ZeroNow and the National Council of School Safety Directors present themselves as school safety organizations. Federal tax filings and public records, however, reveal a deeper network of security vendor connections, overlapping leadership, and funding.
Follow the nonprofit trail and the vendor connections appear
School security vendors once marketed primarily through exhibit halls, sales calls, product demonstrations, and sponsored conference sessions.
Today, the lines are becoming much harder to see.
For-profit security companies are increasingly connected to school safety nonprofits, professional associations, leadership programs, scholarships, standards initiatives, policy discussions, and networks of public school officials.
One example illustrating this is the relationships among Omnilert, ZeroNow, and the National Council of School Safety Directors (NCSSD).
To be clear, the publicly available records do not establish that Omnilert controls either organization or dictates their positions.
But they do reveal something school leaders should know: The connections are far deeper than a vendor simply sponsoring a nonprofit. Security industry vendor tentacles are throughout the mix.
Omnilert helped create ZeroNow
Omnilert sells emergency notification systems, automated security workflows, and AI-powered visual gun detection technology to schools and other organizations.
The company openly describes itself as a founding partner and co-founder of ZeroNow.
Omnilert co-founder Ara Bagdasarian also founded ZeroNow. Omnilert says the purpose behind the relationship includes increasing the pace and scale of funding for safety technology innovation, standards, and awareness. (Omnilert)
That is an important distinction. ZeroNow was not an independent education organization that subsequently accepted an Omnilert sponsorship. An Omnilert founder helped create it.
ZeroNow then developed school safety programming, webinars, policy initiatives, standards discussions, and the Path to Safer Schools framework while building a national network of educators, public safety officials, technology companies, and school safety practitioners.
Omnilert has also used its own corporate platform to promote ZeroNow programming. One Omnilert article describes a ZeroNow school safety technology webinar hosted by Bagdasarian featuring executives from Omnilert, Intel, and Axis Communications, including discussion of AI gun detection and Omnilert Gun Detect. (Omnilert)
This is where nonprofit education and commercial technology interests begin to overlap.
Then ZeroNow created NCSSD
ZeroNow later launched the National Council of School Safety Directors, positioning it as a professional organization for school safety leaders. NCSSD subsequently became a separate 501(c)(6) organization.
But IRS records reveal a detail that may not be as obvious from the public branding. The EIN now used by NCSSD, 86-2422395, is the same EIN originally used by Zero Now.
The organization’s initial FY2022 federal Form 990-EZ identifies:
Organization: Zero Now
EIN: 86-2422395
Tax status: 501(c)(6)
Today, the same EIN appears under the name National Council of School Safety Directors. (IRS FY2022 filing; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)
The records therefore indicate that the original Zero Now 501(c)(6) entity was ultimately renamed or repurposed as NCSSD, while a separate ZeroNow charitable organization appears to have been established.
That makes the connection between the two organizations considerably more direct than simply describing them as cooperating “sister organizations.”
The NCSSD officers tell an even more interesting story
The latest NCSSD IRS Form 990, filed in May 2026, lists four officers:
- Ara Bagdasarian, President
- Bruce Canal, Vice President
- Jeff McWeeney, Secretary
- Timm Johnson, Treasurer
The IRS 990 filing lists Ara Bagdasarian as the principal officer of NCSSD.
NCSSD’s latest available Form 990 identifies Ara Bagdasarian as president and principal officer during the tax reporting period. NCSSD’s current public-facing leadership, however, identifies a school district security administrator as president. The distinction between the IRS-reported officer structure and NCSSD’s subsequently announced leadership is so noted.
Here is what is interesting:
Based on the professional biographies and employment histories reviewed for this analysis, none of the four officers listed on the Form 990 was identified as a currently practicing school district security director during the reporting period. Of the four, Canal is the one whose reviewed professional history documents prior service as a school district Director of Physical Security.
Yet they are named officers of an organization called the National Council of School Safety Directors.
Their security industry professional connections are also revealing.
President: Omnilert and ZeroNow
Bagdasarian co-founded Omnilert and founded ZeroNow.
Omnilert continues to identify him as one of its co-founders and identifies itself as a founding partner of ZeroNow. (Omnilert)
So the president listed on NCSSD’s federal tax return connects:
Omnilert → ZeroNow → NCSSD
That does not appear to be just an incidental vendor relationship. It looks more like an organizational lineage.
Vice President: security technology industry
NCSSD’s vice president, Bruce Canal, has spent years working within the commercial security technology industry, including roles connected with Axis Communications and, more recently until July of 2026, Genetec.
Both companies operate extensively in video surveillance, access control, analytics, and physical security technology.
Canal’s LinkedIn profile also lists him as a member of the Board of Directors for ZeroNow.org since July 2021 to the present (5 years, 2 months). It lists him as a member of the NCSSD since January 2024.
