Safety is one of the top priorities for Sto-Rox School District. It makes sense then, the district turned to a school safety expert to assess its needs ahead of the 2022-2023 school year.
Enter Aaron Skrbin, Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Director of Safety and Security.
“I take what goes on in the places that I’m working in personally, especially Sto-Rox,” he said. It’s important to me.”
Marrying advocacy with action, Skrbin helps school districts across Allegheny County plan for emergencies, takes stock of their facilities, and consults with them on everything from equipment to attitude.
“I go where I'm invited,” he said. While the AIU is not regulatory, he can provide a “road map” for districts like Sto-Rox to follow.
Aaron Skrbin, AIU’s Director of Safety and Security.
“I provide a lot of training in the area of threat assessment teams, development, and tabletop exercises for schools to test emergency operation plans,” he explained. “I also serve as a liaison between all of the schools and the AIU to the County Emergency Operations Center and to state level agencies.”
The role is more than just coordination and planning, though. Skrbin pushes state leaders in Harrisburg to make sure schools are safe, “talking to legislatures, legislators, talking with schools, first responder agencies, whatever the case may be.”
Skrbin is a native of Wilkins Township, a graduate of Serra Catholic, and is no stranger to public service. His father was a firefighter, serving with Wilkins Township Volunteer Fire Company #3 for 60 years until his passing in 2009.
“I basically grew up in a fire station, and I also had a passion for history and that led me to education,” he explained. “I started my career as a social studies teacher and I became an assistant principal in the Woodland Hills School District.”
Attaining a Bachelor’s degree from Duquesne University and a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, it wasn’t until Skrbin came to South Fayette School District in 2005 as assistant high school principal that his work on school safety really took off. He was literally handed the job during one of his first meetings with district administrators.
“They pulled out the binder of the school safety plan that was made like three years earlier and they never looked at it again. They said, ‘Um, you're a firefighter in Mt. Lebanon, right? OK, this is yours.’ And I became responsible for school safety.”
Over the next decade, he voluntarily worked with AIU on school safety issues. The AIU didn’t have anyone specifically doing the work. Instead, it was reliant on a liaison with Allegheny County Emergency Services and a committee featuring Skrbin.
“People would call the (AIU) for all their school safety and (they) would tell them to call me,” he recalled.
In 2019, the AIU created the job he now calls his own. Soon after, an opportunity to evaluate Sto-Rox’s security came up as part of a PCCD, or Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant through AIU. Dr. Licia Lentz, AIU’s Program Director of Alternative Education, spearheaded the initiative to team Sto-Rox officials with AIU and community partners.
“I'm basically helping (Sto-Rox) get into compliance with state mandates, having an emergency operations plan in place, conducting training,” he explained. He also advises the district on other safety-related programs like the Safe Passages program, which will help students reach school safely.
Primarily, Skrbin has advised Sto-Rox on its essentials: metal detectors, security cameras, and school resource officers (SRO’s). It reflects the reality of going to school in America right now.
“When you talk about school safety, people automatically go right to active shooters. I'm very vocal about my support for the idea of SRO’s,” he explained. “But school safety starts with relationships. It starts with human interaction. It starts with building a culture where people feel safe, or at least telling someone if they don't feel safe.”
Skrbin sees parallels between his native Wilkins Township - home of the Woodland Hills School District - and Sto-Rox.
At right: One of the hallway murals referenced by Skrbin, during a summer graduation ceremony.
“It’s very relatable to me, growing up in Woodland Hills, I think they’re very similar. Similar challenges, very similar histories,” he explained. A believer that school safety is about more than cutting-edge equipment, Skrbin says a school’s “vibe” is just as important.
“The way your building works tells students how the community feels as well,” he explained. “If kids walk into a building that’s falling down, how do they feel? ‘This is supposed to be where I'm gonna get educated. So people don't value it, right?’And whether they're verbalizing that we're internalizing that, it's there.”
Skrbin used the hallways of Sto-Rox Jr./Sr. High School as an example.
“They have some of these murals that depict some community history and the various cultures that were present, and I was like, ‘You’ve got to capitalize on that.’”
He continued, “When I would teach social studies at Woodland Hills, and this was 25 years ago, the community was and still is reeling from the decline of the steel industry. During World War II, that Westinghouse plant employed 100,000 people. And that shut down.”
Skrbin would teach his classes about the former Westinghouse plant in East Pittsburgh - now Keystone Commons - as an example of history sitting right down the street.
“When you think of those things in terms of helping to build pride within kids in their community, it goes a long way to developing a culture. The people in Sto-Rox get that.”
Skrbin praised the new leadership in Sto-Rox, including Superintendent Megan Van Fossan. While he has no illusions about the difficulty of the task, he believes the people in the district, newcomers and veterans alike, are up to the job.
“They’re working hard to make that happen, and it’s a tough road.”
With Skrbin on their side, Sto-Rox stands a very good chance of making its schools safer and prouder than ever.
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More Information: AIU Safety & Security