Penn Hills schools show disparities in state safety and mental health awards

Should Pennsylvania schools have to compete to afford keeping students safe?

Officials in the Penn Hills School District, which missed out on a piece of $32.2 million in competitive school safety and security grants, say no.

“The fact that we’re constantly having to fight for money to keep our schools safe is a little disheartening,” said Brian Brown, assistant to the superintendent for technology, innovation and safety. “The state has to rethink this.”

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency announced $47 million in school safety and mental health awards April 25, completing a $155 million grant package appropriated in the state’s 2023-24 budget.

Penn Hills exemplifies the disparities in how the funds were doled out between a variety of school entities, including districts, charter schools, private schools, intermediate units and more.

Altogether, the commission approved $323,000 in safety and mental health awards for Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship — the seventh highest total in Allegheny County — compared to $200,000 for Penn Hills School District.

The charter school will have $253,000 in competitive funds at its disposal to build an alternative evacuation route from campus, repair fencing and implement other safety measures on campus.

The Penn Hills School District will draw from a $45,000 formula-based grant to fund its own security improvements. The district did receive far more than Penn Hills Charter for school-based mental and behavioral health resources — $154,000, compared to $70,000 — though that grant was noncompetitive.

The entities have vastly different student bodies and physical footprints. Penn Hills School District enrolls more than 3,000 students K-12 across three buildings. Penn Hills Charter serves about 500 students K-8 in a single building.

School size was not factored into the competitive awards, according to Alison Gantz, spokesperson for the Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Instead, the state looked at which schools have the greatest safety needs under the revised Physical Security and Behavioral Health Baseline Criteria, which is used to identify basic safety needs and mental health services shortfalls.

Recipients of all three grant types have two years to spend the funds.

Penn Hills School District will spend $16,000 in formula-based funds to install a districtwide radio network, district officials said. The remaining $29,000 will go toward new software that tracks safety drills, makes the district’s emergency plan available on mobile devices and manages parent-student reunification in the event of an evacuation.

These improvements are part of a broader effort by the school district to bring its safety and security practices in house. On April 24, school board members appointed former state Trooper Don Johnson as director of school safety. He’ll oversee two unarmed assistant directors and three armed school police officers who have yet to be hired.

The mental health award will be split between a restorative practices program in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Just Discipline Project and student behavioral health checks using a RAND Corp.-created assessment.

Penn Hills Elementary School already has a Just Discipline Project counselor embedded in the building in an effort to limit suspensions and cultivate relationships between students, teachers and staff.

“We’re trying to limit suspensions and discipline infractions,” Superintendent John Mozzocio said. “It doesn’t mean a consequence can’t be rendered, but we need to fix the issue at hand and not just use suspension tactics.”

The social-emotional screener from RAND will be used to identify students who may need access to guidance counselors or outside services.

Penn Hills Charter is targeting a series of physical upgrades with its security grant, some of which were identified in a joint security audit with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, according the school’s CEO, Wayne Jones. That includes clearing an evacuation route near the school’s playground in case the main driveway is inaccessible and rehabilitating some fencing.

The money also will go toward shades for exterior windows and small windows on classroom doors. Penn Hills Charter will improve its radio system, too, and install access control scanners at exit doors.

Finally, Penn Hills Charter will pay the Penn Hills Police Department to provide an off-duty police officer to serve as a security guard.

As for the mental health grant, Penn Hills Charter is using the money to enhance its school-based counseling services.

“Here at PHCSE, we take safety and security very seriously,” Jones said. “And I think at times we’ve served as a model for other schools who are looking to enhance security measures.”