have to do uh digital accountability which will expedite the process of being able to account for those students that we should account for in the case of an emergency uh so it will allow us to expedite that process moving away from more of our traditional paper and Pen process um to where uh it can be done uh on an app whether it be on a district device on a laptop a Chromebook uh or if a a staff member puts the uh app on their phone so uh
006that's some of the benefits uh not only uh moving it to one platform but also taking another step forward um in being able to do things in a much quicker uh and more efficient manner so that is the purpose of the uh visitor management and Emergency Management and like I stated earlier moving it to one platform is the reason why we're bringing this uh forward today thank thank you Mr ran uh and a clarifying question so this contract will that include end users that are not just employees and staff but also families and students so it does not include uh families um from a I'm assuming you're asking from a notification standpoint uh it it does not uh include families from that standpoint it's really for internals um for uh you know staff and central
007office and facilities and you know we can we can accommodate all those uh departments um to include professional staff teachers thank you for that clarification Miss Mcmurry thank you Mr Kasa thank you Mr roon um glad to see here about this uh particularly because it will improve redundancy a couple of questions um I know nothing obviously about the details of this company but um can you speak it all to their historical accuracy with what they're providing and have they had any hiccups that um obviously I'm thinking you have no concern but what's their historical accuracy and then the piece is um what is the let's say um training that would be needed for uh the employees that will be using this system yep so um I'll try to remember all the questions um yes I
008have done um a lot of work in making sure the product was at the standard that I deem is approve um I also um I think Dr Landis is on but um I coordinated meetings with our technology department uh back when Mr Tony bicker was here um and we met with both vendors and we we asked them a number of questions we had them demo uh all of the products and the connectivity um I wanted to make sure technology was on board on the front end versus the back end to determine uh which platform does each company use that works best with what we use from a backend user um so um as always there's there was collaboration between departments that because this will affect the technology department uh without a doubt so they were
009they were in those conversations upfront um and actually it was Tony and Kim rant who um liked the backend technology platform I'm not sure the specific or the right technical word but they liked the backend engineering of n navigate over Raptor um just for our systems being able to talk to each other and and getting the data that we need um from our in-house systems into the navigate platform um as far as training this will require um a little bit of training because obviously the interface will look different than what our front office staff is used to so um already having some of those conversations about where we can fit in this training um for the uh office staff that will be using this uh from a functionality standpoint it will still function almost the
010same right so from a end user uh and the backend user of the office staff you know if I'm a visitor I come in I scan my ID the machine and the software really does the work for me um you know it's just the on the back end the staff needs to make sure that they're looking at the right places that if there is an alert or someone hits they know what that signal looks like so the the the kind of backend workings remain the same it's just you know the colors difference and where this button is in this indicator and that notification that will look slightly different for the staff that's great it sounds like it it really was a very robust um due diligence between the two companies will will both systems be
011running at the same time until you feel satisfied with um let's say how the the folks that are using it have come up to speed um just because this is safe schools and security or is it the old system get shut down and you immediately um transfer over to the new one um there there will be more of a hard stop um now that hard stop will be when we're ready um but but when we move there won't be two systems running right because then that would require people to kind of use both right in order they have to remember what you know the office staff has to remember well what system did this person scan into and I think that will create more work um and more challenges um but once we you know
012once we feel like we're ready we will cut the cord on one and move to the other okay and and okay so I think also too I meant from the and I didn't say this correctly or clearly the it side you know so I mean I understand what you're saying that you wouldn't want um the actual end user but at the back and do is there a need to keep both systems running from the it perspective I don't believe so I don't believe there's a reason to do that um I I from my conversations um you know the many conversations we've had with uh Tony and Kim um I think they feel pretty good about making a switch whenever we make the switch Dr Landis is that is that about accurate yes that's correct we
013typically would do a lot of homework in the back end you know making sure all of our data feeds are set and ready to go and then we will typically have an end point where we say we stop sending data to this system and then we start sending data to that system so yeah we'll cordinate with Brandon and the teams to make sure everybody knows you know what that timing looks like okay thank you both that thanks Mr CA thank you any other questions uh just want to confirm is navigate 360 because I know there's a onetime fee is that some subject matter expertise or technical assistance for this uh flipping the switch so to speak yes so we would get a dedicated uh what they call a a customer service manager um that if
014you know we would work closely with us on implementation there would be um you know several Zoom meetings for that implementation and then that assistance would be on goinging the life of the contract excellent good to know and this is uh we would be voting to uh put forward a three-year this is is this a vote for Action actually let me ask is it's just informational action item okay all right if there aren't any further comments or questions do we have a motion to place a navigate 360 visitor and emergency management system contract on the on the board's action item agenda for September so moved are you sorry we need more help Mr C second second second got it all right we we have a motion and a second any other further comments questions all
