The Manhasset Board of Education elected Ted Post as its newest president, who was sworn in alongside two elected trustees at the annual organizational meeting on Monday, July 14.
Newcomer to the board Allison O’Brien Silva and returning Trustee Nadia Giannopoulos were sworn in at the meeting as well. Both won the board seats in an election May 20 and will serve three-year terms.
Post was elected unanimously and will serve a one-year term as the head of the BOE during the 2025-2026 academic year. He previously served as the board’s vice president and as a liaison to the Citizens Advisory finance and audit committees.
Giannopoulos was elected as the new vice president of the board and will serve a one-year term. Giannopoulos has served on the Board of Education for three years and has acted as a liaison to multiple Citizen Advisory and policy committees. She was elected unanimously.
Appointments to various positions, including clerk of the board, district treasurer, and special education committee appointments, were approved with no objections.
At the succeeding following general Board of Education meeting, much of the discussion surrounded a new cell phone mandate from Gov. Kathy Hochul released on May 6. The mandate requires school districts to have a policy in place for personal electronic devices.
According to a press release from Hochul, the mandate requires bell-to-bell restrictions on cell phone usage in schools, including during lunch and study hall periods.
Manhasset board members recommended that students and parents use email to contact one another throughout the day, and that IT will be notified to ensure that students can use their Manhasset email addresses to do so.
The board also recommended that phones be placed in lockers for the entirety of the school day for secondary school students. For elementary-aged students, it is recommended that smartphones be turned off and placed in cubbies.
Enforcement of the policy will be handled by each building’s administrative staff, yet it is expected that all designated employees will assist. Possible consequences for a student using a cellphone unauthorized multiple times include detention, in-school suspension and exclusion from extracurricular activities.
It is not delineated at this time how repeat offenders will be tracked or who will track these offenses.
Other areas of discussion about the policy included cellphone access for juniors and seniors leaving campus for lunch, and students with medical needs who may need their phones. Board members agreed to table the specifications of the policy to a later date.
The policy is to be prominently displayed on the district website, and students and parents will be made aware of policy specifics before the start of the academic year.
There were no public attendees at the meeting.
