Northampton Area School District, as with most public school districts in the Lehigh Valley and across the United States, has not been immune to threats of school violence.

In March, Northampton Area School District Superintendent Joseph S. Kovalchik alerted parents and guardians through the district’s automated phone call system that a Northampton Area High School student had allegedly compiled a list of classmates he wanted to kill. The district took administrative and legal action regarding the student. It was one of several threats at area schools that happened after the February Parkland, Fla., high school shootings.

Twelve years ago, a Northampton Area High School senior brought a rifle in a guitar case to the campus and threatened to kill himself before surrendering to police officers and Pennsylvania State Police troopers. The 2006 incident made the national news.

NASD continues to take measures to ensure the safety of students, teachers, administrators and the community. It’s estimated that NASD spends $1 million per school year on security.

NASD school directors voted unanimously 9-0 at the Aug. 13 board of education meeting to approve the administration’s recommendation to hire two new security officers, Michael Renner and Ryan Flecksteiner, effective Aug. 17.

The school board also voted unanimously to approve NASD assistant to the superintendent, Robert J. Steckel Jr., as coordinator for school safety and security.

And, the board voted unanimously to hire Kermit Bachman and Jennifer Schwartz-O’Boyle as school crossing guards, starting Aug. 27. Crossing guards are primarily in the vicinity of NASD schools in the Borough of Northampton.

“I think about school safety every single day,” Kovalchik said in an interview with The Press concerning school security for the 2018-19 school year, which starts Aug. 27.

“From an administrative standpoint, the first thing that comes to my mind is to try to be proactive and communicate. One of the major differences I’ve seen is that, maybe 10 years ago, many people were reluctant to inform a school staff member about potential threats.

“In the last couple of years, in particular, parents and students are more open about coming to staff members about those kinds of threats, a threat against a student, a threat against a staff member or against the school,” Kovalchik said. “We will investigate any threat made against a student, school or staff member to determine if it’s credible or not.”

As a theoretical example, Kovalchik said, “Saturday night, if somebody’s on Facebook and says, ‘I’m going to do X, Y, Z,’ that’s what we investigate. We’re encouraging people to reach out.”

NASD, which covers 97.3 square miles in Northampton County, includes the boroughs of Bath, Chapman and Northampton and the townships of Allen, East Allen, Lehigh and Moore. The district population is about 38,500. NASD has about 5,500 students in four elementary schools spanning five buildings, a middle school and a high school.

The NASD staff consists of 372 professional employees, 31 administrative employees and 220 support personnel for a total of 623 employees.

Kovalchik - appointed middle school principal in 2005, NASD assistant superintendent in 2008 and NASD superintendent in 2010 - has seen a myriad of changes in school security in the district.

“When I had a situation, I would call Northampton Borough and they would come up and work with me. We didn’t have all the cameras, the police department, the Raptor system, the ID badge that unlocks the door. We didn’t have the building security drills,” he said.

Some of NASD’s school security initiatives, as well as those of other Pennsylvania school districts, are mandated by Act 44 of 2018, signed into law June 22 by Gov. Tom Wolf. The law restructures and increases school safety funding for police, school resource officers and school psychologists. It offers a new grant program to help prevent, reduce and address school and community violence.

Building security

The Northampton Area High School expansion and renovation project, completed in 2008, as well as the expansion and renovation projects at George Wolf Elementary School, Bath, and Colonel Siegfried Elementary School, Northampton, included secure entrances and exits, among other security measures.

The Lehigh Elementary School project, set for completion for the 2021-22 school year, will have state-of-the-art security.

Entrances at the borough elementary schools, including the Franklin Elementary School building, Moore Elementary School and Lehigh Elementary School, have been made more secure.

“About five or six years ago, we created these vestibules in our elementary schools where you must be buzzed in. All the doors are locked. And there’s a camera at every entrance,” Kovalchik said. “When they enter that particular area, they have to go to the main office before going anywhere else.”

NASD uses the Raptor V-Soft security system. When a person requesting entrance to a school building shows a valid driver’s license, a background check is made. If there are violations of the law, the person is not admitted.

Security staffing

The NASD Police Department was formed in 2006. The NASD chief of school police is Wil Williams. Ricky Knecht is the school police officer. The district police officers are armed.

There are nine security guards, including the two new security guards hired Aug. 13.

“We’re still working on final placement (of security guards),” Kovalchik said.

The secondary schools’ campus opens 6:45 a.m. and dismisses 2:50 p.m. The elementary schools’ campuses open 8 a.m. and dismiss 3:40 p.m. Extracurricular activities usually occur 3-9 p.m. weekdays.

There are cameras on NASD school buses owned and operated by First Student. As of Aug. 27, district bus drivers must be school-board approved.

Training, drills

Administrators have taken online training in school security. Some attended school security workshops at Colonial Intermediate Unit 20.

“We do various drills every month, K-12. You have your typical fire drills. Then we have building security drills,” Kovalchik said.

The fire drill alarm and security drill alarm have different tones.

“There are certain things that you have to do. Right now, it’s shelter in place. But we’re going to the ALICE model,” he said.

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. This emergency drill approach is geared for schools, government, health care and houses of worship.

Kovalchik said the ALICE model of emergency drills began to be introduced at the conclusion of the 2017-18 school year.

“We will have specific detailed discussions and trainings. First, we have to train our administrative team and the staff, and then we have to train the students,” Kovalchik said.

NASD officials collaborate with police departments in Northampton Borough, Lehigh Township, Moore Township and the Pennsylvania State Police (which covers Bath Borough and Allen and East Allen townships).

“We created MOUs (Memorandum Of Understanding) with each entity,” Kovalchik said.

NASD officials have met with representatives of the area police departments.

Looking ahead

“I think society as a whole, not just school districts, needs to do better with mental-health concerns. The communication piece is important, with people coming forward with potential threats,” Kovalchik said. “The third thing is preparation: your procedures, your policies, your drills.

“I don’t believe that teachers should be armed,” Kovalchik said. “I believe that they are here to do the job they are trained for - and that is to educate our students. We have people who are experts and trained in this area. And that’s what they are doing, and that’s what they should be doing.

“We’ve been training various staff members in conflict-resolution techniques and various self-defense skills,” he said.

Kovalchik added the increased emphasis on and concern about public school security has taken a toll on teacher staffing across America:

“If you look at the number of people going into the educational field 10 years ago compared to now, you’ll see a massive decrease,” he said. “The school safety concern is a factor when people are deciding what career to pursue.”