015those in favor raise your hand or say I I okay okay and there are none opposed the motion passes unanimously so that'll be on the upcoming September uh board Action meeting now we move on to informational items uh beginning with the cyber security update Mr ran if I may just Dr B yeah um so I know you're going to introduce Dr Landis and uh we'll get the cyber security update just one who as I have in years past and I know this board but for the Public's um I guess information I will ask that the um committee members be very careful with questions regarding cyber security obviously just like when we talk publicly about our actual facilities and security we're obviously not going to divulge any vulnerabilities in public if there are any so Dr
016Landis I just ask exercise caution when you're answering any questions that come up uh regarding cyber security but very pleased with where we are with cyber security but no one is perfect and all organizations have vulnerabilities so just want to put that out there before we begin thank you Mr R take it away thank you Dr B uh it is a steam honor and pleasure to uh have Dr Landis join us and and walk us through um cyber security I've uh been working and partnering very closely with Dr Landis and uh the IT department here over the summer um and as we get into the start of year so uh Dr Landis thanks for coming and uh sharing this information with this and take it away all right well thank you very much Mr ran
017and thank you everyone for the opportunity to present this evening um I do have some good information to share about where we are and how we've progressed over the last couple years so Mr Gilmer if you could go to the next slide thank you so for those of you who aren't as familiar with our cyber security Journey uh we began this process before 2021 actually and looking for a company that could do an audit a single point in time where we could kind of figure out where we were what we learned along the way is that not only did we want that audit but we really wanted to um be able to have a company who could guide us not just through correcting from an audit but taking a look over time assisting us as
018the landscape changes as the cyber security threats change um and so we learned we had 19 different companies um that we looked that narrowed it down to I believe it was seven three finalists um and in the end partnered with f FR secure um for a five-year contract um so this is uh year three of that five-year contract um and with that contract we also have a virtual Chief Information Security Officer so that's a VC so so that if we have any issues that we can't resolve as a team we can can reach out to them and that company and they also um register us for incident response um we don't we don't like to think about the fact that there might ever be a cyber security incident in North pen but certainly we have
019to plan and be prepared just in case so after that selection our audit planning began uh in September of 2021 so we do a number of activities yearly and you can see them uh listed on the screen there and then every year after our audit we go through an intense process of looking at you know where we are where we've come in the last year and then um where are we going next so Mr Gilmer if you could um move to the next slide one of the pieces that guides us is our cyber security score so I'm not going to actually give you the scores here publicly but I I have some great news there are five categories starting with very poor uh going up to excellent so similar to what you think about for
020pssa I know we have four levels there there are five levels we actually started in the very very top of very poor when we had our first audit so that's not awesome I realize and people are going ah but it was at the top of very poor um and now we're actually at the top of fair so we've gone up over 133 points uh in our last two years since we've been going through this audit process um and the three most significant areas of growth that we've had are number one in administrative control controls um number two in network infrastructure and specifically our external technical controls so when we think about administrative controls that's actually the human part of cyber security so our staff and even um things like making sure our computers are locked
021before we leave our desk making sure that um we're not allowing people to tailgate as they come into a facility when we scan our badge so they look at everything a lot of the components are really interwoven um in between cyber security what you might think is traditional cyber security and actual physical security um so we're pretty proud of that um also in the last three years we have asked our staff to do two hours of cyber security training so today we just launched year three of that um and interestingly enough on the tales of Mr Ron's presentation our first U module in that training is about not allowing visitors to leave with their badge um and and making sure they turn those badges in before they leave um instead of taking them with them
022now I know ours are paper and I think we just tear them up and and get rid of them um but when we're talking about organizations Who present any kind of scanning badge you know somebody else could grab that badge and come in and be a bad actor log on to somebody's computer so all those things are taken into consideration so I'm really proud of our staff I think uh in the beginning it was a little daunting for them to do so much training um but they are stepping up to the task there another piece um in terms of administrative controls is our multiactor authentication and so I believe you're all aware that was not uh last year two years ago we implemented multiactor across the district everyone um is required to do that and
023also students in grades um 10 through 12 and so we continue that uh today and that makes our organization a lot more secure so I'm not going to talk a lot about the other controls um but just know remotely we have a lot more Security in place as well so people can't really connect to our district or any of our applications um especially our financial application or student information system without doing actually double multiactor authentication when they do a VPN a couple other pieces that we implemented last year as you may remember we went out for an FP on an xdr solution which means that we have cyber security scanning 247 to our endpoints so all of our um desktops laptops and servers and in addition to that not only do they Scan they remediate
024and so that's a big help for our team when we have a district of this size when we did our initial vulnerability scan we had over a million hits in vulnerabilities um so you know we're North pen go big or go home but um that's a lot of vulnerabilities for our staff to go out and check each one and so this solution helps with that remediation as well with our VC so we meet monthly and we also are um creating cyber security guidelines for staff so in addition to the training the specific things that we want North pen staff to know and be able to do about all things cyber security so um we look forward to being able to launch those guidelines this year as well as planning for tabletop exercise first with technology
