ELLENVILLE – A school shooting in Ellenville is an unlikely event, Ellenville police chief Phil Mattracion repeated during our conversation hours before a recent "table top meeting" where personnel from the police department would be going over logistics for the upcoming "Active Shooter in the School" drill with Ellenville School District superintendent Lisa Wiles and others.

But while the chief and school board member reiterated that he prays such a thing will never happen, he still feels that preparation for such things is important.

The drill will be taking place from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. next Wednesday, October 26 on the district campus. School will not be in session and no students will be on campus.

The purpose of this drill, a statement released from the village PD read, "is to test and improve the preparedness of all of the emergency responders and school district staff in the Ellenville area in the unlikely event of such a tragedy. The drill will simulate an active shooter in the school and test the emergency response to an armed subject."

This drill, Mattracion said, has taken well over a year to plan and follows specific criteria outlined by United States Department of Homeland Security. And while this is a simulation, Mattracion reiterated that those participating will be treating the exercise as realistically as possible.

At a recent meeting with his officers, Mattracion asked for a show of hands to find out how many officers had a family member or friend in the school district. An overwhelming number of hands shot up.

"This simulation... it's just scratching the surface," the chief commented.

On hand for the drill will be members of the Ulster, Sullivan and Orange County sheriffs' departments, NYS Police, staff from the Ellenville Regional Hospital, Town of Fallsburg and Village of Monticello police, officials from the NYS Office of Emergency Management and Ulster County Emergency Operations Center, as well as members of Ellenville Paramedic and Rescue Squad and the Ellenville, Napanoch and Kerhonkson fire departments. This year's event builds on a similar one last year... in an expanded fashion.

The idea is to work out the fast-moving logistics of such a situation. As such, the drill will only cover a small portion of what would be entailed as the result of a tragedy of such magnitude.

"It doesn't go into the aftermath," Mattracion said, "The reunification process..."

Upon completing the drill, agency leaders will come together again, for a "hot wash" or debriefing. There will also be steps for an After Action Reporting Plan, the chief added, which is required by Homeland Security.

The idea is to review the drill and make the necessary adjustments to protocol for next year's drill. And, heavens forbid, any real tragedy at the school of in the community.

Also, the way things are set up this year, Mattracion added, it gives Ellenville Regional Hospital the opportunity to exercise their mass casualty protocol as volunteer "victims" will actually be transported to the hospital.

Members of the public will not be allowed in, or around, the exercise area during the duration of the simulation.