NPSD School Board Safe Schools Committee Meeting 6-24-24

001you are now live meeting is yours thank you very much Miss fish welcome everyone to the June 2024 safe schools committee meeting U and this is a we typically have this meeting uh to go over some important information as we've finished the Academic Year so thank you to those who are joining us um to the administration and this committee for the work that's been done to set up uh tonight's important meeting uh with that we'll begin with a 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 okay let me just pull the agenda here make sure I get the meeting dates right we'll now have a motion for the approval

002of minutes for May 28 2024 so moved second all right uh any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor raise your hand or say I to approve the minutes I I all right passes unanimously with that move on to the ACT uh there are no action items today but we do have uh as I mentioned important informational items so we have two items in particular and Dr Bower um who's going to kick this off today I'll be happy to Mr Casa thank you thank you so good evening Mr Casa and committee uh thank you so much for being here this evening on this beautiful June evening much better than the last few days that's for sure um as Mr Casa alluded to uh we're here to have very important conversations about school discipline

003and student discipline um and Via policy it has been memorialized by uh this board via policy that we will review the student discipline data publicly on a quarterly basis and we provide it now to the committee monthly we've also instituted just this year an executive session meeting which just began here in the second half of the Year where we have conver ations in executive session about more specific cases and situations um so I'm pleased to have Dr Nicholson in particular but also Dr McKenna who will I'm sure provide some supplement supplementary information um regarding an analysis of year-to year of marketing periods one through four I do want to emphasize the fact that you you will see many good things tonight uh you will see some things that show that we have area or room

004for growth um but this is not the end all be all this is part of and Mr KAS I think you've been saying for six going on seven years now that um this is part of comprehensive school safety there are many facets um I don't even want to use the word triangulate because it goes well beyond triangulating um so this is just one prong in our comprehensive approach to school safety this is looking big picture at Trends across the school district comparing the last four years uh and Dr Nicholson will kind of outlin some of the the grows and glows if you will and some steps moving forward so with that I'll pass it to Dr Nicholson all right thank you very much Dr B good evening uh safe schools committee if you give me

005just a moment here I just need to pull up my screen and share my screen so give me one moment here can everybody see yes we can the presentation excellent awesome um well again good evening um it's my pleasure to be presenting the some glows and grows from the the school district discipline data from uh the 23 24 school year uh before I begin I just want to point out and on a quarterly basis I I do um do want to point out that um in 20 2018 2019 um the data that you will see as we move forward was from a previous student information system so those specific infractions uh is not fully comparative with data beginning in 2019 2020 in the 2019 and fall that year we transition to the current um student

006information system Infinite Campus so some of the data you will see um is not 100% in line or some of the numbers that you see from 1819 to that 1920 are not fully comparable because of the difference in system so we're going to jump in here um and again Dr Bower I think did a great job of setting this up we're going to see some good things we're going to see some pieces of our data that are Works in progress here by no means uh is this the end all be all by no means are these all the data points we look at um but just as a a kind of heartbeat monitor of the district and where we're at uh we can we can look at the comparison so we start off as a

007high level districtwide detentions in school suspensions and out of school suspensions um as you can see we are uh up a bit uh this year compared to last year and the year before that um I'll point out in the 1920 any year you see the 209 or any graph where you see the 2019 2020 school year if we recall the um the end of that school year the last marking period of that school year was spent uh virtually that was the co shut down on March 13 2020 um so some of those numbers you'll see a natural dip there because we didn't simply finish out that school year in person so again for this school year if you're comparing it to to last we are up a bit into detentions uh districtwide in school suspensions

008were down about 150 in school suspensions which are uh you know a glow something we're pointing to uh which is great however um our out of school suspensions weren't down quite as bit quite as much they were down 50 um you know for the the school year so some improvements seen there getting back to closer to that um 201829 19 kind of uh you know year where we could see that the out of school suspensions were about 600 we're we're getting closer to that number as we move forward uh looking at just in school and out of school and looking at the comparison and breakdown Elementary to secondary so as you can see Elementary in school suspensions were quite a bit down um lowest level since 2019 2020 which again as I said that year

009a quarter of the school year was spent in Virtual learning so there were no in school suspensions uh during the fourth marking period secondary um again a dramatic decrease in ins School suspensions from last year getting back to well below the pre-pandemic in school suspension numbers when we look at out of school suspensions there was a tick up this year in elementary um higher even than pre-pandemic numbers um so that is an area where we'll spend some more time this summer digging into this this analysis certainly is not done we're I believe tomorrow is two weeks since the last school day um so we've not had a ton of time administratively to dig into the numbers I was just able to share this uh presentation with the secondary principles at an a meeting this afternoon

010um and we'll dig into this a little bit more deeply as we we move forward so I presume that Dr McKenna also is not fully um vetted this and and worked through this with his 13 Elementary principles additionally out of school suspensions um another area at the secondary that's a a a grow or a glow um happy to see that that number is down again uh the lowest number other than the 2019 2020 school year that we have on record excuse me just a second uh Dr Nicholson Mr M MC Mery has a question oh excellent sorry you're on a different screen I didn't see your hand was raised go ahead M mcy I understand being on a different screen I mess up every time um so Dr Nicholson back on the previous slide if

011you go back there so for is it fair to assume that ins in school suspensions are less um in less um severe than an out of school suspension correct yes that is fair to assume okay so will I guess I maybe this is for Dr McKenna so for elementary seeing that tick up to 194 for out of school um versus the in school for elementary dropping you know I would be interested when you do the analysis to understand that um because that seems to me um to be really significant for elementary school I mean I'd really be curious to to understand that one a bit more and um again what is the approach for the upcoming school year what programs or what um what efforts processes you would be putting in place for that one

012thanks sure absolutely and I think maybe some of the numbers later on will bear that out but we'll give Dr McKenna maybe a chance to respond uh you know at the end here um as well so thank you for that I see now real quick just to Sure share some comments yeah I agree and looking at that data um I do think a couple of things that initially thinking about it without a full scale analysis but uh one is anything that definitely in elementary there were some when there are anything significantly relating to student safety or staff safety that is when we lean towards more of an out of school suspension as far as discipline uh and at times um we do look at things progressively for example if there is an incident with one

013student um and an an additional incident happens we look at multiple days so I think for this year um I also feel like when things result in in a safety concern both for either students or staff um we lean towards sometimes more now I feel like we're a little more conservative this year with leaning more towards an out of school suspension to look at ways that we can follow up to ensure a safe environment for that student and staff so when we look at an out of school suspension many times it has a result not only to follow the code of conduct but also to ensure that moving forward we have a safe learning environment for both the staff and students in regards to the incident so um those are conversations that you know we

014we talk about um and you know at times incidents result in out School suspensions and sometimes multiple days to ensure that we are not only following the code of conduct but uh ensuring we have a safe environment for U that student to be in our schools Dr McKenna thanks for that I think that really helps me understand it and I really do appreciate um the focus on the importance of safety for everyone in the schools thank you Miss Rudnick do you have a question yes yes please no it's a it's a clarifying question and and thank you for this data uh Dr Nicholson uh it's been a really fun one for me to read through and I know that you don't have all the answers yet so um it's actually a fundamental question around the

