Six Hilliard police officers will be stationed inside the district's schools when students return Aug. 19, with two officers stepping into new assignments and four familiar faces heading back to buildings they already know.

Officer Kyle Bright begins his assignment at Hilliard Darby High School, and Officer Dustin Vance moves to Hilliard Bradley High School, according to the city. Both are veteran officers shifting from detective work into the school resource officer role.

Bright, who grew up in Westerville, joined the Hilliard Division of Police in 2004. He has served on the Accident Investigation Team, the Bike Unit and as a field training officer, most recently working as a detective in the Special Investigations Unit. His students may want to know his favorite school lunch was Fiestada pizza, well done.

Vance joined HPD in 2012 after serving in the Army Reserve starting in 2007 as a military police officer. He served a combat tour in Iraq in 2008 as a machine gunner and driver and reached the rank of sergeant before leaving the Army in 2013. At HPD he has worked patrol, traffic safety and detective assignments in both the Special Investigations and Criminal Investigations units.

All four returning SROs are back at their same schools:

• Officer Ian King: Davidson High School, fourth year
• Officer Shane O'Connor: Memorial Middle School, fifth year at Memorial, sixth overall as an SRO
• Officer Josh Barnett: Heritage Middle School, sixth consecutive year (11 years total as an SRO, the longest tenure in the group)
• Officer Josh Valentine: Weaver Middle School, third year

The program assigns one dedicated officer to each of the district's three high schools and three middle schools. That's a change from earlier years, when a single officer covered all three middle schools.

Chief of Police Michael Woods has emphasized the relationship-building side of the SRO role. "It's also an opportunity for them to build relationships with their school resource officers, learn about careers in emergency response, and promote safety to their peers," Woods said in April, speaking about the department's Public Safety Youth Academy, which uses SROs as instructors.

Schools reopen Wednesday after last week's derecho cleanup. The district's fall sports season is already underway, with Darby volleyball and Davidson football kicking off this week.