025staff um then moving moving out to our administrative staff um and then probably that is where we might end it this year um but then also looking at buildings because um as you all know we had a neighboring District this time of year uh have an attack and we want to be in a position where if anything at all happens we're prepared we can remediate and we continue to to um work normally and have access to everything we need and then this year um we met with our local cisa advisor and if you're not familiar um with cisa cisa is the cyber security and infrastructure Security Agency and they actually have a K12 Branch so similar to our VC so but also um have some access to other Federal resources that we are able to
026um take advantage of in terms of helping us with those tabletop exercises at no charge Mr scroy if you're listening um so so there's a lot of benefits to partnering with them and I know they also work on the regular security side as well um so more to come on that this year and then we launched our cyber security training as I said and Mr Gilmer if you could go to the next slide please I think we have one more okay um yeah so at the end of last year um this was this was a big change last year and one that really helps our cyber security posture is p password reset changes so for staff we moved from um over 100 days of password reset to every 90 days uh 12 character complex password
027and actually when we met with the cisa cyber security adviser this summer he said they are now going to 16 characters so I don't know that we need to go there yet um but that could be on the horizon as well um and not only did we do staff we did students um 3 through 12 with a complex password last year and I know some of you out there in the community are parents and you learned about what's a passphrase how can I teach my child to do something with this complex password and honestly the teachers and the support staff were great in helping the children we also have a process in place through class link which is our desktop where students can enter their security questions and reset their password on their own at
028any time so it doesn't come back to the tech staff having to reset 13,000 U passwords every year um so we will be planning to have third grade do their password reset probably at the end of September and then for K to2 students because we know that can be really complicated especially in the beginning of the year when they're learning all these new things we use a QR code with them so that used to be an option only in kindergarten we moved that from uh kindergarten all the way up to second grade to make it easier for those students to just scan in and get into their Chromebook um some of the things that we're continuing to do um we we do server updates every month patch management um every month as needed and sometimes
029more regularly a lot of our vendors are also um working into place beta programs where as updates come out we can be a part of that program or we can learn about the updates hold on them until the the regular release but also then make a choice to if we know something might directly affect us press What's called the big green button and do the update automatically so it's really impressive how the vendors are really trying to help districts kind of be in the Forefront as as quick as possible um we do also require multiactor authentication through our method for all of our um remote vendors so whether they're working with facilities or security um or curriculum they all have to remote in through the same process and we guide that process so we make
030sure who's coming into our network if they're not already a part of North pen um and then finally we do a lot of work um with our current staff in terms of training them making sure they're on The Cutting Edge they know what's going on out there um we have a program that the board supported last year called Falcon Spotlight which um teaches us about new threats and how to look for them and what things to know um and be able to do because we learned from the advisor this Summer that some of these companies go in and lay in wait for seven years in your in your infrastructure so it's not just a matter of oh in six months it could happen it could happen seven years from now which was a little surprising
031for us um to think about somebody laying and wait that long so we need to be prepared for that make sure our systems are constantly upgraded and that's a pretty brief overview of where we are right now um questions thank you so much uh Dr Landis always appreciate this annual update and I know at times uh every other year we get a bit of an executive session maybe on what some of those score cards are and I I think maybe considering this it seems like you're hitting another major Leap Forward um in advancing our cyber security that I'm sure if um if Dr Bower um is open to that we would love to get a brief update on on that scorecard and where we are because I do remember the very first time when this
032was done and I didn't remember were high po or whatever it was but it was a reflection uh and I recall I believe this was even the auditor part of their assessment that K12 public education in general is very poor and we you know sadly enough we were on par or ahead of the curve and yet we've really Advanced every year over-year um we've done a very good uh you've made a great effort managing those costs as well because this is a service that's in demand but it really is essential because for Enterprise risk management um protecting children uh their critical information as well as staff um as simple as getting paychecks out people this is the backbone of what North pen does and so we can't thank you enough for that and I did
033get my email for board member training too we also have to go through those two hours so the public knows and uh Dr Landis that I I was recently in in an international big Law Firm they they write lock everything it's lawyers they don't want anyone hacking any of their information some of this is exact same training the exact same approaches literally from the 12 plus Factor um and type of training that's out there so we really appreciate this type of um operational efficiency and Effectiveness uh what questions do we have from the uh committee today Madame President yes hi so thank you I I also got my email so thank you very much um and I I always do my work so but I was just wondering what are the consequences um if somebody
034doesn't do it like for a staff member I assume you have 100% participation or there's some people that you have to uh remind to do it again um well we do send out reminders but one of the nice pieces of the software that we use is we have managers involved so the managers can see who has and has not completed it and then typically the way we do it is we build it into professional development day since it's all online training the staff have from now I believe it told you till February 14th is our professional development day where we've allocated time for that so if people don't do it before then then there's time allocated on that day for them to complete the training oh that's good so it's not necessarily on their own