015denominator because sometimes when we're looking at the absolute numbers there there value in seeing absolute numbers but there's also value in understanding the denominator right the the denominator right so for instance rightly so you mentioned you know we expect the numbers to be lower during the covid year um because a covid year and a half because students weren't in school so for instance if we had I'm going to make it up um in school suspension um 661 versus in 2022 23 versus 550 in 2324 if they is a similar difference in attendance you know that might actually mean that um we haven't actually made a difference however however on the also want to say the flip is true right that there would be opportunities if we understood the denominator where we might think that we're

016not actually making progress but we are because we understand the denominator and I know you have the data so it would just be good to understand these numbers versus the denominator and then maybe show it as a percentage then sure no I appreciate that and that's something uh you can look at moving forward to to further you know help folks understand the the numbers I I do appreciate that feedback um that that's great I mean when I think it is also important as you you notice you know we we tend to I think at least myself take some of the numbers for granted but we throw around 550 50 in school suspensions at the secondary level when you take into account that's roughly 6,000 students that come to school every day for 180 days um

017I'm not a mathematician by trade but I know that 550 is a very low percentage of the number of school days that were attended by secondary students so something we can further break down in the in the future so I appreciate that for sure you actually made me think of something else though uh okay so if each of this is not an if if there are any repeats though in this number then it it um nullifies my denominator comment one would have to think about it differently and I would be excited to think about it with you because this is what I love to do but yeah so I can see even with the comment you just made why I can't just go with a straight denominator all right great and then yeah no that

018that is a point and that's a point of clarification as well that and I again go to the in school suspension secondary the 550 for the 23 24 school year um that does not necessarily mean or certainly does not mean that 550 separate students were assigned in school suspension but there were 550 instances of in school suspension assigned so uh there could be a student that accounted for two of those or five of those um you know it is not 550 separate students it is 550 separate incidents which is further broken down on subsequent sides yeah and and um I appreciate that we should have this recorded right because it's quarterly we always want to make sure that the community and the board understands all right you could have one incident but that could have

019one or 10 plus uh right suspensions that come out of that either in or out of school or whatever the discipline might be and that's the type of analysis we'll continue to look at in the future I did want to note um for the community uh those to tune in later that the board uh the sa safe schools committee when we're having that monthly executive session we are now getting the redundancies the repeat incidents um or behavioral um incidents that are happening with one particular student multiple times so we're able to have a little bit more situational awareness and and followup uh in terms of that but that's not type of data in terms of the redundancy um and the students that we are going to share publicly I think I captured that properly Dr

020Bower and legally but feel free to clarify no you did and Dr Nicholson said it well when he said incidents resulting in a suspension right so there could be three of us that are involved in I don't know pulling food out of a vending machine and M Rudnick Mr Casa and myself all get an in school suspension that tally can be three there um it was one incident but it resulted in three separate in school suspensions for example so yes we can we can break this data down many different ways I think it's important that however we present it in this format it's consistent so that we are looking at the same data time after time but certainly more granular uh questions can be answered there's no doubt and that's where I I know also

021there are more slides so we'll get moving I appreciate the digression U Miss mcber and then we'll head to the next slide but this is also part of what we've discussed in getting percentages as well so that the community doesn't have to watch every quarterly meeting but can see Trends and understand uh more than just the the raw values M McMurry after you just said we'll keep moving and then I put my daggum hand up I just wanted to ask about continued inclusion including 201819 data because it was a completely different database and one of the first slides that Dr Nicholson showed showed a really big number like 958 and then it dropped and I it was one of the first slides Mr n Dr Nicholson pardon me and then of course it dropped because

0221920 was covid but yeah there it is in school suspension it's 968 at where is it there it is sorry I'm I'm mov Y no there it is 969 and then that was is that the year in which you the the the um the program changed yeah so that that was the last year of uh our previous School uh student information system however the the numbers here for the in school suspension would be um would be similar it's really the infraction codes which I can point out on the subsequent slid I don't want to I don't want to go down in the weeds which is my favorite place to be but I do think it it would make sense to think about whether or not looking back to 18 and 19 um provides real benefit

023or does not because it's really changed in terms of the analysis what I do think is important though is the you know if there are students that are on here repeatedly for different serious issues that that we want to be made aware of so if you can jettison 18 to 19 because it was different fine but if you think it needs to say so be it yeah now you you make a good point and that was a conversation I had with our data analyst we did decide to keep it on there for this school year simply because it was pre-pandemic numbers um and there can be some comparisons drawn while it's not 100% Apples to Apples um in most cases it's uh different types of apples not apples to oranges so uh Point well taken

024I don't necessarily believe that we need to keep it on there now that we're you know three four years removed from uh you know that 2019 2020 uh pandemic year we may be able to move beyond that um but again it's not apples oranges it's apples to different apples in many cases except for where I'll point out so we decided to keep it for this year that makes it difficult when you don't have repeatability and you can't really um point to which programs processes are making the improvements because you've changed the the granularity of the analysis and all that but I appreciate what you're trying to do thank you sure absolutely all right uh gonna take this moment and these numbers are repeated uh we've just seen these numbers show in a different way but

025uh just as I do on a quarterly basis just to remind that there are both the public and the the members of the board that there are two different types of infractions the the first are conduct or academic infractions and then the blue are all other types of infractions and that will make more sense as we move forward um but I just wanted to show this this kind of gives it a breakdown um so you can kind of see this numbers you can dive into this it doesn't give a ton of context um but it reminds us that there are two different types of infractions which we'll dive into next the first type is the conduct and the academic infractions so on this slide you you can see in school suspensions resulting from these types

026of infractions and these infractions fall under that umbrella this is really the apples to oranges mising Mery this is really where you can see in 2018 2019 student code of conduct violation 530 and then it drops down dramatically to 87 and others jump up in in the subsequent years and that's really where the granularity changed um so while the numbers of in school suspensions the number of out of school suspensions or detentions did not change Chang dramatically from student information system to student information system the way that they were collected or the type of infraction that we were uh use we were getting to that granular level on changed when we moved to Infinite Campus so this is where certainly I think we can jet Us in 1819 start looking at post pandemic here uh

027point being that as a grand total uh we've seen a dramatic reduction in these types of behaviors um and again at the bottom there's just reminder here and we made this point on the last uh round of questions infraction count reporting change after 1819 and there is that anomaly but um you can see now that we've gotten more granular um and we we've moved past that um there are some that are not used any longer some that are still used um and we'll we'll make some adjustments as we move forward to make sure that we're doing Apples to Apples but again the the takeaway here is that uh we have dramatically cut from 5 15 to 413 which is back down to um you know what we were seeing pre pandemic which is a point

028of of Pride here and a glow overall when we look at out of school suspensions uh again we'll see a small reduction um 215 to 201 um which is uh you know somewhere where we'd like to continue to see decreases overall um continued violation of school rules is down a bit student code of violation is up and I'll the next slide I believe it is is where I kind of throw those into a pie chart and let you kind of chew on where those student code of conduct violations came from um cutting class which we'll see here and we'll see um in subsequent slides is is a concern we're looking at and something we need to uh further delve into throughout the summer so here's that handy dandy pie chart and if you were on

