Security & Admin

Security Measures

At the end of last school year, several students approached the district about improving the security at the Brockway Area School District. Over the summer, the district was hard at work to make sure the school was as safe using suggestions from the student body.

Outgoing superintendent Dan Hawkins started the process of securing doors and finding school resource officers. His successor, Jeff Vizza, kept the project rolling. Brockway invested in new security screens, two school police officers, and found ways to immobilize the classroom doors in an emergency.

The screens on the entry doors were a major upgrade. They make it far more difficult to break open the glass and open the door. However, they do not look like bars. The goal is to not make the school look or feel like a prison. The screens give the glass doors a tinted look until the viewer gets close.

“The screens are a major improvement,” said Curtis Wise, one of the new school resource officers hired by the school district. “They make it a lot harder to break the glass and get inside.”

Another area Wise praised the district in was decreasing the access points to the school at the beginning of the day.

“When you have more doors open, you have more of a chance of someone bad coming into the school,” Wise said. “It’s a big improvement.”

Vizza stressed that the school was safe before, these moves were not made because the school was dangerous, but the goal is to make the school even safer. Adding the new security features on top of existing ones, such as fences and security cameras, plus Officers Wise and Don Routch, make the school that much more secure.

Inside the school, the classroom doors needed an upgrade to maximize safety.

Each classroom had a door with two windows. One of the windows is right near the door handle. Ag teacher Kyle Norman and some of his students cut inserts for the lower window, adding colorful Brockway Rovers artwork to each one. The inserts add character to the hallways, which was something Vizza is trying to do to help students feel comfortable with the school.

Staff members also helped secure the doors. The classroom doors opened out, so the teachers would not be able to secure them beyond locking them.

“Jeff Rakvin and our custodial staff looked at some designs and decided they could build what we needed,” Vizza said. “They got the items they needed and did the work over the summer.”

Each room now has an eye hook on the wall by the door. A metal cable hangs from the door handle and ends with a clip. Teachers can quickly pull the doors closed and click cable in place, adding an extra layer of protection on the already-locked door. When not in use, the cable is held to the door with a Velcro strip,

However, hardening the building is just one part of the overall safety plan. On the first day of in-service for teachers, the entire Brockway staff joined neighboring school districts at DuBois Area High School for a seminar on school safety held by expert Michael Dorn.

“The biggest thing I got out of that was looking at scenarios,” Vizza said. “It’s important to do training so we know what we will do based on certain scenarios.”

With all the initial investment in security, the first week of school went smoothly. Officers Wise and Routch monitored the schools and the decreased entrances did not slow down the beginning of the school day or require additional staff to get students through.

“We listened to the students,” Vizza told his staff on the first in-service day. “They asked for some new improvements and we made them. Involving the students will allow them to take ownership in their school.”

-Andrew Bundy

Previously published in the Courier-Express.

School Resource Officers

Brockway Area School District Superintendent Jeff Vizza said that they were listening to student suggestions when they added security screens, hooks and wires to classroom doors, and trimmed the number of morning entryways down to two. Another suggestion led the district to hiring two school resource officers.

“They have so much experience that I knew the board would hire both of them,” Vizza said.

Brockway brought Curtis Wise and Don Routch in as the school resource officers to start the 2018-2019 school year. Between them, their combined law enforcement experience adds up to 78 years.

Wise worked for the Pennsylvania State Police and has over 35 years of experience. He has been in charge of investigations and has been a part of the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT).

“What I learned as a negotiator for SERT, I think, will help me with the kids,” Wise said. “It taught me active listening skills.”

Wise added that Brockway is a real change of pace from his old job.

“This job is a lot more laid back,” he said. “There’s a lot less paperwork. It’s different dealing with kids all day long instead of with adults. As a State Police officer, I dealt with people in negative situations. Here, I’ll interact with them in a positive light.”

That interaction also invigorates Routch.

