Sometimes a look backward provides the best measure of how far we’ve come.

That’s certainly the case with Butler School District.

One year ago, the district was mired in a regulatory scandal involving unsafe concentrations of lead and copper in the well water at Summit Township Elementary school that prompted the school’s closing.

A series of reports in the Butler Eagle disclosed that members of the administration knew for several months about the substandard water tests but neglected to address the problems or report them to state authorities.

The disclosures precipitated the unexpected early retirement of superintendent Dale Lumley and the dismissal of two other ranking administrators. Summit’s pupils were temporarily relocated in the vacant Broad Street Elementary in Butler while a municipal water line was extended to Summit to replace the well.

The Butler School Board released few details about Lumley’s letter of resignation, which they accepted at an emergency meeting Feb. 8, 2017, explaining he intended to retire.

But board member Bill Halle said he fought unsuccessfully for Lumley’s suspension and removal of his retirement benefits.

“I am disgusted,” Halle told the Eagle after that meeting. “At some point we have to start, as elected officials, doing what is right, taking a stand for what is right instead of just making a decision based on the path of least legal cost.”

One year and two weeks later, it appears that the board is taking Halle’s advice. Under the board’s direction, Superintendent Brian White has shown decisive leadership in recent days responding to perceived, potential and actual threats to the safety of the school district and its students.

White, who signed a five-year contract with the district in August, last week the board sign off on a policy update that arms school nurses with EpiPens. Just two days later, the new policy likely saved a student with severe allergies from serious harm or possibly even death when the high school nurse used the stock EpiPen to treat the child.

More recently — and more importantly — White assigned resource officer John Stepansky as the district’s cyber security officer. Stepansky will seek out crimes on and around the schools, threats to students and staff, sexual exploitation of students and bullying. In an interview with the Eagle published this week, Stepansky said part of the job is spotting information leaked on social media sites about planned school violence — information like the post that led to the arrest of a 28-year-old Allegheny County man accused of threatening to “shoot up” a Butler school. The suspect, Bryan Flecken, was jailed on $250,000 bond with a court injunction forbidding him to come within a mile of any Butler school property or function.

The arrest coincided with an actual school shooting last week in suburban Miami, in which a former student fatally shot 17 people.

As an added precaution, Campus Lane, which crosses the high school grounds, has been closed to through-traffic during school hours. Resource officers posted on the lane are asking drivers to turn around and refrain from using the popular shortcut.

The precautions and policy changes declare clearly that safety or our children is our highest priority. Consistent gestures reflecting such security will go a long way toward the restoration of trust in our schools and the officials who run them.

The change should be acknowledged and welcomed.