Two new trustees - Anthony Maffea and Deniece Walker - were sworn in to the Elmont Board of Education during Tuesday night's reorganization meeting. The board also named Frank Ragona president and Lorraine Ferrigno vice-president.

Maffea and Walker, who were victorious over incumbents Aubrey Phillips and Elsy Mecklembourg-Guibert, officially became members of the board.

With the two new additions, it appears a new board majority has formed with Ragona, Ferrigno, Maffea, Walker and Michael Jaime in the board majority and Pam Byer and Carol Parker-Duncanson in the board minority. Last year, Phillips, Byer, Mecklemboug-Guibert, and Parker-Duncanson formed the board majority. However, Ragona said he hopes to have a more cohesive board this year.

With a change of guard in place, Ragona as president and Ferrigno as vice-president, for the rest of the meeting, the board disagreed with a possible change in policy as it relates to members of the Sewanhaka Central High School District, and an initiative to bring Gateway Youth Outreach after-school program to the Dutch Broadway School.

Unlike last year, the board did agree on the appointment of district clerk. Celestine Lloyd will remain in that position. The board majority, last year, voted to replace Carol Pane with Lloyd.

Also, the board voted to include the Elmont Herald in its list of official newspapers of the district. Last year, the board majority voted to redact the Elmont Herald as an official paper of the district.

The Sewanhaka Central High School District is made up of two board members from each of the component districts including Elmont. The two representatives to the Sewanhaka Central High School District Board of Education from Elmont this past year were Phillips and Parker-Duncanson.

Current policy states that when the Elmont Board of Education appoints a member to the Sewanhaka Board of Education, that member serves on the high school board until the end of his or her term. The Elmont Board, under the current policy, would have to appoint someone to fill Phillips' seat on the high school board. Parker-Duncanson has another two years to serve on the high school board.

However, the board majority is seeking to change the board policy so that appointments to the high school board are only good for one year. This paves the way for the board to replace Parker-Duncanson on the high school board.

The board majority voted to go ahead with the process of changing the policy while Parker-Duncanson and Byer objected. Parker-Duncanson said that more than one year is needed to serve on the high school board since a board member needs time to learn the role on the high school board. Ragona, however, said the new policy would give the board the opportunity to make a change at every reorganization meeting if the board desires.

The board majority also voted to allow Gateway Youth Outreach to provide an after-school youth program that would serve 200 students to the Dutch Broadway School.

Parker-Duncanson and Byer expressed concern about bringing the program to Dutch Broadway. Byer maintained that the board should study the program carefully to make sure that the program is well equipped with staff to handle the student body. Parker-Duncanson maintained that GYO should enhance what is already in place at three other schools in the district. She also expressed a concern that GYO may not have the funding to continue the program at Dutch Broadway.

Ragona said GYO has committed funding for two years for 200 students at the school and that the benefits of having the program far outweigh any negatives. It was also pointed out that the program exists at three of the other schools in the district.

There was also a concern that the GYO program may compete with the current after-school program, SCOPE, at the school. Ferrigno said that SCOPE program can only provide for 80 children, so in a school of 900 students, having another program would not create competition.

The next meeting of the board of education will be Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 8 p.m. at the Elmont Road School.