029the safe schools committee um last year you'll recall the conver ation of the fart spray being in here um that did not happen one time in 2324 uh but I will share with you again the code of conduct and continued violations is utilized for those types of behaviors that really warrant a suspension of some sort however they're not necessarily in a bucket where we need to be calling law enforcement we have memorandums of understanding with law enforcement where certain types of infractions um if we upload them to pin to the state Reporting System um expect that we've contacted law enforcement and I used the the parallel last year um if a St student sets off fart spray in the classroom um there's probably a suspension that's warranted from infraction such as that however if we

030call the local police and we pull a police officer off the street to come take a report for that they're going to be pretty upset with us at times that we're calling them for something that really is not criminal so we use some of this and I've done my best here to um encapsulate where some of these have come from um the largest number uh is under this minor altercation at 18.7% that's also a consideration I have for later on as we kind of have the takeaways from this school year um and and areas of focus for the future the inappropriate language minor altercations um there's also disorderly conduct which may be um a bit of a uh spring off of minor altercation at times and then disrespect towards staff on the right hand side

031there inappropriate use of electronics all pieces um along with the Class Cuts that I already mentioned that we need to focus on over the summer and get to the root cause of of why these numbers are where they are M Rik I see your hand is raised again yes um it's actually a question for the prior slide and then I have one for this one and it's probably an assumption specifically the [Music] um no no the numbers for cutting class which are which were higher um yes so for instance with this one would that be primarily um Elementary or is that combined Elementary in hi and this specific slide is broken down districtwide so this is K through 12 um although I can't imagine that we've out of school suspended many elementary students um but

032we don't get that Gran granular on this slide I would presume that this is mostly at the high school level some at the middle school level okay all right awesome yeah okay so when we look at the conduct and academic infraction slides they're all sort of combined all right that's good understanding and then um here I mean I would assume insubordination is close to disrespect towards staff it could be um it could be it could be uh in this context it could be some inappropriate language used towards the staff member which isn't necessarily insubordination it's not saying no or refusing to comply it might be um you know using a curse word or an inappropriate phrase towards a staff member out of frustration again something that warrants a suspension um but your typical um disrespect

033towards staff isn't something that you would use just because um it's a bit of a different situation okay understood I think it's helpful I mean for me as a parent as well to understand the different you know the experiences that our Educators and staff are having and you know it falls into all these brackets which is quite interesting and a little disheartening all right thank you sure absolutely Dr V did I see that you had your hand raised did you yeah it's the moment has passed us but what I was going to say when uh Miss rednick was talking about the um 22 Class Cuts I was just going to point out keep in mind that's not just 22 Class Cuts in entirety that's 22 Class Cuts that resulted in a suspension it is more

034common for a class cut you know first or second offender to be a detention then eventually in school and then okay you know Pete you just keep cutting class I've warned you I've given you detention you've had in school we've conferenced with your parents now you're suspended you know that kind of a thing so there's certainly a lot more than 22 Class Cuts EXC excellent point and when we talk about repeat offenders uh those 22 out of school suspensions for Class Cuts I guarantee each one of those were repeat offenders because that was not their first class cut um that's been you know numerous conversations numerous um violations of the school rules that result in s an out of school suspension for class cut the last thing we want to do with a student that's

035not going to class is send them out of school um but at some points it just becomes as Dr McKenna said can become a safety issue it can become a student accountability issue if the student's continuously cutting class we don't know what they're doing we don't know where they are um sometimes that's our only recourse to make the point so thank you for that distinction Dr Bower okay other infractions uh so we'll we'll jump in here these other infractions most of these are pims related they are things that we are mandated to report to the state um and as we go through here you'll see is a grand takeaway grand total at the bottom uh 185 for this past school year uh versus 232 for the prior school year at the very bottom and again

036I'll just point this out infraction counts represent each suspension so when you look at possession use sale of vape and tobacco materials in this year was 52 suspensions resulting from that behavior there were not 52 separate vaping or tobacco incidents so for instance Dr Bower utilized the the analogy but if if myself if Dr b or Dr mckinon were in the boy's bathroom and we were vaping um let's say it was THC marijuana and we were all caught together there would be three separate suspensions resulting from that one incident so that um infraction count would count as three for the three of us um using or possessing that Vape or tobac in this case is tobacco material um again fighting um in school suspension there were suspensions in school suspensions resulting from fights in school

037um an in school suspension for a fight is not abnormal it is more than likely uh a very low-level fight it is something where we feel that the police need to be notified so it wasn't added to the minor altercation or any other area um but it was situation where um you know there were certainly no bodily injuries it was something minor um in in the scheme of things and resulted in in school suspension so again uh major takeaway here of these more severe um infractions the numbers did go down for in school suspension this year and as we move forward to out of school suspension again we did um be a decrease in this as well of about 10% so when you look at this again at this distinction and I think going back

038to miss rudnick's comment earlier um there were 127 out of school suspensions that were uh a result of fighting during the 23 24 school year when you look at you know roughly 13,000 students coming to school each of 180 days um there were 127 suspensions that resulted in that so again not doing the math not having a calculator in my hand uh while that 127 can be jarring and it's certainly not where we want to be um you know I see this is one of those apples to apples we look back at 2018 2019 and see 48 um and that's you know even that's too high but that we'd much rather be there than 127 um but we take some solid that the numbers have gone down from last year uh we're putting things in

039place we're continuing to dig into why um some of these things are happening and and moving forward um putting more plans into place to make sure that those numbers continue to reduce and and Dr I I would like to just add to that very good explanation that it's a shift in mindset for the the district the bo for any board and administration but especially for a community to understand as well that the numbers are just a one data point a compass as to what direction we should ask more questions uh as a parent it may actually be better that uh we see numbers are going up for Controlled Substances because perhaps this is why questions need to be asked oversight needs to be occurred random audits is as well of of the data uh perhaps

040there are uh strategies and tactics which have been implemented which have changed the numbers right um you know it's it's that whole idea of um do you want to you know simply focus on the negative that uh the numbers have G gone up or is there a reason why they've gone up um or down actually so over reporting and Under reporting uh is is the same problem when it comes down to confidently and transparently communicating this type of information to the community so you know we could go to zero really quickly if we decided maybe to you know not resume or change policies and regulations when it comes down to certain incidents um I like to see uh in many ways you know you know we know that there are a number of weapons every

041year that are found um it doesn't mean uh we celebrate that but does it mean that perhaps the school district and its staff and the students and families are doing their job 247 365 uh in making sure that when we see something we say something uh I'm okay if the numbers go up because of that reason thanks for that digression no that that's a great great Point Mr KAS and I will say I'm one of the first ones and we can talk about this a little bit later but um you know when you look at possession use of a controlled substance and vaping uh this year was the first year Midway through the year that we instituted the Halo sensors in the secondary schools and I for one thought that the numbers would be through

042the roof and for the first couple days first couple weeks they were and then simply put a lot of the detection stop because students moved on and stopped using our bathrooms as vaping stalls um and the qualitative uh feedback from stud students were they feel safer in the bathrooms again we're not where we want to be as a a result at the end of everything at the secondary schools um but the the bathrooms have far less congregation um far less students that are hanging out in there far less Vape use um because those Halo sensors were installed so the numbers did go up and then you can see the numbers you know reducing as the school year went on as students realized it wasn't worth potentially getting caught and moving through that so uh I