It also shows him as Executive Lead-Education for Genetec from May 2023-July 2026. Prior to that he is listed with Axis Communications from October 2018-May 2023.
Canal did have school district experience as a Director of Physical Security with Orange County Schools in Florida from 2013 to 2018 where his role focused on security technology and physical security, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Secretary: the architect of the ZeroNow brand
NCSSD’s secretary, Jeff McWeeney, founded the design firm Additional Corporation and says he founded ZeroNow in 2021 and designed its Path to Safer Schools. McWeeney helped create the branding and framework through which ZeroNow has presented its school safety ideas to education leaders.
And NCSSD also promotes the ZeroNow Path to Safer Schools on its website.
Additional Corporation itself describes the company (McWeeney) as a co-founder of ZeroNow:
“And, in 2021, I founded ZeroNow, and designed the Path to Safer Schools— a set of national standards born from Zero’s design lab focused on creating what school safety needs next.” (Additional Corporation)
(It is worth distinguishing between an organization’s internally developed framework or recommended practices and a nationally recognized standard by the PreK-12 education community and/or determinations by courts of law.)
McWeeney’s background appears to be primarily design, branding, digital experience, and technology largely for the corporate world rather than experience in school security administration or in the PreK-12 education community.
Treasurer: Omnilert, ZeroNow, and Business Leadership
Timm Johnson, NCSSD Treasurer: George Mason University’s Small Business Development Center currently identifies Johnson as its Director. His official Mason SBDC biography describes more than 30 years of finance and operations experience with technology and services companies and identifies him as a founding director of Venture Mentors, a business advisory firm.
More significantly, the biography states that through Venture Mentors, Johnson has provided leadership roles in several companies and organizations, including Omnilert LLC and ZeroNow. It also describes his experience as a CFO in business formation and strategy, venture-capital acquisition, operations management, and company exits. (George Mason University SBDC biography of Timm Johnson)
So who actually governs the National Council of School Safety Directors, and how many of its board officers and directors are, in fact, practicing school safety directors?
Taken together, the federal filing presents a picture that is easy to miss from NCSSD’s public-facing identity.
Its four reported officers were:
An Omnilert co-founder and ZeroNow founder
A recent commercial security technology executive
A designer and ZeroNow co-founder who helped build ZeroNow’s brand and school safety framework
A business development professional with leadership roles connected to Omnilert and ZeroNow
In addition to these four individuals, the NCSSD IRS 990 lists five other directors on its board: Josh Bronson, Melissa Agnes, Joe Samaha, Dr. Miles Davis, and Amy Jeffs.
According to a ZeroNow website for Path to Safer Schools, Amy Jeff is President of the technology vendor, Status Solutions. Bronson is the former Chief of Staff for the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives. Samaha is President of the VTV Family Outreach Foundation. Davis is the Dean Emeritus of Shenandoah University. Melissa Agnes appears to be the Founder and CEO of Crisis Ready Institute.
As noted above, NCSSD’s latest available Form 990 identifies Ara Bagdasarian as president and principal officer during the tax reporting period. NCSSD’s current public-facing leadership, however, identifies a school district security administrator as president. The distinction between the IRS-reported officer structure and NCSSD’s subsequently announced leadership is so noted.
That does not mean NCSSD lacks legitimate K-12 school security practitioners. It clearly has practitioners involved in its membership, programs, and advisory activities.
NCSSD’s website at the time of this publication lists 6 of its 13 Board of Directors as school district security directors. It also includes three persons who work for security vendors including the Vice Chair of the Partners Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS), and Bagdasarian, Omnilert’s co-founder and co-founder and Board President of ZeroNow. (To see my vendor tentacle analysis of PASS, click here)
But the IRS-reported officer and director structure provides important context about who the organization reported to the IRS as occupying its principal officer positions during the reporting period. None of the four reported officers was identified in the professional histories reviewed for this analysis as a currently active school district security director during that reporting period.
And that context is noteworthy given NCSSD’s positioning as a national professional organization for school safety directors.
The money adds another layer
NCSSD’s FY2025 Form 990 reports: $213,189 in revenue and according to the IRS data summarized by ProPublica, 100 percent of that revenue was reported as contributions. No program-service revenue was reported. (ProPublica)
The filing does not identify the contributors behind that $213,189.
But NCSSD identifies industry partners that fund its work to include security companies. Annual “partnership” rates range from $5,000 to $25,000 according to the NCSSD site. One of the partner companies is Omnilert. (NCSSD Omnilert Partner Page)
NCSSD also publicly identifies security-industry companies among the organizations financially supporting its activities. NCSSD identifies Axon, CEIA USA, HID, Motorola Solutions, and Omnilert as underwriters of its Foundations of School Security Leadership (FoSSL) Scholarship Program. Scholarship recipients receive access to NCSSD’s certificate course as well as a complimentary first year of NCSSD membership.
