There was a changing of the guard at the East Williston School Board on Tuesday morning.
The board will no longer include now-former Trustee David Keefe, who has served the district since 2010, or now-former Trustee Tasmin Meghji, who has been on the board since 2020. Both declined to run for re-election this year.
To fill their seats, the school board inaugurated two new trustees, Bo Hsu and Nadia Afridi. The two won a hotly contested election with Alina Uzilova and Eswar Sivaraman, respectively, in May.
“We’re looking forward to being able to contribute in a meaningful way, do good things for the kids in this community and make sure that the taxpayers get the best value,” Afridi said, standing next to Hsu.
After their inauguration, longtime Board President Mark Kamberg was reappointed Tuesday morning. He will lead the district into the 2025-26 school year, his 16th year as president. Trustee Robert V. Fallarino was reappointed board vice president.
No other trustees were nominated for consideration as president or vice president.
Following the reorganization meeting, the two new trustees participated in their first full board meeting.
That meeting included a review of the district’s newly adopted cell phone policy, which has been up for public review for multiple months.
The policy is in response to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statewide bell-to-bell cellphone ban in school district buildings. The district’s policy discourages students from bringing personal devices to school and states that if they do, they must be silenced and stored away.
Elementary students must keep their devices in their backpacks in their cubby and middle school and high school students must keep theirs in their lockers. If a student needs to contact a parent, or vice versa, they must use the school office’s phone.
The policy will be in effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year.
Following the adoption and discussion of the cell phone policy, the board voted to appoint three new staff members to fill the open positions for educational technology specialist, social studies teacher and library media specialist.
Kamberg welcomed the new staff members to the district after their appointments.
The school board’s next meeting will be held on Aug. 6.
