Twin Valley board reviews PACE task force findings, lays out multi‑year plan on student mental health, substance use and bullying

The Twin Valley School District Board on April 22 received a report from a district PACE task force that reviewed 2023 PACE survey results and proposed an action plan to address student mental health, substance use, bullying and related elementary‑school concerns.

The presentation was led by Dr. Chris Watson, a PACE task‑force co‑lead, and Tanya Hollis, a SAC coordinator who also represents the Karen Foundation. They told the board the task force met in three sessions this year to analyze the PACE report, identify district strengths and challenges, and draft a timeline of steps the district could take in year 1, year 2 and year 3.

The task force highlighted several strengths in the 2023 data: lower-than‑state‑average lifetime use of prescribed pain medication across grades and a marked drop in lifetime gambling among 12th graders from 38.9% in 2021 to 17% in 2023. The presenters also flagged several challenges, notably that tenth graders in 2023 reported lifetime rates at or above the state average for alcohol, marijuana, inhalants and vaping. The task force said those tenth graders are now current juniors, a detail the group noted matters for planning interventions.

Tanya Hollis described the district’s resource inventory and recommended stronger coordination and communication. She outlined tiered Student Assistance Program (SAP) supports (Tier 1 universal prevention, Tier 2 psychoeducational/intervention groups, Tier 3 behavioral‑health assessment) and said some assessments in Berks County are provided at no direct cost to parents. Hollis also demonstrated an online “e‑prevention” tool packaged for parents and a youth self‑screening tool; she said the district’s communications office can host the materials in a Microsoft Sway package for easy parent access. "Intervention, education and prevention is really key to helping with a lot of the substance use, the mental health and the bullying," Hollis said.

The task force encouraged the district to use existing partners, including the Karen Foundation and the Child Guidance Resource Center, and to expand staff education, parent engagement and student curricula. Specific proposals in the draft action plan include: reviewing health‑class and counseling curricula K–12 to identify gaps, offering staff professional development on social‑emotional learning and SAP procedures, using the Sway package and other communications to centralize resources for families, and holding targeted parent or community presentations at school events. The draft action plan also includes an “elementary concerns” column added after task‑force members requested attention to first‑through‑fourth‑grade issues analogous to those found at higher grades.

Task force members told the board they had streamlined school‑level referral processes, digitized SAP referrals and teacher observation forms, and prepared a staff referral guide and QR code for quick access at the middle and high school level. They reported an increase in SAP referrals at the middle‑school level this year and said vaping incidents at the middle school were "very few" so far this year compared with last year.

Board members praised the work and asked that the committee continue beyond a single year to track progress. The task force recommended maintaining the group and reconvening after the 2025 PACE survey to evaluate trends and update the action plan.

The presentation did not include a board vote; the report and draft action plan were distributed to board members for further review.