035personal time then that's correct yes okay thank you um and for our support staff who don't work on those days we do pay them to take the training um and that includes all of our subs as well good that's that's good to hear thank you any other questions or comments I see none thank you Dr lus that's a good sign that there aren't any any other questions thank thank you and your team and our uh our contract support uh for keeping us secure Take Care thank you for having me all right we'll move on now to District site mapping Mr R uh yes so just wanted to uh bring the committee up the speed um some of you may remember uh when Chris D was here one of the many things that he put in
036place was uh digitizing maps for emergency response um and so we have just a few buildings left in the district that that need to be completed and so uh I am working to get those done this year um and so then we'll be at 100 per 100% completion um and then they will all be be um distributed to The Mont gy County Department of Emergency Services um for in the event um we we need them um for an emergency and is that internal mapping or we using vendors or hybrid Mr R uh that is going to be a vendor uh the same vendor that uh Mr D started with um there are a number of vendors out there but I I didn't want different um styles of maps out there um for for our emergency
037responder so I wanted all the maps to look the same and be letter it the um so we're going to continue with the vendor that he started with thank you and when is the uh the completion date time frame that we we can anticipate Montgomery County Law Enforcement having this information uh we are targeting late October um so there's some there's some materials and information we need to get to the vendor uh to start the process proc and obviously we've had some changes um in in in some of our schools so we're just we're taking care of those Minor Details and then they'll be able to come and do and start their process excellent um I know this is really uh developing into what we if it isn't all right um right a National Standard
038not the dark standards for these things but a a best practice or contemporary standard is to have this information so thank you for keeping us on track Mr ran any question questions or comments from the committee M MC Berry thanks Mr Kasa real quick Mr Ron I'm so happy to hear about this um update uh so when changes come in from buildings how does that whole communication notification process happened so that the county stays updated and all the emergency service organizations do as well and what two questions that's one the second one is what constitutes a change that would um Bubble Up to um needing a change on these Maps thanks sure uh so Mr Snider and I will have to work closely um especially if there are structural changes so as we talk about
039the high school project right that's going to be a structural change we're going to be adding space we could be changing you know classroom numbers or that kind of stuff um said same is true for other buildings where you know in the 23 before school year a building was a classroom and now in the 25 2425 year it's an office um right so that needs to be updated so that um it is reflective the map is reflective of the most current uh layout of the building and the numbering and lettering so that when we are when the County Emergency The Dispatch Center is sending officers to what they believe to be a classroom it is truly a classroom that should have kids in it versus it being an office does that make sense it makes
040sense I guess I'm not hearing the what I'm I guess I'm looking to understand the urgency when something changes that re that bubbles up to requiring a modification on these maps that you would um uh how quickly would that get back to the um got life cycle they tell you and the map's got to get updated yes so that happens internally um so we only use the the vendor for new work so and so as I am either made aware of a change or I see a change I can then update it and then it goes to the county thank so current mapping can be changed internally and uh I I think this is just an opportunity without going into detail respecting what Dr Bower had said but the point out to the community part
041of this was a holistic approach in the programming but also a layered approach we heard Dr just use the term posture and talking about cyber security and that matters as much to physical security as well and Mr ran when we talk about this accessibility and interoperability um so without going into much details um there is an arrangement uh with local law enforcement when it comes down the camera feeds and other information so that's sort this digital mapping and everything else starts to come together in terms of preparation um or you know God forbid if there's a crisis yeah and so it's it's all about having the resources to complete the task right having the right resources um and so you know I I I spent a lot of of our meetings talking about you know
042getting resources adding resources and so this is a resource that it's a tool that we may need for for a wide variety of events um and so making sure we have that resource to expedite getting the responders to the location we need to get them to um and they can be guided by somebody who is in a position to sit behind a screen and and tell them where they go and and and right one of the major pieces of that as well which was a significant investment in uh this fiscal year budget was the interoperability with uh radios and repeaters number of years actually that uh we've been making sure we invest in redundancy so that's how this all fits together for the community uh for hundreds of thousands uh if not total you know
043millions of dollars year-over-year uh in ensuring that our schools are prepared and able to respond um so that that's you know when unfortunately local taxes continue to have to be raised it's because that money is coming from nowhere else but the doorsteps of the homes within North pen investing in a safe schools program thank you Mr R any other questions or comments I believe that brings us to our last item and that is the Middle School youth aid program Mr R yeah so uh we have are in the conversations uh with um our representative from the DA's office Miss Angela Bell who we were in in conversation with and I I believe most of you or if not all of you were um at the board meeting where uh Mrs Bell came and spoke and
044talked about Yap when we rolled it out at the high school level um and some of you asked about Middle School level level and I know there were some um questions um from our Middle School administrators about right like do we have the same opportunity to take advantage of a program so uh we had some preliminary meetings some conversations so we are in the setup phase um to to get a middle school program up and running um so you know our middle school kids can have the same opportunity of a restorative practice approach um and understanding you know our high our ninth graders are technically high schoolers um but don't always have the same opportunities to take advantage of the same programs um and so this is this is another way um to to give
