Security Team Expanded At Perkiomen Valley School District

PERKIOMEN VALLEY, PA — The Perkiomen Valley School District has hired contracted security professionals to assist with the safety of district school students and personnel, the superintendent of schools announced this week.

Barbara A. Russell, head administrator for the central Montgomery County district, announced that a decision was recently made to add contracted individuals to the district's security team.

Starting next week, each of the district's elementary schools will have a dedicated security staff member, while the middle schools will have a security person during the day and another one for after-school hours, Russell said in her announcement, which was posted to the school district's website.

Perkiomen Valley High School, she stated, would continue to have several security staffers throughout the school day and during after-school activities and events due to a larger number of students at the high school level.

"Our secondary students are used to seeing security personnel in and around their buildings on a daily basis, however, the elementary students are not," Russell said in her message. "I wanted you to be aware of this new presence and to be able to provide your child with additional information if needed."

Russell said schoolteachers and principals would be informing students about the changes "to facilitate positive relationships between our students and these new staff members."

Russell did not state whether or not specific security incidents prompted the move to hire additional safety personnel.

Patch reached out to Dean Miller, the district's safety supervisor, to try and get some insight into the move behind hiring outside security workers to supplement the work by district staff, but an emailed message was not returned by the time of the publication of this story.