Officials, police review security State police and school, municipal officials from P'burg, sending districts discuss high school. Friday, February 08, 2008 • By ANDREA EILENBERGER • The Express-Times PHILLIPSBURG | A group of school and municipal officials met privately Thursday with members of the New Jersey State Police to review its security assessment of Phillipsburg High School. The meeting included key leaders from the surrounding townships that send students to the high school. Citing the sensitive nature of the information, Phillipsburg School Board President Paul Rummerfield closed the meeting to the public and asked an Express-Times reporter to leave. "We're going to give a brief overview of the complete assessment," Ricardo Valmon, regional coordinator for the state police's infrastructure security unit, said before the private meeting began. He planned to discuss any "vulnerabilities" they had identified and offer suggestions the district can use to mitigate them. Valmon would not cite specifics relating to the high school, explaining that doing so would mean getting into data termed "law enforcement sensitive." Valmon was one of two officers at the meeting Thursday. State police worked in tandem with the school district's security team, town police department and county prosecutor's office to scrutinize the high school campus. The resulting report has not been released to the public and both state police and school district officials say to do so could jeopardize the school's security. Valmon said Thursday's meeting would include a "briefing and debriefing" and an overall idea of the campus' security posture. Typically, state police limit such reviews to schools that rely on them as first responders. Phillipsburg High School's campus of 31 trailers puts them into another category. Initially, the school board advertised the session as a special public meeting to review health and safety issues in school buildings and that they might meet in executive, or closed, session immediately after opening it. Rummerfield noted there was not a quorum of board members at Thursday's meeting. He classified it as a board committee meeting, which are permitted under board by-laws to hold closed meetings and invite certain guests. The group included school board members and administrators from sending districts. Phillipsburg Mayor Harry Wyant, Council President David DeGerolamo, Councilman Jim Shelly and Phillipsburg Police Chief Ed Mirenda also attended. Reporter Andrea Eilenberger can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at aeilenberger@express-times.com.