“This is a chance to meet kids that you would normally meet under bad circumstances,” he said. “Through our job, we always see people at their worst – someone getting arrested or someone in a bad accident. The people you’d meet then were having a bad time.”

Routch worked for the City of DuBois and Sandy Township for 43 years. He spent time as a school resource officer at DuBois Area Middle School.

The school resource officers are a visible presence in the school. They wear red polo shirts with black pants and shining badges along with handcuffs and weapons. They also have arrest authority, but the plan is not to use that ability but to help students make positive choices throughout their school careers. School administration has officers talking to students, monitoring arrivals and dismissals, and keeping an eye on recess. However, they are also getting to know the students, teaching awareness lessons in classes, and answering questions.

“Our main goal is to educate and mentor,” Routch said. “Law enforcement is last on our list. But the kids are safe here. We’re here to help you, but we’re not here to arrest you. This is a safe environment for everyone.”

The safety is something that Routch tells students is as much their job as the school’s.

“The main thing about school security is to get kids involved,” he said. “If they hear something, say something. But the school is going a long way to help make it safer.”

“The more access points, the more chances someone bad will come in,” Wise concurred. “Having fewer access points will go a long way to making the school safer. The screens and wooden inserts will make it harder to access rooms and the building.”

Both Routch and Wise hope that their job of connecting with students will also help the kids of Brockway feel less apprehensive about police officers. This is an aspect that drives their daily interactions.

“Kids get a lot of bad vibes from police,” Routch said. “I see a lot of this at a family restaurant. A family comes in and they have little kids with them, and they act up, and the parents say, ‘If you guys don’t wise up, I’ll have the police arrest you.’ From then on, we get a bad rap. But if you think about it, if you feel victimized or are in a bad situation, who do you call?”

“Working with the kids, getting to know them and build a relationship with them is exciting,” Wise said. “I live in this community. This is a chance to get to know the kids who live here in my town.”

-Andrew Bundy

Previously published in the Courier-Express.

Jeff Vizza, Superintendent

Jeff Vizza is finishing up his second year as Brockway Superintendent.

Vizza graduated from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and taught 12 years at the elementary level. He started his teaching career at Calvert County School District in Maryland before spending twenty-five years in DuBois. He was a classroom teacher for nine years, the assistant principal at DuBois Area High School for 13 years, and then spent three years as the high school’s head principal. For the past two years, Vizza has been the co-principal at Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School.

Vizza believes that his vision for the school district helped seal his promotion.

“I speak from my heart,” he said. “Education should help prepare our students to become productive members of our community and its future. My three focuses are improving academic achievement, making connections with students, and investing in technology. Our students should be able to compete in the 21^st Century job market. I believe in the old adage, ‘If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.’”

Vizza believes that Brockway is doing well in most areas. Instead of pushing through changes, Vizza is focusing on expanding and growing existing programs.

“We will be adding to what we do,” he said. “It’s imperative to ask our alumni, ‘How can we prepare you better for your college experience?’ We’ll add more STEM classes, especially in seventh and eighth grade. We always need to find new ways to help our students succeed.”

-Andrew Bundy

Previously published in the Courier-Express

Brian Mulhollan, Principal

Brian Mulhollan moved from DuBois Area High School to the Brockway Area School District.

Three candidates made it to the final round of interviews in Brockway, and the school board went into executive session for almost an hour during its meeting on May 22. When they voted on the principal position, Mulhollan got a unanimous vote.

“Dan Hawkins took me around Brockway while I was working on my superintendent’s papers,” Mulhollan said. “I got to see the community then, but I look forward to getting to know what it’s like on a day-to-day basis.”

Mulhollan has worked as the assistant principal at DuBois Area High School for over 11 years. He has 27 years of working in education, and he thinks that his varied experience set him apart from other candidates.

“I think my experience at a number of different schools helped,” he said. “I taught junior high, worked in both high school and junior high, and have experience with a vocational-technical school. I see the dynamics of a lot of different places and can bring those pieces together in Brockway.”