043think you bring up a great point there uh lastly we're just going to jump into um detentions uh and the numbers for detentions as we go all the way down to the bottom the grand totals detentions were up this year which I mentioned earlier on um cutting class and school tardiness are the the two highest um cutting class is really the one piece where the number went up dramatically uh this school year so again something I don't have an answer for right this moment as to um why that is uh some will tell you in some of our schools and some of our secondary schools it's the fact that we've instituted um more hallway Duty and more bathroom Duty so we've caught more students um and that's something we need to dig into a little

044bit further I know we've had pockets of that um and that may be while we're seeing more as as to your point on the last slide Mr Kasa we're we're catching more so the numbers go up but in the end uh the result is we avoid larger issues by catching the smaller issues so we need to dig into that a little bit more I don't have the answers today less than two weeks out um but it's a point of emphasis for this summer electronic devices um also are a point of emphasis something that we're going to be talking about and something that we had some good discussions with some other schools um in a collaborative approach last Thursday when we uh had a administrative collaborative with satton Wicken Park Valley and mton School District so

045um all good things that we setting the stage for this coming school year all right uh let me just dive into our youth Aid panel totals for the school year so uh we've come to this committee a number of times I believe uh about a year ago was the first time we started mentioning Yap uh we launched the youth Aid panel in November at the high school only um throughout the the year you can see the numbers here uh we had 37 students that completed the program uh and again to to rehash for the committee and for the the community that may be watching for the first time youth Aid panel is a diversionary program where instead of traditional school punishment instead of calling the police for the types of behaviors you see there in

046the pie chart uh we have had a number of staff at our North then High School uh trained to administer what until this point was a community youth a panel so prior to us launching this in November if a student was caught vaping or potentially fighting with no bodily injury or low levels of vandalism we would call the local police in the high school Range it would be Tom Menon Township they would send a police officer over the officer would take a report and in most cases these exact um behaviors would be referred to the youth Aid panel at the county level uh that timing to get the student in front of the youth Aid panel could take a while uh it could take some time to get it done um could take even longer

047for the feedback to come back and for the student to uh finish the programming in the meantime um they were out of school for a few days they um really had no tie to the the school was two separate um solutions to the behavior we launched this in November assistant district attorney Angela Bell trained the staff um we had our first case and from there 37 students completed so instead of calling the police officer off the street and instead of them pushing it to the county level our own staff members saw it and could oversee and ensure that students um completed the program much like the county program uh actually one of the students um that did not complete the program did not complete the program because that student uh became a repeat offender so

048if you are a repeat offender if you're someone um let's say you're caught with a THC vape um today and you start going through the app process and next week you get caught with the TC Vape again you're out of the program it gets referred to the police we go back to traditional um discipline at the school level and you're simply removed from the program so 41 students were referred uh 38 actually completed hearings of those 38 um 37 completed the program there were a few students that just didn't follow through didn't arrive at the hearing again they got kicked to the police for traditional um discipline and traditional police involvement um but the 37 that did were not repeat off ERS they did not uh repeat their um their behavior whether it be vaping

049or fighting or possession of alcohol um so so far this has been a great success we'll be tracking these students forward um at least for the current uh or the rising 11th and 12th graders uh to check recidivism rates on those folks um to see if they have any additional um you know Behavior such as this in the future just to see where that goes but I'm also happy to to um to say and we've talked about this a little bit in this committee that we are looking at the the logistics of launching Yap at the middle school level um so our our next actual meeting with with Ada Bell is this week um bringing the middle school principls and some of the assistant principles together to look at Logistics look at what behaviors at

050the middle school level We Believe are Yap appropriate at that developmental level so hope to have some more information for this committee um and for the board as a whole as we roll into next school year and and look to launch appap at the the secondary wide at the middle school level because we have seen some some decent success here and again going from November through to the end of the year those 37 students are students that were not referred to the the police they were not put into the judicial system and most importantly they were not repeat offenders um which I think is is an important takeaway from this program thank you Dr Nicholson I see Miss mcy has our hand up I want to also U highlight for community members that are are

051joining this meeting that uh not only as as you said we're very pleased to see these preliminary numbers look forward to a full year um added to this current Baseline but you know those 37 uh you 37 out 38 cases that's a success even with the 38th you know that you described having some difficulty this is actually a process that expedites the resolution in uh in at risk youth's progression through whatever system right could be multiple uh systems but what this demonstrates is that we are not waiting what could be months and months for resolution for uh our staff members for victims um families and even those who offend because they're in a juvenile justice system that they shouldn't have ever been placed in in the first place so you know you're able to get

052a better churn that's more efficient and effective with our students taking care of right this is a bit more local control and you keep people on track keep those students on track and you know we're possible keep them within the school and we're able to also reduce whatever burden uh may be on that administrative Purgatory from a juvenal justice system that um shouldn't always be seeing these type of cases so it looks like a very strong preliminary success and look forward to Whatever May develop in the future Miss MC Mery thanks Mr Kasa in essence I was going to say what you said I think it's wonderful that these students have responded so many um have responded and completed the program and I hope they continue to have Improvement and success going forward and feel

053that they are important and special um and and continue on this path I mean that's the whole point of the layered approach uh around this committee and around the entire District so I I think this I remember when we first heard about it it sounded exciting I remember Mr ran talking about it um but yeah I'm happy to see these results so I appreciate it absolutely St uh so yeah I was wondering did you have any feedback from the assistant district attorney as to how this program in North Pan compares to some of the other programs that they have launched in the community um do you have that information or I don't have that information tonight as I said we have another meeting this week week so that is part of you know I want

054to get some feedback from her on what her thoughts were how she believed things went what the numbers look like in comparison to other other schools that wasn't something that was necessarily shared with us the success rate at other schools um and I'm not sure what she's able to share and what she's not able to share um but I am I'm looking forward to hopefully having a conversation with her um when I see her later this week and just um I know she's been very excited for our progress and very excited for our program otherwise um I don't believe she'd be on board with looking at the middle level we would be the first school district in the county to to launch this at the middle level so I believe we're doing a pretty good

055job or D probably wouldn't be looking at us to pile at the middle level that's good feedback thank you sure all right so couple slides here and uh just a few summaries and takeaways a lot of this I mentioned some of it I have not um I think it's an important reminder that uh PBIS positive behavior interventions and supports is fully implemented at all North pen School District elementary schools and middle schools are preparing for implementation uh sometime throughout this next school year um we're on a bit of a tiered approach you launch PBIS when schools are ready not necessarily when we're ready for them to launch the the worst thing we've been told that you can do is launch PBIS at a school that's not quite there yet so we're taking a patient approach

056um but looking forward to to that and for the community just to make the point um because it starts with positive does not mean um that there are no consequences but it is explicitly teaching what we expect from students in every situation then students holding students accountable to those expectations so it's not taking away the consequences it's not um you know not holding students accountable but it's explicitly teaching how we should behave doing be booster lessons when the data is pointing to certain situations like uh you know what at this school we're having some challenges with bus Behavior so doing some booster lessons and explicitly reteaching um you know what is expected on the bus as compared to what's expected in the classroom um when a student gets a math problem wrong we don't suspend

