Updated 3:55 p.m.

Hutto Police Chief Earl Morrison Jr. could serve as interim chief of the Hutto ISD Police Department after the HISD board of trustees authorized Superintendent Doug Killian to negotiate a contract at its Aug. 11 board meeting.

Killian said the contract would be for a year, and after the contract expired, if both parties like the arrangement, the district could extend it to be a multi-year contract.

Before 2015, Hutto ISD had a contract with the city of Hutto to provide school resource officers to the district. HISD decided to establish its own police department in 2014, with Rick Stone as police chief. Stone retired earlier this year, and the district has been looking for a replacement since.

Killian said he thought bringing Morrison in as interim chief would bring the two departments closer together and HISD PD would benefit from Morrison's experience.

"It's just really good for both entities I think," Killian said.

Killian said the officers hired of HISD PD will still be employees of the district, and the district will still own the equipment. He said the district will still benefit from having officers trained to respond to school-related incidents.

"All the officers we have were hired as HISD PD officers and that's the training we're giving them," he said. "It's a specialty."

Story was updated to reflect that Morrison could serve as interim police chief.