Saucon Valley school leaders delivered a detailed safety briefing that pulled four years of incident data and compared Saucon Valley to neighboring districts. Presenters emphasized reporting distinctions — "code of conduct" versus "non code of conduct" incidents — and warned that categorization methods can materially alter a district's state safety ranking.

The safety analyst explained how the district logs incidents reported to the Pennsylvania data system and how the state calculates incident rates per 100 students. The presenter noted that local practice can increase or decrease the portion of incidents that are counted toward the state safety rating: "These are the numbers that were pulled from the PDE site that goes into our incident system that's reported and see, you know, where that discrepancy might be," the presenter said.

Superintendent remarks underscored community concern about the district's comparative placement: "It is significant in the fact that we're ranked right now one of the most violent schools based on the data," the superintendent said, prompting several board members to question whether the ranking reflects actual student behavior or differences in reporting and discipline practices across districts.

Board members and presenters discussed specific categories: law enforcement contacts and arrests, physical-contact violations, harassment/intimidation and bullying incidents, possession of weapons and controlled substances, and consequences (in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, expulsions). Presenters flagged that local factors — for example, whether a vape incident is logged as a law-enforcement contact — change comparative numbers. One board member asked whether differences in county police reporting or in how other districts categorize incidents could explain wide numerical disparities; presenters acknowledged those as plausible contributors and said the district would examine records to reconcile discrepancies.

Administrators also previewed state-level changes that will require broader community notifications when weapons are brought onto campus, a change members said could affect how quickly and widely incidents are known. The safety team highlighted existing mental-health supports (an LVHN counselor, social worker, BCBA and care/treatment staff) and MTSS/SAP referral volumes per building and described plans to roll out Olweus bullying-prevention programming next year.

Next steps: the district will standardize internal reporting practices across buildings, provide a building-by-building breakdown of incidents as requested by a public commenter, post presentation materials to the district website, and follow up on the impacts of the state notification law.