Some of these relationships are independently documented by the vendors themselves. CEIA USA says it is funding 250 scholarships, while HID says it has underwritten 1,000 scholarships, with both programs including NCSSD membership for recipients.
The unanswered question is therefore straightforward: How much of NCSSD’s reported contribution revenue comes from companies selling security products and services into the same K-12 marketplace represented by NCSSD’s members?
That is a disclosure NCSSD could voluntarily make.
And then there is the public-school security administrator connection
A July 2026 WJLA 7News I-Team investigation examined another layer of the Omnilert-ZeroNow-NCSSD relationship.
Without focusing on the individual involved, the relevant facts reported by WJLA are significant.
The president of NCSSD also serves as the director of school safety and security for a large Maryland school district. According to the story, that school district uses Omnilert technology.
WJLA reported that:
- ZeroNow paid approximately $1,000 in travel expenses for the school security administrator to participate in a national superintendents’ conference event.
- The invitation came from the ZeroNow founder who also co-founded Omnilert.
- The ZeroNow founder and Omnilert co-founder was also reportedly at the conference panel.
- The school administrator later became president of NCSSD.
- Omnilert is among NCSSD’s industry partners.
- The administrator has publicly provided favorable comments about Omnilert technology.
WJLA also reported the responses of those involved. The administrator said he did not see a conflict, the school district said the travel complied with its policy, and ZeroNow said it maintains safeguards against impropriety.
Read the full investigation: (WJLA 7News I-Team, July 2, 2026)
Taken together, these do not appear to be isolated relationships. They do appear to be an interconnected ecosystem of organizations, individuals, vendors, funding, and school safety activities.
Bottom line: The organizational and vendor relationships are deeply intertwined
There is no public evidence proving that Omnilert controls ZeroNow or NCSSD, dictates their recommendations, or improperly directs their leaders. That distinction is important.
In fact, NCSSD’s Administrator, Dennis Russo, has previously communicated to me that they work to keep safeguards so vendor influence does not creep into NCSSD member interactions.
And there are many NCSSD school district members who are hardworking school security directors who want the best in school safety for their students, staff, and schools.
But the documented security vendor relationships with the organization itself are extensive.
Omnilert helped create ZeroNow.
An Omnilert co-founder founded ZeroNow.
ZeroNow created NCSSD.
The original ZeroNow tax entity and EIN became the entity now identified as NCSSD.
Based on the professional histories reviewed for this analysis, none of the four officers identified on NCSSD’s latest Form 990 was a currently practicing school district security director during the reporting period.
One was an Omnilert co-founder and ZeroNow founder. Another came from the commercial security technology industry and previously served as a school district physical security director. A third helped found, brand, and design ZeroNow. The fourth has a business and finance background that includes documented leadership roles involving Omnilert and ZeroNow.
Omnilert is also an NCSSD industry partner and a publicly identified underwriter of NCSSD’s FoSSL Scholarship Program.
And a public school security administrator who now serves as NCSSD’s public-facing president works for a district purchasing Omnilert technology and has additional documented connections to ZeroNow and Omnilert reported by WJLA.
These facts do not prove wrongdoing nor is that the intent of this analysis. But they do justify transparency and scrutiny. And vendor tentacle footprints are abundant.
The issue raised here is not whether these relationships are unlawful or inherently improper. It is whether school leaders evaluating nonprofit and professional-association guidance have sufficient transparency to understand the commercial, organizational, financial, and leadership relationships surrounding that guidance.
The nonprofit school safety halo deserves scrutiny
There is nothing inherently improper about security companies supporting nonprofit organizations or professional associations. Vendors can contribute valuable technical expertise.
But nonprofit status can also create a credibility halo. A nonprofit may appear independent even when commercial companies helped create it, finance it, govern it, or shape its programming.
A professional association may appear practitioner-controlled while vendors simultaneously fund scholarships, programs, events, and organizational operations.
That is why the relevant question is not simply: Is it a nonprofit?
The better questions are: Who created it? Who funds it? Who governs it? Who gains access to school decision-makers? Who benefits when its ideas become accepted school safety practice?
Bottom line for school administrators and school safety leaders
Superintendents, school boards, and school security leaders should know when organizations presenting themselves as sources of school safety expertise are deeply connected to companies selling security products into the same marketplace.
The vendor tentacles no longer stop at the exhibit booth.
They can extend into nonprofits, professional associations, boards, credentials, scholarships, policy discussions, practitioner networks, and ultimately into the relationships surrounding school security purchasing decisions.
Follow the nonprofit. Follow the board. Follow the money. Follow the vendor relationships.
The connections some school safety non-profits have with security industry vendors tell their own story.
And those stories should be part of what goes into school safety critical thinking and informed decision-making by superintendents, school boards, school security administrators, and other school leaders.
Dr. Kenneth S. Trump is President of National School Safety and Security Services
National School Safety and Security Services
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