The Croton-Harmon Board of Education opened its 2026-2027 year on July 16 with a new look: two newly elected trustees sworn in, new officers at the head of the table, and — for the first time — two student members seated beside them. This article was originally written solely from the meeting's minutes as generated by the district clerk; croton.news had no reporter present. An audio recording of the meeting has since been obtained and transcribed. Board President Ana Teague called the organizational meeting to order at 5:03 p.m. with all seven members present: Teague, Anamika Bhatnagar, Omar Mayyasi, Theo Oshiro, Allison Samuels and newly elected trustees Jacob Day and Elizabeth Laird, who took their oaths of office at the start of the meeting. The board then elected its officers for the year. Oshiro nominated Bhatnagar for president, describing her, in the minutes' notes, as grounded in the school community, accessible, seen as a valuable partner in making the district and community better, and passionate about doing what is best for students. The motion carried with Bhatnagar abstaining, and in her President's Report later in the meeting she thanked the board for electing her and Mayyasi. Day nominated Mayyasi for vice president, calling him an amazing advocate for the schools whom he has looked up to as a role model; that motion carried with Mayyasi abstaining. Bhatnagar takes the gavel from Teague, who remains on the board. Before the officer elections, the board seated its student members. Introducing the appointments, Bhatnagar called centering and celebrating student voice a board goal, with the minutes noting this is the first year the board has two student ex-officio trustees — one junior and one senior. Nikhil Mukherjee was appointed ex-officio student trustee for a one-year term, and Madeline Kramer was appointed associate ex-officio student trustee for 2026-2027, with a subsequent term as ex-officio student trustee for 2027-2028. Both took the oath of office. The board entered executive session from 5:19 to 6:27 p.m. to discuss the employment of a particular person or persons, then worked through the annual organizational machinery: board appointments, special education committees, official designations, payroll certification, petty cash funds, authorized signatures and check signers, credit card authorizations, conference attendance, superintendent authority for budget transfers up to $20,000, a $1,000,000 bond for financial officers, re-adoption of board policies, acting-principal designations and hourly rates. A work session discussion raised combining the Advocacy committee with Policy and Communications with Board Development, and scheduling trustees to attend the SFC on a rolling basis. Teri Lukin was chosen as community member of the 2026-2027 Health & Safety Committee. In new business, the board approved facility use fee waivers and appointed Bari Suman as interim Director of Health, Wellness, Physical Education and Athletics, effective July 17 through June 30, 2027. Superintendent Stephen Walker called it a recommendation the administrative team was thrilled to make, noting the department has gone through quite a bit of change over the past several years and that Suman, recently retired from the Mamaroneck school district, is excited to start and has already made some recommendations. The board also approved a cooperative transportation agreement among the Croton-Harmon, Garrison, Hendrick Hudson, Lakeland, Ossining, Peekskill, Putnam Valley and Yorktown school districts running July 2026 through June 2031, approved tutors and home instructors at $60 per hour, and accepted the resignation of high school math teacher Derrick Davis, effective August 3. Walker presented a report on class size at Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School over the past several years. Mayyasi asked for minimum and maximum figures on each slide, a trustee asked for comparisons to schools of similar size and budget, and Samuels asked to see the ongoing experience of a cohort with larger tables of data. Assistant Superintendent for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen noted that all of the district's kindergarten classes have an aide, which is not true of all districts. In the meeting's closing public comment, Jill Anderson returned to the theme, arguing that cohort experience matters, that class size is too high in second grade, and that the district should be below New York City's 20 students per grade. The board accepted nine donations totaling $3,100 to the Lacey Carr Memorial Scholarship for 2027 at Croton-Harmon High School. Teague recalled, in the minutes' notes, the moving tribute Lacey's father David Carr gave at the senior awards; the minutes note she would have graduated this year. The board also gratefully accepted a $38,490 grant from the New York State Office of Information Technology Services for multi-factor authentication hardware tokens for staff, which Harrington-Cohen explained the district had applied for. A notable thread ran through the board's closing discussion: artificial intelligence. Teague raised minutes from the IDEA Committee that Teague said were produced by AI and not checked, urging vigilance about summaries of the board's work that get presented. Bhatnagar responded that there is no policy on AI in meetings and that it will be a priority for the Policy Committee; Teague suggested probing communications bidders on their use of AI, and Mayyasi said minutes and agendas should be created for each committee, charged to the chair, and reviewed before they are posted. Bhatnagar said she would check with the district's lawyers on whether committee minutes can be approved in a timely fashion by email. Earlier in the meeting, the Superintendent's Report covered graduation events, a request for proposals for a communications service provider, and the superintendent's video message. In public comment, Jill Anderson congratulated new and existing board members and described the Croton Community Collective's goal of building children's healthy relationships with technology, with real-world experiences emphasized. Ed Riely welcomed the new members, said the board should not follow what he called crazy, fashionable ideas, giving common core, electric school buses and removing standardized testing as examples, and voiced support for limiting technology and cell phones; in the closing comment period he criticized school districts' handling of the COVID shutdown and what he called a wave of censorship, described the IDEA Committee as a monolithic committee of thought, and raised concerns about a marijuana shop coming to Croton. The board approved the minutes of its June 11 and June 29 meetings as part of the consent agenda and adjourned.