WILTON, Conn. — The Wilton Board of Education is calling on the town to move early voting out of the Clune Center and all other school buildings, after a suspicious person near the polling site sent three schools into lockdown procedures last month.

The board's chair described the Oct. 26 incident at the board's meeting Thursday. At the request of the Wilton Police Department, Wilton High School, Cider Mill School and Middlebrook School were placed in secure mode after a suspicious person approached the Clune Center, where the town was holding early voting, the chair said. The high school was moved to a full lockdown.

Officers were on campus right away and were ready to arrest anyone who posed a threat, and officers stood outside the high school with guns drawn, the chair said.

"Last Monday was a difficult day," the chair said. Police found there was no threat. But the chair said the emergency response "left many scared and unsettled and raised difficult questions."

Over the past week the board has received more than 30 emails, most of them from current high school students, asking the town to move early voting somewhere other than a school, according to the chair. The superintendent is leading the response to those emails, and board members have read every letter, the chair said.

"We want to thank especially the students for their courage and advocacy," the chair said.

State law allows early voting at schools but doesn't require it, the chair noted. Schools, police and school staff had raised safety concerns about early voting in earlier years, the chair said, and "the events of Monday demonstrate the need for the town to move early voting from the Clune Center and all school facilities."

The Board of Selectmen took up the location of early voting at its last meeting, and the consensus there was that it should move to a site that isn't a school, according to the chair. The selectmen agreed to come back to the issue this winter and find another location, the chair said.

The superintendent's Oct. 27 letter to families explained what happened and how the schools and police responded. It also shared what a review after the incident found had gone well and what hadn't, the chair said. The board discussed the incident again in executive session before Thursday's public meeting. Students and staff were encouraged to use the school district's support resources.