057them we teach them more math and we teach them how to better do the problem and that's what PBIS is helping us do at the elementary and next year at the middle level uh as a takeway many of the data points show a downward Trend which is a positive in this case as Dr Bower mentioned earlier um overall in school suspension numbers are down um out of school suspension is down in comparison to last year Elementary uh you can see that ISS numberers down 44% out of school suspensions as Dr McKenna uh you know laid out for us is up 88.4% um something we can dive into a little bit further as we work as an administrative team this summer again you can see the secondary ISS and OSS numbers there uh Trends which I've

058already spoken to um but you know looking at the fighting totals a 5.1% decrease vaping infractions total down of almost 15% um again the launch of Halo the numbers ticked up for a while it was coming hot and heavy and then those numbers simply started to reduce um as part uh in part because of the Halo detector so we're happy to see that going down and happy to hear from students that they feel better going into their secondary bathrooms not again never where we want to be but on the way to the right side of things um couple pieces and I mentioned this before where we're really taking a deep dive and that's the threatening behavior towards staff and students um which I'll mention on the next slide but part of this could be the

059fact that we've fully implemented the SE stag threat assessment model with Fidelity um so you know we have talked to this committee quite a bit about how we have been working with our technology department and thank you to Dr Landis and her department for uh building a a system to track threats um but we have seen an increase in threats um whether that's due strictly to student Behavior or the fact that we're tracking it more uh more closely uh is yet to be determined we need to dig into that data a little bit more um but the threats threatening behavior towards staff and students were up this year minor altercations likewise were up um fights down minor altercations up I'll take that as a win that there are less fights I'll take that as we're

060moving in the right direction that the some of the altercations we have become more minor in um in result again not the end result we want to be at we would love to have it be zero when you have 13,000 students congregating 180 days a year you're going to have challenges we need to figure out how we can further minimize those we talked about our technology department Dr Landis Mrs rant um looking Infinite Campus and they're also working hard at Infinite Campus and swiss integration Swiss is the behavior management plan for ppis but looking at how we can integrate the components of Swiss into Infinite Campus um Miss MC merer you asked about the Apples to Apples and the the difference in information system we may have another uh bit of a an anomaly as

061we move into next year because we're getting more granular so we'll have to see how that plays out for this uh for these purposes and presentation purposes to compare uh you know academic years as we look forward because we are going to be getting even more granular with what we report uh when we report how we report so that'll be a work in progress for this committee to to hear about as we move forward into next school year finally I talked about youth Aid panel I'll I'll skip over that um and the preliminary conversations about the the youth a panel at the middle level um but I did mention the behavioral threat assessment integrated into Infinite Campus so there were 115 threat assessments completed during this past school year um again could be one of

062the reasons that the the numbers of threats have gone up in the school district for this year is simply that we're tracking it more deeply so of those 115 assessments uh 12.4 were considered sub substantive threats um 12.4 were a threat to self where students are are um threatening self harm 64 or 65% were no threat or transient threat so that sometimes uh you know that could be an an utterance of you know I'm going to punch you in the face because a student is angry that you know somebody stole their lunch um as a simple occurrence um and then finally the 10.3 uh the the threats that were the most imminent the most direct those that require you know local law enforcement uh interdiction and um a call to them uh 10.3% of 115

063assessments uh and then finally lastly and this I believe if there are no longer any questions although there probably will be would be a great segue into the next informational item um continued meetings going on throughout the Summer with the school safety action committee um and we had our last meeting last Tuesday so I'll pause there before I dive any further into that as that's the next informational meeting or informational um item and see if there's any further questions on this yes uh so Dr Nicholson I I love a good seg seg way but I want to make sure at this section um and we could save other questions because of our our time constraints but I think it's really important um for Dr Bower yourself um Dr McKenna and others of the administration to

064provide an answer to the community for those with um that I find to be a rather um specious narrative that the all right your numbers are going down because you're not taking it seriously you're not being responsive you're covering things up you're minimizing uh what are checks and balances what what can you do to build confidence we may never convince the people who make those accusations I think it's really important for those people who have honest questions um to be able to know what checks and balances do exist in our administrative capability when it comes down to these issues yeah be happy to take that one Mr Casa um I do think it is you know for lack of better phrasing I do think that's lazy narrative in that uh you could look at 2022

0652023 we have some of our highest numbers ever um in discipline and fractions and we have through over the course of the last six years we've gradually Incorporated more ppis gradually Incorporated a uh more Fidelity to mtss um we' heard tonight a lot about the the Yap program and behavioral threat assessment and the fact that we kick things off here talking about how it's not only is mtss multi-tiered systems of of support but comprehensive School discipline is multifaceted um so our data if if this wasn't uh genuine and sincere information uh it would look a whole lot better right because there are areas that Pete pointed out tonight that that don't look good um and there are areas that absolutely need to improve but there are some areas to celebrate as well um so I

066think it's an easy thing to say do I think there are times where certain students aren't written up yeah um I think that happens every year right I was a a teacher in my classroom for seven years I'm not sure I wrote up 10 students right because I just handled things in my classroom um some people choose to write everything up some people try to navigate it differently so do I think there's some variance there absolutely but I think that variance is consistent and I guess that's kind of an oxymoron there so it's not variance um but that said I do think our our system of reporting is accurate like Dr Nicholson said the in school suspensions out of school suspensions and detentions regardless of the information system we were utilizing that those numbers are

067Apple stapples that is accurate information in terms of the consequence it's the categorization of the infraction that kind of altered from 201819 to 1920 what that yeah what that meant was right there it would hide less because there's there's not as big a bucket administrators have to choose right doesn't mean anything's being covered up but that's the granularity that uh Dr Nicholson keeps mentioning and you said variance so now I'm having flashbacks to my statistics class I mean sparus instead of specious but um if we're gonna we're GNA go down that route um Dr bow the mathematician uh but I also think this is where why it's important for the community to realize what the board does in the committee uh as well as the administ committed to um operationalizing this when we talk about

068behavioral threat assessment and that's one bullet um that doesn't show the over six figures invested over many years to have international and National subject matter experts from the outside that review um tell us where our strengths are areas where we can improve uh that's just one example of uh how often that this board uh you're not going to have experts you have to bring in the right experts and check your blind spots and that's why it's important I I would find anyone to please U you know show me another board in in our neighboring districts of this region that goes to this level of granularity let alone has a safe schools committee uh and that's in a commitment to make sure that we share this information not to Pat ourselves in the back but for

069the community and others to check our homework and that's important when done uh in a genuine manner um it takes everyone's eyes and ears 365 247 in a Perpetual cycle of continuous Improvement that's why we put this information out there so um want to thank everyone for this information one request uh Dr Nicholson before we move on to the next in the August meeting if we could have just a little bit more of that analysis that that um my colleagues were just asking about in the beginning of the meeting again maybe to some per capita or percentages um but but maybe we and we could have that discussion but I want to put that on the agenda for August that we we don't go in a deep dive but hey here are three or four

