Following the Marysville-Pilchuck High School tragedy and the lockdown of three Silverdale schools last week, school officials sought to reassure students, staff and parents with a message on its Web page:

“Student and staff safety is our top priority.

“We regularly review emergency procedures with our students and staff to ensure that they are appropriate and that they are followed. When needed, we work closely with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue to coordinate security and emergency response efforts.”

The district takes potential threats seriously: Even before this week’s two area gun-related events it had planned to hold an “active shooter exercise” at Klahowya Secondary School. That exercise will be held in cooperation with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and fire and rescue personnel on Feb. 13, a no-school day. The district said it did not plan to reschedule the exercise to an earlier date despite the Marysville-Pilchuck shooting because that date had already been coordinated with other agencies.

Two days before the Marysville-Pilchuck shooting, school Board President Mark Gaines brought up the issue of school shootings during the board’s meeting. Gaines attended a safety meeting hosted by the Olympic Educational Service District held to evaluate how each of the districts handled safety and security at their facilities.

“We’re obviously aware of the threats to schools from shooters and those kinds of things,” Gaines told the board.

“We’ve had a number of those nationwide that have been pretty devastating. We talked a lot about what does our district do in that area and what should we be doing in that area?

“I think each school is very unique as far as how they’re configured: Do they have interior doors they can isolate the classroom from the building, or not? What is emergency response time look like at each one of those schools?”

District Superintendent David McVicker said buildings could be assessed for inexpensive safety modifications such as ensuring exterior doors are locked, adding fencing and trimming shrubs to ensure clear lines of sight.

Flexible thinking was key, McVicker said.

“The initial piece is how do we better help staff in particular know that in any emergency, a real emergency, you’re going to have to make decisions,” McVicker said.

“Whether it’s ‘these exits are closed and you didn’t know that,’ or ‘we’re going to have a drill in the middle of lunch, how do you do that?'”

Their planning was unexpectedly put to the test on Oct. 23 when a gun threat was directed toward three Silverdale schools. Central Kitsap High School, Westside Alternative School and Central Kitsap Junior High were locked-down for 25 minutes that day. All three schools are clustered near Anderson Hill Road.

Sgt. Ken Dickinson of the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said the lockdown began at 11:55 a.m. after someone notified the school of a possibility that someone might show up with a handgun.

He said sheriff’s deputies arrived and determined it was an unsubstantiated threat and that there was no mention of a handgun in any of their interviews. The lockdown ended at 12:20 p.m.

“We are continuing to investigate,” Dickinson said.

The lockdown was not related to the Marysville-Pilcheck High School event the following day, Dickinson later said.