The Fairbanks school district is planning to conduct active-shooter response drills in area schools starting next year. Students and staff no longer are going to be encouraged to hide in their classrooms and wait for law enforcement under a new program that has the backing of top area law enforcement officials. Superintendent Karen Gaborik announced the program earlier this week, telling the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District school board that core staff will participate in the training. Training for students will start at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year. “We are going to start making this shift officially,” she said. New protocols being adopted by the district involve training people to monitor, confront and distract shooters and to evacuate schools when possible.