Student liaisons report school activities, phone policy, and Oct. 8 club expo

Two student liaisons, Samuel Hasfal and Farah Al Zafarani, addressed the Brentwood Union Free School District Board of Education on Sept. 26 and summarized student-led activities and new school policies.

Samuel described Start With Hello activities, restorative-justice poetry and senior 'backpack day' traditions. Farah — who the meeting record identifies as a high‑school newspaper editor who said she won a Quill Award — described a new phone policy that places students’ phones in classroom pouches; she told the board that while students initially resisted, she observed that “we have come to understand how distracting our phones can be” and said classmates have been more focused in class. Farah also described work on a seniors’ board and said she is starting an article about the phone policy for the school paper.

Both liaisons urged fellow students to attend a club expo scheduled for Oct. 8 in the Sando Gym (the students gave a roughly two‑to‑three p.m. time window for the event) where students can explore clubs and extracurricular offerings. Samuel noted his participation in JROTC and technical coursework and said he will graduate with a computer technician certification; Farah recounted academic honors and offered to report findings in student media.

The student liaisons’ remarks were presented near the start of the meeting after the board’s recognitions and were followed by routine board business.