045them an opportunity to have to take advantage of the same things that Folks at the North pen High School can take advantage of but also for some of our true Middle School grade students um who who need an opportunity to see where they went wrong um and and be able to write that that that wrong um so those conversations are in the works um I do not have a dead a date or deadline on when we will be able to roll out um we're still working out the logistics as you know this was quite the lift at the high school with getting a coordinator and getting um panelists and all that kind of stuff so we still have to work through that but um I know it was it was asked and um we we
046started those initial conversations believe we are moving forward but we're just now working out the logistics uh Dr Nichol Nicholson did I miss any details no I think uh you did a good job with that Mr Ron I would just add just for the public and for those that are hearing this for the first time I know we've talked about this uh quite a bit throughout the last year um but the youth Aid panel is really for those those offenders that are also taking responsibility for their actions right this isn't to adjudicate whether they right or wrong it's um when a a young uh student makes a mistake they realize that they made a mistake and it's that opportunity to um you know learn from that mistake before having a criminal record and we've seen
047great uh great things happening at the high school with that and low recidivism rates which we'll be able to report back more on as we move forward and we're hopeful that the timeline is very similar to the high school where we'll be presenting in October that we're ready to roll and hopefully launching in November but when you're talking three different middle schools we don't want to hold any middle schools back if they're ready to go before that and we don't want to push forward if we're not ready to launch and be successful so we'll we'll keep this committee and the public up to date on how the planning goes and what the response has been um as teachers just came back today our middle schools are just starting to look for who's interested um because
048really you want the the right type of Staff members on this that are looking out for the best interest of kids um you know both in the accountability for their behaviors but also in that learning moment so they don't um you know they can learn from their mistakes thank you Dr Nicholson Madam president yeah I had a question about that um Dr Nicholson regarding the staff um do you know are the same people that uh volunteered to be on the committee last year are they doing it again or is it um I thought I think the interest in it participating was pretty positive right uh at the time when we started it so what's the feedback from the staff members that are participating has it been positive it has been positive I know that the
049staff members involved at the high school were were very optimistic about the future of the app um I know I'm sure Dr or Mr hasser will be putting out to staff if there's anyone additional that would like to you know be trained this year when our middle schools are trained um but it was very very positive I personally uh Mrs stole don't know of any members of last year's High School Yap that are not interested in doing it again this year I think that kind of speaks volumes that um you know they've seen the positive effects of it they feel like it was a valuable effort on their h on their behalf um in getting trained and working with students so they're from my understanding they're all continuing on that's great news thank you other
050questions uh comments right thank you um Dr Nicholson and Mr ran and your teams for advancing this we know that it will be coming to the middle schools and I'd also add right it's it's about the accountability uh which is fantastic uh in the middle schools this is where uh when I was in Juvenile Justice long long time ago but uh used to actually run some alternative schools and the Middle School U for obvious reasons uh there's there could be a lot more turmoil so to speak um or sometimes crisis dealing with different U transitions that a lot of people are going through socially uh emotional learning behaviorally and so it's important to have a program like this and this would be the first in Montgomery County being piloted at North pen correct me if
051I'm wrong uh and so it's it's about that accountability but also for the climate and culture of safe schools in the middle schools because this actually ends up Expediting that accountability but also you know uh where appropriate the healing the understanding um the building bridges as as opposed to areas where Vision may happen and healing may never occur and it's important for a school Community to see that type of accountability happening so continue to move forward together and stronger and once again keeping this within the context of very specific uh rules that are broken or um you know minor aspects of of legal issues which when it comes down to being serious enough it's not going to the youth Aid panel so we want to make sure that uh people aren't confused or misinformed when
052it comes down to discussing this program at the middle school level any other questions or comments before we move on to other business all right seeing none uh we have a few items just want to make sure as we start the new school year uh or as the new school year begins that uh we want to make sure are addressed uh Dr Bower the safe schools uh working group uh in that not necessarily committee but uh really just volunteers dedicated uh to helping uh improve our safe schools in North pen School District you give the community just a basic update as to where that progress is as as we come around the bend to I think what what's going to be one of the the last meetings at least in the phase as as it
053was described um a few months ago uh certainly Mr Kasa and thank you for that question uh first off yes we did uh communicate to the community and we've given updates via this format as well that we were putting together U and I I use the word committee lightly because uh sometimes people confuse that with board committees this is a school safety community action committee um we asked for volunteers people who had a certain area of expertise or folks who just simply wanted to volunteer their time and help um and we had I believe the number um Mr or Dr McKenna you may be able to help me with this I think the number was 160 something like that volunteers um we ended up inviting somewhere around 55 to 60 um and we still in
054our last meeting we had something like uh 43 I think people attended um and that was in July right and people are busy in July um might have been early August actually so we met in June July August of course the summer months they're difficult to get everyone together but we had really strong attendance at all of them we did spend time um I use the phrase when we're talking with our leadership team admiring the problem at first I think I think there was some time where we you know there's so many things and so many priorities and we're looking at data and finding this issue that we want to address and we want to try to help in this area and we really spent the last uh big group meeting trying to channel that
