A heartfelt round of applause welcomed Port Orchard deputy chief Andrew “Andy” Brandon to his newest post as the District 4 director on the board of the South Kitsap School District, for which he had once served as a school resource officer and was years ago a student.

He took the oath of office June 18, less than two weeks after being selected by the school board to fill the seat once occupied by Jeffrey Wilson.

Retired high school instructor Carl Olson recalled teaching Brandon in stagecraft. He said he is excited for his former pupil. “Having had Andrew as a student, but then his own career path in law enforcement puts him in a great spot.” Brandon recalled as a student looking to make up some credits. “When I came back as an SRO, he was still teaching, and we got to interact a lot,” Brandon said of Olson. “There’s a lot of teachers still there from when I was a student that I got to interact with at a different level.”

Brandon was assigned as an SRO in 2009, serving South Kitsap High, Cedar Heights Middle and Sidney Glen Elementary schools. The duties he took on ran far beyond the “keep the peace” job description. He said: “I’d get to go into the classrooms and just lecture with the kids, have a good time and interact. I’d go into all sorts of classes. Anybody that wanted me to come in, I’d come in.”

Now watching his own kids at SKSD schools, he would have once thought his cycle of school vocations to be complete. Then, a window of opportunity just became too intriguing, and a quick check of the district map and a subsequent application led to a successful interview this month. A big new task for him will be to debate bringing a new funding measure before SK voters, among other top district issues.