How we respond.

Every Montesano school uses the same five-word response language — the Standard Response Protocol (opens in a new tab) from the I Love U Guys Foundation. It's used at hundreds of WA districts (Aberdeen, Northshore, Shelton, others) so families moving between districts hear the same words for the same actions. A kindergartner and a high schooler get the same instruction. It works because it's short and practiced.

Hold.
Stay in your room. Clear the halls.
Used when staff need the hallways briefly clear — a medical event, a custody question at the office, a maintenance issue. Class continues normally inside the room.
Secure.
Get inside. Lock outside doors.
Used when there's a concern outside the building — police activity nearby, a person who shouldn't be on or near campus. Exterior doors lock; class continues inside; students stay away from windows.
Lockdown.
Locks. Lights. Out of sight.
Used when there's a threat inside the building. Classroom doors lock, lights go out, students move out of view and stay silent. Practiced every year, every grade.
Evacuate.
To a stated location.
Used for fire, gas leak, structural damage, or any condition that means leaving the building is safer than staying. Every classroom has a route and a meeting point — practiced as fire drills.
Shelter.
Hazard. Safety strategy.
Used for earthquakes, hazardous materials releases, or severe weather. Students stay in the building and take the right safer position — drop-cover-hold for shaking, away from windows for weather.

How we drill.

Washington law (RCW 28A.320.125) requires every district to run at least one safety drill every month — including during summer programs. Across a school year, every student practices each protocol at least once: fire/evacuation, lockdown, shelter-in- place, and earthquake (drop, cover, hold). Some drills are announced; some are walk-throughs that staff lead so younger students aren't alarmed.

Drills are deliberately boring. Repetition is the point — when an actual incident happens, the response is muscle memory, not a decision being made under stress.

Reunification — bringing families back together.

If a building is evacuated and students can't return that day, we'll send you to a reunification site. Here's what it looks like:

  • You'll get a notificationwith the site address. Don't come to the school first — the reunification site might be a block away or several miles away depending on the incident.
  • Bring a photo ID.We will not release a student to anyone whose name isn't on the emergency contact list in Skyward. Make sure your contacts are current before something happens.
  • Expect to wait.Release is one student at a time, signed out, with the adult's ID matched against the student record. It's slower than a normal pickup. Slower is the point.
  • Don't call 911 unless you have new information. Lines need to stay open for staff and responders. Updates will come through the channels listed below.

Why we don't pre-publish reunification addresses. The right site depends on the incident — the same fire might send Beacon students to one location and MJSHS students to a different one. Publishing a list of addresses ahead of time would also let a bad actor stage there. The address comes to you when the moment comes, through the channels you already get district messages from.

How you'll hear from us.

In a closure, late start, or active incident, we use the same channels every time. The single source of truth is FlashAlert (organization 829); everything else echoes from there.

  • The banner at the top of every page on this site. Reads from FlashAlert; updates within five minutes of a new posting.
  • FlashAlert email + text alerts — sign up at flashalert.net (opens in a new tab). Free; the district doesn't see your contact info.
  • Skyward Family Access for in-school messages tied to your student.
  • Local radio + TV — KXRO 1320, KBKW 1450, and Seattle/Olympia TV stations pick up FlashAlert posts automatically.
  • District Facebook page for the same updates.

What you can do at home.

  • Keep your Skyward contacts current.Phone, email, and the names of adults authorized to pick your child up. We can't reach you on a number that's six months old.
  • Talk to your child about what drills mean. Younger kids especially benefit from a calm conversation at home — what the words mean, why the school practices, that practice is normal.
  • Have a family backup.Pick a meeting place outside the home, a plan if cell service is down, and a second adult who can pick up your student if you can't.

Tsunami and earthquake context.

Montesano sits inland in the Chehalis Valley. According to Washington Department of Natural Resources tsunami hazard maps (opens in a new tab), all four district buildings sit above the modeled inundation zone for a Cascadia subduction zone event — unlike coastal communities (Westport, Ocean Shores) where vertical evacuation becomes the response.

Earthquake shaking is the more relevant hazard for our buildings. Drop-cover-hold is practiced annually with every grade. The seismic response follows guidance from ESD 113 (opens in a new tab) and the OSPI School Safety Center.

About the full plan.

Monte's Comprehensive Safe School Plan is the operational document staff work from. Substantial portions are public — definitions, drill cadence, the protocols above, agency coordination — and you can request them through the district's public records process.

Some operational detail — named staff role assignments, specific reunification site addresses, building floor plans, tactical sub-procedures — is exempt under RCW 42.56.420 (opens in a new tab) and isn't released. Keeping that information internal is part of what protects students during an actual incident. We follow the same standard every WA district works to.