At the Sept. 18 Communities That Care meeting, Whitehall-Coplay School District Superintendent Dr. Lorie Hackett gave the group an update on the district’s work with Faces International, a marketing and consulting agency based in Allentown.

According to Hackett, the school district partnered with Faces in January 2019 to look at the cultural diversity in the district. One of the company’s initiatives is cultural competence training.

“We acknowledged we have a diverse population at our schools, and we wanted to cultivate relationships,” Hackett said.

She noted working with Tyrone Russell, CEO of Faces International, was a wonderful experience.

It was decided to implement a cultural realization initiative in the district to introduce and give perspective on cultural differences to both the staff members and the students. Hackett wanted to change the perception in the school community that the district is “tone deaf” when it comes to cultural diversity.

The program began with a survey process for the students, staff and school community. The surveys and interviews were given by members of Faces International and were analyzed by an impartial third party. From these surveys and interviews, they identified different areas to address and created a work group made up of staff members, students, board members and members of the larger community.

According to Hackett, the next step in the process was to be professional development with staff members about implicit cultural biases. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic hit before this next step could be taken. Hackett reported this is still in the forefront and will be continued as soon as possible.

“At this point, we do plan to move forward with this initiative and recommendations,” Hackett said.

She noted the new school year has been hectic with teachers and students learning to adapt to the hybrid instructional model and the administration did not want to overwhelm the staff by implementing new professional development until everyone could get a handle on the changes.

“We need more normalcy,” she said.

Whitehall Township Mayor Michael Harakal Jr. was very interested in this initiative and requested a copy of the Faces report. Hackett noted the report can be found on the district website, whitehallcoplay.org.

Some members of the group said they read the report and were disappointed in its contents. They noted the report seemed too vague and did not ask or answer what they believed to be the right questions.

Both Denise Continenza, CTC moderator, and Hackett noted the report was just a starting point, and the district was planning more intensive work with Faces within the schools.

One CTC member noted she pulled her children out of the WCSD due to a lack of diversity in the faculty and staff. She said she appreciated the diversity of the student body but felt that diversity level did not work its way into the staff and administration.

“The staff does not reflect our student body,” Hackett agreed and noted it is something the administration is aware of and wants to address.

Another member of the group shared her concern about inclusion and equity in the district. She was concerned students of color were not represented in student activities and groups and wondered why. She said the school should not only be concerned about racism in the system, but also classism. She requested when the work group reconvenes, different classes should be represented in addition to diverse ethnicities.

Hackett encouraged any feedback from the group regarding the culture of the school and its diversity and noted the initiative is a work in progress and expected to grow.

The CTC usually has a group of students who attend the meetings to provide valuable feedback. Continenza noted she wants the next group of students to be more culturally diverse as well. Whitehall High School Assistant Principal Gabe Dillard noted it is too soon in this unconventional school year to be pulling students from classes to attend CTC meetings.

Continenza noted she is working on having the Pennsylvania Youth Survey the group has spent the last few months analyzing cross-tabbed by race and ethnicity, so the group can a different breakdown of the data. Hackett requested a copy of that report.

“This is such an important topic,” Continenza said. “It adds another dimension to our work, and I’m excited about it.”

She noted she is ready to work with the group and address implicit cultural bias and diversity issues.

In other business at the meeting, the group asked about the best way to get the information out about the latest PAYS data.

“We want people to know we have good kids in Whitehall and Coplay,” Continenza said.

Some options mentioned were having yard signs made, renting billboard space, using social media and posting the information to the school district and township websites.

The group also discussed its priorities moving forward. Members wanted to keep working on many of the same priorities they have had in the past to continue progressing in those areas.

One question from the group concerned the perceived low risk of drug use numbers in the report. According to the PAYS data, 50 percent of students reported have a perception of low risk for drug use. However, WHS counselor Chad Stefanyak noted the numbers for students using hard drugs, such as cocaine and prescription drugs, was very low.

“They are not hearing the message when it comes to vaping, but they are when it comes to heroin,” he said.

He wondered if the wording of that category was too broad. It was also reported in the survey only 16.1 percent of students said they had used marijuana in the past 30 days.

The students reported not perceiving a risk to using drugs, but the actual usage numbers were all much lower. Jon Irons, with Communities in Schools, wondered which number was more accurate.

Other priorities the group wanted to continue addressing included parental attitudes favorable to anti-social behavior and community opportunities for pro-social involvement. The students are reporting not feeling valued by their community and the CTC wants to know why.

It was reported the past 30-day use of alcohol numbers dropped from 16 percent reported in 2017 to 13 percent in the latest 2019 survey. Continenza asked if vaping should be added to this priority since the alcohol numbers continue to drop across all grade levels and the vaping numbers are high. The group agreed it was a good idea to focus on addressing vaping.

The next CTC meeting is 8:30 a.m. Oct. 23.