Medford High School was among a handful of area schools that received bomb threats via automated phone messages the morning of Feb. 1.

Medford Superintendent of Schools Roy Belson said the threat came at about 9 a.m. After checking the building and monitoring security camera feeds, Belson said the district concluded the threat was not serious and chose not to evacuate the building.

The district sent a recorded phone message about the incident to parents later Monday evening. The district did not issue a news release about the incident to media outlets.

“We determined that this was not really a high-level — that this was a low-level threat,” Belson said during the Medford School Committee’s meeting the same night. “If we felt there was any kind of danger, we wouldn’t have waited to notify parents. We would have been moving youngsters very quickly.”

The automated phone threat was also received by schools in Lexington, Billerica, Wilmington and Mashpee, among others, along with the Middlesex Sheriff’s Department in Lowell and the State Police Barracks in Foxborough.

Lexington High School staff and students were evacuated from the building after the school received the threat at about 8:50 a.m. on Feb. 1, Lexington Superintendent of Schools Mary Czajkowski said. Police and fire departments cleared the building for re-entry by 10:40 a.m.

Belson said unlike Lexington High, a majority of the eight or so schools that received threats Feb. 1 did not evacuate staff and students.

“Most of them stayed in place — they didn’t respond to it,” Belson said. “We have had extensive discussion with the State Police about the appropriate responses to these matters.”

In Billerica, a letter from Superintendent Timothy Piwowar said the district determined the threat received at Billerica Memorial High School was “low-level.”

“Consistent with our response protocols and the Massachusetts Bomb Threat Response Guide, we determined this is a low-level threat and undertook a sweep of the building,” Piwowar’s letter said. “Although no bomb has ever been found in a Massachusetts school after a communicated threat, we take each threat seriously.”

Under Massachusetts law, anyone convicted of making a hoax bomb threat that results in the evacuation or serious disruption of a school can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined up to $50,000.

On Jan. 18 and 19, 16 area schools received bomb threats, including schools in Groton, Weymouth, Taunton, Arlington, Plymouth, Salisbury, Waltham, Ayer, Tewksbury, Newton, Billerica, Swampscott, Boston, Kingston and Westford, as well as Lexington’s Minuteman High School.

Some schools were evacuated, while others were put on lockdown.

On Jan. 15, schools in Falmouth, Bourne, Mashpee, Plymouth, Weymouth and Arlington received similar bomb threats.

Belson said district officials planned to meet Feb. 10 with Medford Police and other school and safety officials to discuss school security issues.