070things in which we're going to look at um you know based on the committee's feedback going forward yeah absolutely I think that's a great ask that's something we're going to be looking at anyway so hopefully uh by that time we will not only just have the uh the analysis but we'll have what we're doing about it um and how that's going to look on the ground during the the 24 25 school year so that's the plan for us for the summer uh that's the plan I laid out for my secondary principles this afternoon when we met um and I shared this that I said you know take the the next few days do a deep dive what do you notice what do you wonder um you know what other data do we need to look

071at to really dig down on this so we'll be working with our data analyst um you know with with Miss Dietrich she's phenomenal she'll get us any data we need and we'll have not just the analysis but what we're doing with it for you miss rednick I was just trying to I was going to offer my services as well Dr Nicholson I really do love love data if you want to have someone take a first cut at something or take a look at it and think does this make sense what message is this you know what's the take home from this particular analysis um happy to support awesome more the mer I appreciate that thank you uh Dr Nicholson Let's uh take it home and thanks everyone I know we're usually trying to finish by

072now but we don't rush um safe schools committee when we're dealing with these topics so thank you for your additional yeah I'll uh I'll just transition in the safety action committee update this won't take but a moment I will say that the uh the last meeting the second meeting of the the safy action committee was last Tuesday evening we held that meeting at nap uh Elementary School we had about 30 in attendance 30 community members in attendance as a reminder um this was uh a committee that was put together um that the stated goal is to find ways in which the community can help support the school district um with our goals with safe schools um they're not there to create policy they're not there to um you know change everything we do but we

073want to see the Partnerships that we can make that really can be of high leverage and help the district um and support the district in our goals so at this previous meeting um we shared a number of data points with the committee um similar to what I mentioned with the the secondary principles we we asked them to you know write down what they noticed what do they wonder about the data uh the data that was shared first and foremost was some of the hot off the presses um data that uh Mr ran and Dr Hart had from student and staff listening sessions that happened during the months of May and June um they did a phenomenal job presented probably Dr McKenna 40 minutes or so um of that data and we really wanted to have

074them here this evening however Mr Ron is unavailable and Dr Hart is out of the country so neither of us none of us were in those meetings and didn't feel that it was our our space to to Really present on that as they um they toured the district they did 18 schools they did a number of of listening sessions with staff uh and they really poured their heart and so into that and did a great job presenting to the safety action committee so that might be a trailer for the August meeting as well along with what we've done with the data as I said with the the discipline uh we also shared the paay data with them we shared this presentation with them um um and we also shared a couple other data points such

075as the Margolis Hy um comprehensive School review that was conducted a couple years ago and we asked them to really dive deep uh work in groups and come up with what they they notice what they Wonder um what they see in the data that's meaningful to them from there uh prior to our next meeting our group our administrative group Dr McKenna um Dr Waters myself Mr ran um we'll be looking at everything they wrote down compartmentalizing in that you know Finding and and uh bringing out the themes from what they uh wrote for us um and moving forward with looking for ways that uh those themes can be supported by the community so I think it was a great meeting um the first meeting uh there were some gr pains there I think versus what

076we saw how we saw versus maybe what they saw um they really wanted to dig into the data so last week we really gave them that space and we really thought we gave them I feel like we gave them and I feel like they felt had the data to really look into what's happening in our schools um so we can kind of pick out those themes of what's happening and where they can be of a support to the district so great meeting we'll we'll give some more updates in August as far as where that committee has gone I Believe by that point we've had two additional meetings if not more um so that that's a wait and see as well for for the launch for the next school year so um is there a estimated

077timeline for the final I believe it's fifth meeting and has the committee uh done anything in terms of having a charge for itself as to what some deliverables may be sorry I thought I got stuck on mute um we do have a meeting in July we have another meeting towards I believe the middle of August I can't get to my calendar very quickly um but those are the the currently scheduled meetings as I said we're looking at the themes we're looking at what the the group um put on their papers what they recorded uh regarding the data um and the deliverables we hope will be something that uh are shared with them and developed with them during the next meeting so we're we're uh two meetings in to I believe what we have is four

078scheduled meetings right now um and we we're hoping to have those deliverables and while we said that we meeting be meeting a number of times through the summer I don't believe any of us believe this is we'll meet in May June July August and never see these folks again um we'll have everything solved uh we believe that this is going to you know morph into more of a working committee that will continuously meet throughout the year and Years thank you very much for that update any other questions comments from committee okay thank you Dr uh so moving on to uh any other business we don't have a summary of action items so uh is there any other business from the committee to to state or ask seeing headshakes I I would like uh an brief

079update Dr Bower as to where we're at with the independent investigation if we understand any timelines or Tye of progress from a very high level of what's happened so far please yeah I can uh send a more formal uh executive summary to the committee um but I do know that it's underway I have not yet been contacted because I believe I will be part of that process um but I know that Dr Nicholson was actually a part of working with the attorneys to prepare uh the materials and documents and witness lists and contact information for the firm that is doing the investigation itself um I also know that some folks have been contacted and interviewed uh but in terms of exact timeline and details I think it's they didn't want to put a finite timeline

080on the process and limit the scope in that way so I can see if I can get an update uh from Mr Summers but as far as I know it is well underway um and the they were anticipating that it would take a few months um so I would expect that we have a very concrete update if not a final update by the end of the summer thank thank you Dr Bower sorry to put you on the spot there but I thought that's good for the community as well as the committee uh and I have had discussions with Mr Summers as well if there's something uh with with uh within the or uh investigation that hey you need to fix this now we're not going to wait until X months for it to be done

081U there's a process that there's a feedback loop for the board and the administration to understand if there are clear gaps that could be addressed immediately Miss Mery MC Mery sorry that's F thanks Mr Casa so Dr bar since that question was asked Can you provide an update on the status of um investigation of new Bridge being an option going forward for elementary school students yeah so um I will kick it to Dr McKenna but what I can give in an overview here is that so when what I have shared publicly is that we are in exploring the idea of utilizing a space whether it be at Northbridge or elsewhere um for a transitional program for elementary age students so we have uh presented many times in this format and ECI and and work session

082about Northbridge and it's three different programs and the ways in which we support students and their families coming in and out of the North pen School District or for mental health concerns um but that's space doesn't exist within the district for elementary age students so I believe it's quite timely that Dr McKenna M kler Dr Waters Dr Brockman are all meeting tomorrow morning actually at Northbridge um really to start to unpack but there are postings for positions assuming that this program will proceed and we will be able to utilize but the just to give like some layers of the decisions if you have one teacher and one Special Assistant that teacher needs a prep time and a lunch time as does the assistant that is usually accounted for in an elementary school with specials right

083well we don't have Elementary specials at Northbridge so does that mean you need a music an art a band a you know all these other teachers to provide that support so there are a lot of nuances aside from just a classroom and a teacher and additional supports to make something like that run what about Transportation are you going to put Elementary age students on the same bus as high school students um are you going to feed them at the same time are you gonna right so there there's a lot that goes into it where will they use the restroom um so Dr McKenna is kind of fronting that with Dr Waters but seems as though it's progressing so Dr McKenna you want to give a brief update yeah Dr Brower spoke of about many of

