DANVILLE - Plans to assign police officers to both middle schools in the Danville school district would not reduce manpower on the streets of the city, according to city officials, who plan to hire two new officers.

Last week, the Danville school board approved placing a Danville police officer, or school resource officer, at both North Ridge Middle School and South View Middle School, beginning next school year. School district officials have discussed putting resource officers in the middle schools for years, but recent incidents have prompted the school board's decision.

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said two veteran police officers will be assigned to the middle schools, and the city will hire two new officers to fill the positions vacated by the veteran officers.

Like Danville police officer Doug Weaver, who serves as the school resource officer at Danville High School, the two re-assigned officers would work nine months of the year in the schools and the other three months in other police department assignments, according to city officials.

The school district will pay their salaries and benefits for those nine months, and the city will pick up the tab for the three-month period as it does for Weaver, who runs Friendly Town in Lincoln Park during the three months of summer. Danville High has had a resource officer for eight years, and Weaver's annual salary is $47,697.

Eisenhauer said the plan serves the school district's needs and will also help the city accomplish some of its goals, especially during the summer when the calls for service are the heaviest.

Public Safety Director Larry Thomason said the two officers can be used during those three months for special details as well, working with the Problem Oriented Police unit, which focuses on specific problems or problem areas in the city. During his bid for re-election, Eisenhauer said if funds were available, he would like to hire two additional officers to boost manpower of the POP unit.

Whether the city will consider hiring two more officers — in addition to the two who will be hired this summer — to work full-time with the POP unit will depend, Eisenhauer said, on what the budget will allow in the future.

For now, the city and school district will be working on the details of the agreement for the two resource officers, and the cost to both will depend on the salaries and benefits of the two officers chosen for the assignments. The school district will pay for the two officers with money from its tort fund.

It will mean some additional cost to the city, but Eisenhauer said the amount won't be known until the officers are chosen. Once that's done in coming weeks, the agreement will go before the city council for approval.

Thomason said it's important for veteran officers to be in the school assignments, because they must have a broad spectrum of police experience and knowledge of criminal law, traffic and juvenile court law. They also must have good communication, mentoring and listening skills. Eisenhauer also underscored the necessity that veteran officers with extensive experience be the ones working in a school environment.

While the officers will deal with security and criminal issues in the schools, they also will be working with administrators, teachers, students and parents.

"It's a win-win situation to me," Thomason said.