Northampton Area School District has received a nearly one-half-million-dollar school safety grant, believed to be the largest of those received by school districts in Northampton and Lehigh counties.

NASD received the $450,928 grant from the School Safety and Security Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), which announced the allocations Feb. 26.

NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik, confirming receipt of the PCCD grant in a Feb. 28 email to The Press, said, “I am extremely proud and excited about the grant. We were awarded the most money in all of Northampton and Lehigh county school districts.

“I would like to thank Dr. Kathleen Ott, director of data, grants and special programs, for her expertise and commitment to this opportunity, which played a major role in securing the funds we received,” Kovalchik said. “It’s another service that will benefit students, staff, parents and the community.”

A two-year grant, half of the amount will be allocated to NASD the first year, with the remainder the following year.

“The money will be used for counseling at the elementary schools — one-to-one and group,” Kovalchik said. “Parents will also be involved at some point.”

Prior to the Feb. 26 announcement of the PCCD grant, the NASD Board of Education had voted unanimously 9-0 at its Feb. 24 meeting to approve a services agreement, effective Feb. 25, with St. Luke’s Physician Group Inc. to provide behavioral health services through Dec. 31, 2022. The services, provided at no cost to the district, include counseling for trauma, anxiety, depression and other mental health matters.

“The (school) board approved the contract with St. Luke’s on Monday (Feb. 24) for secondary students. This (PCCD) grant money will be used very much like that program but at the elementary schools,” Kovalchik continued in his email. “The counselors will be in every day of the school year. One will be stationed at Siegfried (Elementary School) because of the large population, and the other two will rotate between Lehigh, Moore and George Wolf (elementary schools).”

Kovalchik indicated, as of the Feb. 28 email, the NASD administration had not decided whether it would partner with an agency or hire staff with respect to the PCCD grant.

According to the PCCD news release, school projects were required to support the eligible categories/activities listed under Section 1306-B of the Public School Code of 1949, which includes performing school safety assessments, purchasing security-related technology and equipment, supporting school safety-related and behavioral health training, preparing all-hazards plans, hiring school resource officers, school police officers, school counselors, social workers and school psychologists, and providing for trauma-informed approaches to education.

The PCCD, under Act 44 of 2018, approved $53.7 million in school safety and security grants to 524 school entities and $7.5 million in community violence prevention/reduction grants to 30 organizations in the commonwealth, the news release stated.

For the school safety grants, school districts, intermediate units, area vocational/technical schools, charter schools, cyber charter schools, approved private schools, chartered schools for the education of the deaf or the blind and private residential rehabilitative institutions were eligible to apply for funding, according to the PCCD website.

Several other school districts in the Lehigh Valley received grant funds. Catasauqua Area School District received $35,000 and Whitehall-Coplay School District received $45,000.

At the Feb. 24 school board meeting, Kovalchik lauded Donna Lokay, tax office clerk, whose retirement, effective June 30, was accepted by a 9-0 vote by school directors.

“Donna served this district for 41 years, which is quite remarkable. Congratulations to her,” Kovalchik said prior to the vote.

In other business at the Feb. 24 meeting, school directors voted 9-0 to approve:

• Jason Williamson, NASD assistant business administrator, as the alternate voting delegate for the Northampton Tax Collection Committee for the district

• Ryan Mertz and two students to attend the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Northeast Region Orchestra Festival, Hazleton Area High School, Hazle Township, Luzerne County. The students will attend March 11-13. Mertz will attend March 11. Mertz will attend the performance March 13 but will not require a substitute. The approximate cost is $454.06, included in the board-approved district budget.

• Settlement agreements and releases for a special education student