084the items we do have a meeting there tomorrow we have visited Northbridge and looked at the location um and what could work as far as a particular classroom uh entrance exits of the building as Dr Baris mentioned Transportation a lot of those logistical questions are things we need to cons uh continue to uh consider and discuss um even special areas there is a gym there we have a lot of other supports at Northbridge that we need to figure out schedule wise how we can make that work uh in addition to Staffing uh also um we have actually curricular members coming to our meeting tomorrow along with Dr Nicholson uh Miss kler uh Dr Waters to talk about programming in general so it's it's the space it's the logistics and also the program and and also

085the criteria of students who would be appropriate for the North Bridge program as well so um again meeting tomorrow we're going to continue those conversations and and work towards a plan for the 2425 school year than thanks for that update I think that when Dr Bowers said Northbridge it was Oh it sounded like a for lack of a better term a good location but when now that you're discussing all of the important components Logistics um that are necessary I I I get there I'll also say at the same time you know I think that you you said the 2425 school year and I think on honestly at this point I would want to make sure that all those pieces while I respectfully do not understand them we need to get through them so we do

086have something that is available when school starts in September that that I think would be an expectation at least coming from this board member Dr McKenna thank you yeah I we're we're pretty confident we'll be able to overcome all the hurdles Miss McMurry and it it might not be something something that requires um you know we realize there could be times where there are zero students who need this program or service so day one of the school year we might not need it but we'll be ready um and I hope you're right but if we do sure I I hope you're right that would be wonderful thanks for sharing uh what seems like a a just cascading uh amount of variables that U we're confident uh our leadership team and the administration would be able

087to work out um you know it's my only other segue for other business we get the public comment but U what we witness is a community every graduation right roughly 1100 uh students uh being able to move that tassle over and celebrate their success um the logistics and planning and uh thoughtfulness that goes into that um I know we'll well that same effort will be made for Northbridge just like any other program so thank you also because this is safe schools committee want to thank um director ran and his entire team um Bernie who I saw out there all the all the time with that great megaphone the evolved weapons system weapons detection system being rolled out just uh a wonderful effort and partnership with our um other municipalities as partners and First Responders and

088they even had divided up the airspace with I think to menon's drone and and arrow drone as well it was you know that's that's a D-Day for a team like that but a team that also U for safe schools is there for the international Spring Festival is is there in extra Duty um that's why I want the community to know we had our annual as required by the state it's mandated annual executive session with Mr Summers uh the board and the administration to go over um some granular details uh that typically aren't shared publicly but also behind the scenes details so that we have a a very clear situational awareness as to what has been done for the safe schools program but also um you know to be able to understand informationally what it is

089strategically uh that this board also needs to consider going forward so not just the the past and present but what it means for continually evolving this program going forward so um I appreciate the additional time I know we do have public comment I'm going to bet that it doesn't go beyond 10 minutes but um being that we have the chair of facilities and operations uh should we State 710 or 7:15 for the start of fno well I'll defer to Dr bow 710 or 7:15 your call I think we'll be okay with 710 all right 710 all right so uh we have 710 uh miss fish and for those maybe just tuning in um thank you all for your delay but appreciate your attention to these matters for the safe schools committee uh with that we'll

090move on to public comment so I know if I have to read the disclaimer yes we do have hands up excellent um make sure I get the statement here individuals attending this 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 it is necessary to record the names of all citizens who speak to the committee during the meeting to Ure compliance with this requirement is essential that those planning to address the committee raise their hand virtually and state their name and municipality as a reminder the public comment portion of the meeting is designed for residents and taxpayers of the district to provide comments and feedback on matters being discussed at or part of the discussion uh of the meeting

091or matters that may become come before the safe schools committee is not designed for debate or discussion with members of the committee one appropriate committee members may choose to respond to public comments that have been made we 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 thank you very much our first public member is Steve Reinhardt Steve when I unmute allow you to talk please unmute your mic and state your name and municipality for the board unmute all right there we go okay hello can you hear me okay very good um first I want to thank Dr Nicholson because I thought that was very informative

092um I want to also thank um Mr Kasa because you know I think it's important to not just see the numbers but to understand you know how many specific individuals are responsible for the total number of numbers if if if I realize that's redundant but I think you get what I'm saying at any rate um the the other thing I would say is um one of the best things um as far as safe schools is um people not just not just the parents I mean the you know the kids if they feel safe that's one of the most important things to me and uh I just hope that um uh you know that that's you know that's where we're headed and that um yeah I mean numbers can thing is you know there's I'm I'm

093not going to quote the uh you know the statistics line but um yeah yeah I mean statistics can can go any way you want them but I think if you look at the numbers they they seem to be headed in the right direction I'm assuming the the elementary numbers are simply a a uh a matter of um you know more out of school suspension for whatever reason I would like to suggest that uh perhaps it be uh especially two things be divided a couple things be divided one anything violent from anything nonviolent or non-threatening nonthreatening of violence to um The Vaping thing are they vaping nicotine are they vaping marijuana or they vaping God knows what excuse me um but uh that would be my other yeah I'd like to know because quite frankly I

094mean it in a couple years they're going to be able to vape whatever you know whatever ever they want and I think we should just prioritize um you know a anything violent over anything nonviolent um yeah vaping unfortunately I I you know I I saw the percentage of of what it is and I just I just want to you know for safe schools first it's got to be physically safe um and I excuse me I was actually eating popcorn I'm sorry it was it was getting a bit long but uh um uh at any rate it safe schools begins with physically feeling safe at at wherever whatever school you're at so I'm I'm gonna end there for now and uh you know you know hope to speak again thank you very much thank you very

095much Mr reyhart we appreciate your engagement and your insights uh feel free also to uh follow up I know the administration is also taking notes on this and um thank you for sticking it out um so we're able to hear your comments um who else can we thank for um also sticking it out and provide comments miss fish um our next hand up is Mr lanir Mr lanir when I unmute you when I allow you to talk please unmute your mic say your name and municipality for the board can you hear me Jason laner Lansdale um I had actually four questions all sort of tied together here um one is informational maybe I missed it I I was having a tough time with the logging into Zoom um however the the the app numbers are

096the suspensions in school or out of school suspensions reflective of the kids that are also in the yacht program or they handled completely separately so I mean I guess to to take it a step further the 37 or 38 kids or whatever are they also were they also suspended or were they sort of taken out of the suspension lot numbers and did the Gap instead of suspension um second question I had is regarding M lir we'll add time can can we answer that now because I feel that's probably a quick I'd rather do that and iterate um okay so that informs your questions uh Dr Bower Dr Nicholson sure so um very similar to if a student were um to be cited for possession let's say it's a vape with THC and we would typically

097call the police or just a a fight whatever it is um there would be discipline consequences and there would be legal consequences the yat program is a diversionary program for the legal route not necessarily for our own discipline um I don't know Dr Nicholson if you want to add any context but it the discipline consequence if the student is still suspended or if the student gets an in school suspension that's represented in the data um it's their legal route with Montgomery County um U juvenile programming that changes via Yap yeah I will uh I will say just because a student was referred to app does not necessarily mean there is no school-based consequences if a student is in a fight just because they're referred to app doesn't necessarily mean that you know if Dr bow