055energy and focus on three particular subcommittees or areas of growth um and those three areas are uh mental health belonging and social media and that subcommittee is being led by Dr Nicholson uh community outreach and engagement that subcommittee is being led by Dr McKenna and miss liosi and then accountability behavior and consistency that third subcommittee is being led by Dr Waters and Mr Rome um so a after we took the data we noticed some things we wondered some things we found some industry-leading research brought all of that together and now we've broken into subcommittees where they are actually doing the good work of the committee um So the plan is and the way we left our August meeting was we're going to go into our subcommittees work on action plans and then come to this
056committee to present um the work of the group so I don't know that all three subcommittees will be in a place where they're ready to present let's say late September late October um I do know that some committies are progressing quicker than others which is fine um as you always say Mr Kasa like this is this is a marathon and the work is never done when it comes to Safe schools so the Committees are working through it I know two groups met last week Dr Nichols group meets the second week in September um so those committees are moving forward and we're really emphasizing the importance of the partnership between the school district and the community right this is not a situation where we say I'm paraphrasing and perhaps irresponsibly but we are not saying please
057tell us how to do our jobs better rather it's these are areas that we collectively agree need Improvement what are ways in which the community can partner so for example clearly we had conversations about cell phones and we talked about at the policy committee meeting just before this um perhaps a group can leverage uh some experts in the community and some doctors about social media and the impacts on children and have a uh have parent sessions at night to help get parents um working with us and informed on the issues related to social media and digital media and and the use in adolescence um one parent proposed a book club about um social media and cell phone use in adolescence so those are ways in which the community can work with the school district and
058we can work together to improve um so when we use the word committee and especially in this format people think we're talking about Schoolboard committee it is not it is a school safety community action committee that has now been broken into three smaller groups and we hope to bring forth updates to this group in October than update any questions comments all right um thank you and this board we've gotten these updates uh the committee and the board U is really G out of the way to respect the work of the community members and we're also very grateful and this community is fortunate to have not only uh this group working on these issues because really see something say something everyone working together and even in the smallest school districts it takes everyone on 247 at
059home as well as at school to create this comprehensive proactive you network um that that tightens that net as much as possible when it comes down to catching uh the information connecting the dots that can make for a safer School Community not just in reality but also perceptions so um also very thankful to those who may not be serving in that uh on that committee with the community but the probably dozens more um if not hundreds who follow what happens in these schools whether they have children here or not um because they care and that's why the safe schools committee is here um to always listen and to meet every month to make sure that uh we understand what we don't know because it's the blind spots that will get you so thank you very
060much uh Dr Bower one of the other informational items and you touched upon it briefly so we can save away right to cell phones um but this is a policy committee issue some Communications I'm sure they'll be coming out uh but anything through the safe schools lens just for the community to understand where North Penn is uh along that Continuum with this really has become a major issue over the summer right everyone's talking about smartphone bands and schools yeah this is definitely a Hot Topic when it comes to schools most of the major Publications in education and school safety are talking about cell phone bans across the country some states have passed legis ation Banning uh cell phones I know South Carolina passed last week that there are no cell phones in schools Pennsylvania is
061not there quite yet and I can tell you that my fellow superintendant wish Pennsylvania would pass legislation to give direction to the school districts um because there is inconsistency across the county right and one District you can have them one District you can't and it would be really nice uh for us to Simply have a uniform expectation however we did send a communication to All Families outlining um and I'm again paraphrasing and this is in accordance with our Schoolboard policy our appropriate use policy and our student handbooks that cell phones are to be off and Away during the school day in our middle schools uh they should be in backpacks in the middle schools and at the high school they should be away out of sight out of mind during class um but and they
062should be in their backpacks but they can utilize their cell phones in the hallways and in the cafeteria um there is significant research and um literature out there talking about the impacts of students at such a young age utilizing social media and the stress and anxiety and the mental health concerns um but it's also a school safety concern uh kids are communicating things inappropriately and saying things they shouldn't be saying or talking about things they shouldn't be um and certainly it's a partnership with the school district and with families um so we sent a communication I guess Dr Nicholson early last week that went to families I think um and it is not a new policy people use policy it's not Schoolboard policy about where and when you can use cell phones um there's an
063appropriate use policy and then there's in the student handbook and an administrative regulation outlining expectations so you will hear parents will hear more about that at back to school night certainly students will hear more about it on the first day of school um but we are expecting a uniform communication to come out from all of the principles as well at back to school night thank you Dr B and right the flip side of that uh or two sides of the same coin to to reinforce what you're saying is consistency so it's it's having community and family uh members as well as students understand what the expectations are and then for that to be consistently enforced so everyone understands those expectations there's one thing as part of the nation some of the national nonprofit groups uh
