Mitch Hardy walked into Chris Rotsching's band room as a seventh-grader who had just transferred from Little Miami Schools. Eleven years after graduating from Indian Hill High School, he's walking back in as the teacher.

Hardy, Class of 2015, will lead the Indian Hill Arts Conservatory's 5–12 band program when middle and high school students arrive Thursday, Aug. 13. The Indian Hill Board of Education approved his limited contract at $76,408 on April 21 in a unanimous vote by the four members present: Mr. Schweikert, Mr. Tullis, Mrs. Singh and Mr. Warfel.

Hardy succeeds Rotsching. The longtime director retired this spring after 31 years and more than 650 performances at Indian Hill. Hardy will work alongside Don Barker, the high school band director who once taught him as a student.

"I already felt at home in Mr. Rotsching's band room on my very first day," Hardy said in a district feature published Aug. 11. "That's a feeling I hope to create for every student who walks into my classroom."

As a student, Hardy served as drum major of the marching band, performed with the Northern Kentucky University Wind Symphony and marched in Cincinnati's Reds Opening Day Parade. He earned a bachelor's degree in music education from Miami University, where he was drum major for three years and received the Outstanding Young Music Educator Award, then completed a master's in music education from Adams State University.

Before returning to Indian Hill, Hardy spent five years teaching middle school band in Fairfield City Schools while performing with the Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band.

Arts Conservatory director Amy Clark called the hire a homecoming for the program. "When an alumnus chooses to return to the place that helped shape them, it says something special about both the individual and the community," Clark said in the district's Aug. 11 feature.

The Arts Conservatory is Indian Hill's umbrella program for band, orchestra, theater, digital arts and visual arts across grades 5–12. Earlier this year, 44 student-musicians from the band and orchestra programs completed a 10-day performance tour through Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and Prague.

Hardy's first day in front of students is Thursday, Aug. 13, when Indian Hill opens its middle and high school buildings under the district's staggered start schedule. The next Board of Education meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Office Community Room, 6855 Drake Road.