098and I in a fight that doesn't necessarily mean that he and I don't need a couple days out of school to cool off so cooler heads prevail when we come back however um you know they they are still referred to Gap instead of or in L of calling the police officer off the street to come take the report to send it to County app thank you so that that would be an extra minute 10 seconds there Mr lir um and thank you because it's a great question on the details um appreciate that second question uh the other question I had is regarding um in classroom Behavior at elementary schools I spoken with at least three different elementary teachers who have whove relayed nearly the same story which is they have a kid that will act

099out of be out of control they call to have the kid taken out of the classroom and it's pretty much the the teacher is responsible for try of managing the out of- control kid and trying to teach and I don't know if that's reflected in this Behavior Uh or these these Behavior numbers or not but that being and these aren't these aren't newbie teachers these are experienced teachers who who uh have seen how this has become sort of this relaxed uh disciplinary process where kids are are being left in the classroom and it's highly distracting and and problematic for everyone around in in the way I see it it's there there can't they can't be uh there can't be much positive coming from a kid acting out and except for and this is sort of

100the third part is the restorative discipline or whatever it's called the short of practice where you don't you're trying to avoid suspending kids by lessening or having them do some kind of intervention with with other kids and and and and figuring it out or or or telling the kids what they're doing wrong and and hopefully they'll stop from from what I understand now again this is this is not me this is not firsthand knowledge but uh these teachers are telling me that that is exactly what is happening same Kids all the Time acting out no consequences and how so I guess the question is how is this restorative discipline beneficial to anybody kids in who are getting doing the trouble the teachers the other kids in the classroom it doesn't seem to be very good

101and it t and then it also Loops into what happened at Penbrook did let me just stop for a second the independent investigators this Law Firm stocking a locker lock leader out of uh out of Lancaster has previous business with the school district how are they independent in fact they they they were minute 10 to go they they were they were being paid out of I get at the request or being brought on board at a request of uh Megan MIM who was let go sort of at the same time this whole pen Brook thing uh blew up and it it seems like there's some this doesn't seem like an honest assessment this doesn't look seem like an honest investigation this seems like a way of covering basis if if if uh if Summers was

102here I'd ask him directly how it can be an independent firm that has business with you mean Mr Summers if he Mr Summers what did I say I don't Summers Mr sum the Corum helps yeah uh okay thank thank you thank you for telling me that's that's also a lot of deorum there so the the the the notion that uh an independent person has business with the The Entity that they're they're investigating seems a little bit um uh that's disingenuous at best if not just a straight out lie why why would you say they're independent what makes them independent and if you guys could address that I would appreciate it I'll leave it there thank you thank you Mr ler Dr Bower um any of those questions that you can answer concisely for Mr lanir

103and the public I can and we're going to bounce over to fno O here in a minute so I did say 710 but it might end up being more like 7:15 so we can get things recycled yeah let's say 7:15 Dr bow thanks no problem um so a couple things uh restorative just like when Dr Nicholson and Dr McKenna spoke about positive behavior interventions and supports is about teaching them how to behave properly that doesn't mean there's no consequence right so restorative practices you can have a restorative conversation where you talk about the harm that was done how you repair that harm how you restore the relationship how you move forward as a class as two parties whatever um that doesn't mean there's no consequence that is not a world where they're having restorative conversations

104and actions doesn't mean there's no disciplinary measures taken um and lastly the reference to the law firm um stock and leader and Mr lanir mentioned this at The Last Action meeting um they are a third party that the district uh did utilize as a third party in another incident is what I recall there were two um uh a student coming from one District to North pen that was from a um had the same solicitor as we did two different school districts having the same solicitor so a third party was utilized so that we didn't have two attorneys from the same firm um negotiating against each other if you will so the third party was utilized as a third party another time um I do not believe that to be a conflict of interest if they

105came in and provided Services because of that same conflict of interests before so that's why I hope that answered the question Mr Casa and I think yeah Dr B and also there was the second question how many uh staff employees do we have at North pen roughly um an easy number 500 1800 1800 and out out of that probably what number might be teachers about half about half so Mr lir it's great that you have this relationship with three teachers I think it's very important for you um as you're you're a member of this too of the community eyes and ears um and thoughts make sure that those teachers are aware of the different channels within the span of control for them to go where they're most comfortable through their Union directly to board members

106through the administration through the building leadership we have to work based on hearsay um but we also have to recognize if people have serious concerns that they get to us it's great that they share them with you and I thank you for helping us uh hopefully close the loop with those teachers um no time does this committee want there to be a minimization or lack of a minimization of incidents or U more lack discipline I see no proof of that I hear accusations um I think it's important for you to help your friends and redirect them to actually work within the district to solve whatever concerns they have thank you very much are there any other questions Miss uh or commenters miss fish yes one final hand up um Tina Perez Tina when I unmute

107your mic you may unmute yours and state your name and municipality for the board I think okay can you all yeah okay great um Tina Perez from Lansdale um was there any other information I needed to say no okay um just wanted to I I came late so I may have missed this um but I know you all have a pretty robust diversity equity and inclusion plan in place at the district um so I just wanted to just make a comment to also um ensure that there would be I guess um information shared on the intersection of the school safety plan as well as the diversity equity and in inclusion plan um I know often times with school safety um oftentimes black and brown kids can you know sometimes get penalized more um so I

108just wanted to just make sure that when presenting data or that as you provide updates and go through the process that those two things will be integrated thank you a fantastic suggestion we do have that baked in uh so to speak we actually have within our Equity policy that quarterly the superintendent or asse uh must report that information to the board of directors as well um there's various ways in which we've communicated that um I would like if um you know Dr Nicholson if there's Dr bow an opportunity to reach out to M Perez um I'm happy to also have that conversation about some of the ways we're working um to make sure that we are reducing um what may be implicit bias U but ultimately harm on uh marginalized students um who do have

109uh tend to have an over representation and have in the history of North pen when it comes down to discipline uh discipline and infractions so thank you for raising that absolutely Mr Casa um just a 10-second answer here the discipline dashboard that was provided to the school safety action committee um and reviewed by all the building teams this spring actually has it broken down uh so that we can see disproportionality if it exists in certain areas and like uh most school districts maybe all across the country we are not immune to that um and that's definitely an area where we can continue to refine and look for you know as as you always say Mr Caso your blind spots and what are areas that we're missing um so that we actually have a a goal

110committee solely on addressing ing disproportionality in our cultural proficiency and uh Equity executive committee um but Dr Nicholson said he'll reach out tomorrow miss perz I have your email address you and I were conversing last week um and we'll be in touch yeah thank you I know we've made some progress and also have some inertia in other areas which is why I'm happy that um now during the summer that's going to be drilled down thank you Miss pess for bringing that up uh any other questions uh public comments which have great questions is what I meant all hands are down okay uh I know we need to get to facilities and operations the safe schools committee is not going to meet in July we're going to meet virtually August 26th at 5:45 pm that does

111not mean our work is stopped there will actually be some additional meetings I hear we've got one more there between Miss Rudnick and uh Dr Nicholson when comes down some of the data uh but please anyone in the community feel free to reach out to um any of the members on on this committee or on The Wider school board and we'll be happy uh to get you the response that provides an answer you're looking for do we have a motion to aour so moved hi