064I'm uh a part of in dealing with this uh Hot Topic as you said Dr Bower uh it really also comes down to having a community make a balanced informed decision on the way forward sometimes U it's not always best to have a centralized solution coming from um maybe a a state house or or um any particular Authority but um we'll react accordingly but thank you very much uh you've briefed this board throughout the summer about the progress and it has been comprehensive and very thoughtful um even with a lot of citations and links so we could become smarter as board members so thank you uh Madam president thank you do Mr Kasa um I just wanted to add to your comments and say and I said this at the policy meeting before that um
065this board is very supportive of um the self policy that um we're going to be implementing this year and uh you know we have we support this um the administration and you know the administration will support the staff that has to deal with enforcing the policy because I you think it's a matter of being consistent with the enforcement of it that will make it make it or break it right so um thank you for doing that I know the cell phone is a distraction for me I can only imagine what it's like for kids so I think it's a good thing to um Implement and uh I hope that we're successful with it Miss here thank you yep as always I I think there's always a unique North penway uh with that thoughtful balance right
066and not just saying let's grab this policy off the shelf and it to our community so um the the other great highlight with our policy committee and administration is uh that nothing is in stone and we can learn and adjust accordingly as we go forward so um the two other updates uh a brief one and then we'll end with Dr bow Northbridge um I I did learn from our legal council and Mr Summers in terms of the independent objective investigation uh that's been underway it is expected that they will conclude in about 30 days the board will be hearing sometime before that um to set up a meeting for a briefing to learn about that most of the interviews have been uh finished there still ongoing document review and obviously part of um any type
067of assessment like this is in taking that information together and Distilling it um into the appropriate recommendations areas that might need further inquiry um and any potential findings so to the community believe we spoke about this at Action meeting the progress uh continues and it seems to be falling within the range uh that was set when this was first announced that we would be executing this contract and we'll continue to make the community aware of the progress as well as well as um sharing the results were appropriate uh as as this information um or as this investigation concludes um I don't think missed anything there Dr Bower or Madam president to add okay um so with that uh one of the questions that um I know that M MC Mery has uh kept us focused
068on at the safe schools committee has been Northbridge and part of um what we're doing maybe Channel some of our resources and be able to create other types of options that um not all districts are may be able to with the resources um at their disposal Dr bow is are there any other updates with Logistics or programming in terms of North Bridge and our younger students yes absolutely Mr Casa I'm pleased to share that uh we officially got approval uh for this program actually on Friday from the Department of Education um so I've shared with this committee and also via Communications throughout the summer with our community that we were working on a transitional program for elementary age students uh who are waiting to be placed outside of the district so there are circumstances where
069student students really struggling in our regular uh let's say their home school we use a school for example Walton farm so students really struggling with behavior or uh something else in the school environment and the family and the school district agree that you know something an intervention of some sort outside of the school district is necessary but there are limited opportunities outside of the school district at times so we were working through the summer to design a program that would allow us essentially to have the student attend a classroom at Northbridge um while we were waiting for that outof District placement to come to fruition uh lots of planning goes into that it is not as simple as oh here's a classroom here's a teacher yes we had to create a new position for a
070teacher which this board was very supportive of but then we have to work through curriculum we have to work through specials we have to work through resources we had to get smaller desks over there um we have to get approvals from the state and we just got the letter actually I got it I think Thursday night uh that I shared with Dr McKenna miss kler and miss Balden or Dr Balton excuse me on uh Friday so uh we officially have approval and as these types of circumstances come up where we are waiting for that placement to come to fruition we do have this transitional space it is not a permanent placement for students rather it's a place where we can program and support students and families as they are awaiting that I won't say permanent
071but longer term solution um so Dr McKenna has really been he miss kler and Dr Waters have really been uh the brains behind it in collaboration with Dr Brockman who oversees Northbridge but I would like to ask Dr McKenna if you want to add anything supplemental to what I shared or anything that I missed yeah the only thing that I would add was uh that due to adding this placement option at the elementary level we did need to submit a special education plan revision notice um and that kind of after submitting that documentation uh an advisor from the Bureau of special education from the Department of Education had come out to Northbridge did a site visit uh also spoke to us about our plan for the program um and that site visit and that conversation
072and learning more about our plan for the program led to that then approval that Dr Bower just spoke to so uh in addition to just the approval again there was a site visit and review of our plan for the utilization of Northbridge as well thank you Miss MCM merrye thanks Mr C Dr Bower and everyone else that was involved thank you very much for putting this um item to the Forefront and the and again I didn't understand respectfully all of the logistics that went into this and as I've been asking my questions all along I've learned a lot more so the complexity of what you did in the time frame that you did it I think is wonderful not only for the students but also for the community and other students that may be in
073a particular classroom so I think it's a win-win and I know I know I know you put a lot of urgency prioritization on this so I can't thank you enough this one just touched me listening to all the stories and when I think about these children that will now have you know a safety net for some period of time and when you said that I remember I don't know which person it was excuse me on the administration said that a child could be on a list at several facilities and there are still no openings so I guess you know not being an educator I I hope that feels good to all of you because it certainly feels good to me as a board member so thank you absolutely um thank you for that Miss McCurry