Mulhollan has some mixed emotions about taking over at Brockway. He enjoyed working in DuBois and the relationships he formed there.

“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to build relationships with the community, the families, and the students at DuBois. But I look forward to doing that in Brockway. I’m excited about the opportunity to work at the elementary level. I look forward to new challenges.”

-Andrew Bundy

Previously published in the Courier-Express

Mark Dippold, Principal

Mark Dippold, the co-principal with Brian Mulhollan at the high school, was the assistant to retired principal Denise Carlini for 11 years. Carlini’s retirement after seeing the school through a decade presented Dippold with an opportunity and a challenge.

“I had two weeks to prepare for the new school year when she retired,” Dippold said. “In some ways, you feel overwhelmed with that short of a timetable. Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time I had helped get the school ready for the first day. Having great support from the staff and administration has really helped. We went through the checklist, focused on the deadlines, and the first day went off perfectly.”

Dippold’s desk is the same one he sat behind for 11 years. A Spider-Man bobble-head faces the door, paperwork is sorted and organized around a busy blotter, and his computer buzzes with emails.

“Nothing surprised me when I took over,” he said. “The assistant principal position is a hodgepodge of different responsibilities. I had already dealt with discipline, coverage for teachers, observations, managing activities, and things like that. What was new was the amount of responsibilities. The finer details of being a principal are huge. Things like figuring out instructional hours, schedules, are much more responsibility than I had before. The volume of work has increased.”

Despite that volume of work, this is something that Dippold has been thinking about for a while. He sent a letter to his staff and the families at his school explaining the change and his philosophy for the coming year.

“I believe that change for the sake of change is a bad thing,” Dippold said. “We will look at some things, like schedules, course offerings, and things like that, but those are things that need to be revisited every so often for schools to stay relevant. People don’t like change because it takes them out of their comfort zones, but change that is planned for sustainable development is good. We don’t want to jump into anything, so we’ll really think about why we do things and what can be changed or kept the same. This will be a process.”

The process continues with Mr. Mulhollan on the staff.

-Andrew Bundy

Previously published in the Courier-Express

Candace Patricelli, Principal

The sensory and creativity gardens at Brockway Area Elementary School were just the beginning of Principal Candace Patricelli’s plans for the school.

“We have a few projects we are working on and will continue to work on in the future,” Patricelli said. “The two gardens were funded by the Brockway Schools and Community Education Foundation. These spaces in our building provide a wonderful place for students and teachers to go and enjoy being outside while learning in a fun atmosphere. Talented artists through BCAT and T & D Carvings created one-of-a-kind pieces to spark the children’s imaginations.”

Patricelli is working on fostering kindness and creativity at her school. Working with the parents, teachers, and the community, Patricelli is trying to reinvent the school to make it more welcoming. She asked the Parent-Teacher Group to provide money to redecorate the elementary office. She posted positive messages around the school to make sure the students had a chance to get a positive message everywhere they went. The Parent-Teacher Group also provides weekly snacks for the staff. Jeff Tech printed up a sign with a message about being a nice kid. The high school wood shop made her a frame. Stephanie Benson is guiding the high school art club members in painting positive messages on the walls.

“The fifth grade girls’ bathroom says ‘Little girls with big dreams become the leaders of tomorrow,’” Patricelli said. “I certainly believe that.”

Along with the positive messages, the math department is working on math concepts that the students need to master. Those will soon appear on the steps going up to the second floor. Patricelli said that the art on the wall promotes both academic success and personal growth.

“I always say to the students that even more than the math and reading skills they learn here at school, I want them to learn to be a good person,” Patricelli continued. “Being kind to others can take you a long way in life. You never know when someday in your future, your small kindness to someone will be remembered or returned. We are just starting this kind, creative culture movement with all of our artwork around the building. I hope it only grows in the years to come.”

-Andrew Bundy

Previously published in the Courier-Express

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