074thank you Mr Casa I did fail to mention I believe Dr Nicholson was a part of that committee as well U but there were other layers that I I didn't even mention Transportation right like this is a separate bus timing I heard about yeah yeah I mean this was huge yeah separate uh time for lunch um and and so there's just a lot of logistics EO into it and I will say uh that this committee m mcmurchy in particular um you sent a very clear message in June and said well this is going to be ready come the start of school right and I said it'll be ready um so the team here got it done and I'm very pleased um that doesn't mean it'll be perfect we will it doesn't you know what it's
075perfect because it's done it's approved and a student that needs it will have it and I think that sends a clear message to our community that we are hearing and we are listening and we are taking action on this special special important issue so thanks again thank you and thank you Mr those thank you appreciate it thank you Miss MC Mery um just sumed it up perfectly and that's what safe schools are I I hope in any school district in community it's a Perpetual cycle of continuous Improvement so um we never want to think we have it all figured out so with that uh any other business from the committee seeing none uh Mr Gilmer do we have some public comment yes we do if you could read your statement I'm a little bit behind
076here let me just blow that up in a second sorry that's what one one month off will do so there we go individuals attending the meeting and intending to speak to the committee should be aware that they are being recorded in order to meet the requirements of Pennsylvania Sunshine Law is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting to assure compliance with this requirement is essential that those planning to address the committee raise their hand virtually and state their name in the municipality as a reminder the public comment portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comment and feedback on matters being discussed at tonight's meeting or matters that may be come before the safe schools Committee in the future
077it is not designed for debate or discussion with members of the committee when appropriate committee members may choose to respond to public comments that have been made or request that a member of the administration follow up with the speakers after the meeting members of the audience are asked to limit their questions and comments to three minutes this is in reference to board policy number 903 revised February 17 2022 take it away Mr Gilmer all righty up first is Jason ler Jason I have enabled your microphon so when you're ready to begin please state your name and municipality for the record and begin your comments please uh Jason L near Lansdale uh kind of have three things some some positive I see is the um the the special education or the opportunities at Northbridge for for
078younger kids I think that's a that's an awesome uh an an awesome program I think that's going to that that's beneficial I I I think there's a lot of uh terms of syy and getting kids back into uh dealing with what they have and getting them back to regular classroom that's a that's a good thing um something I find very positive but it's not far enough is the cell phone ban just ban it all the way don't play this couple of steps in and let allow the kids to have it at lunch they're just going to gain that and it's just going to be a problem expectation is is that they're there this is their job is education their job is to be there and to do the right thing you say no phones that's
079what that's what you should do no phones zero zero tolerance sorry you don't need it uh and I know there's people who say oh well in case there's emergency they should have their phones sure right in case there's emergency that's mostly not the time there isn't emergencies most of the time you don't need phones most of the time that's simple just go all the way don't don't don't peel the Band-Aid off slowly just take it no more phones um here's my problem this is the safe schools committee and I was looking back at the these policy the policy meeting in passing of this policy 104 and 103 and one of the lines of regarding harassment says misgendering or denial access to facilities consistent with an individual's gender identity how is it how is that going
080to make girls young women feel safe when somebody some guy goes into the restroom or the locker room how is that going to make them feel safe why is the ident the the the requirement of the the person who wants who who has the the transgender identification is more important than the the the comfortable or or or feeling safe amongst all the people who have to be inflicted with their their psychosis why why is that a good thing and did wasn't there just a problem in the middle school where you had to get rid of a teacher who had been harassing young women in that middle school and in fact what what if he was able to go into the restroom not say anything just go in there wh why would you possibly want to
081include this why is this not looked at by the SA school committee over the policy like this is this is ridiculous there's no way this makes things any better in any school and if you could explain to me how it makes things better I'd love to hear it I'll leave it there thank you thank you Mr lir uh that's great when we have common uh ground uh in areas and I think it's important that we continue have this conversations uh much to your point about um I I I actually personally find it offensive when you talk about um a transgender student is inflicting a psychosis on someone so personally I want to flag that as something that just isn't grounded in reality or the experience of uh many community members um across North pen School
082District I I I actually would hearken back to your point about safe schools and cell phone banss there are laws in the books that if there's criminal behavior that you describe when it comes down to staff students anybody else in our schools they will be held accountable and they are it's why it's in the news people are held accountable so you seem to be focusing unlike the cell phone ban when you said how often are you really going to need those phones on incidents which to be quite honest are not a crisis or a problem in our community nor is there a demand so uh I will not give in as chair of the safe schools committee to people who want to divide this community by pointing out who the other is and making that
083the problem because it isn't so thank you as always for participating and sharing your opinion Mr lir any other commenters Mr Gilmer that'll conclude public comment for tonight all right appreciate everyone's time tonight thank you I we see some of you at the facilities and operations committee meeting at 7 o'clock thank you for your time everyone good night this adjourns the meeting good night sh okay webinar is live so we're just waiting for YouTube here okay I have a I'm having a little bit of a that's okay we got some YouTube syncing here so okay all right let let's just like wait for YouTube girl right I'm having a oh come on let's go B dos that's right YouTube is um still all right all right that's good because I logged myself out of um
084Bard dos by accident okay