College Student Reflects on Election to Wantagh School Board

Wantagh’s Peter Mountanos can now count himself among a select few college students across the country serving on a school board.The morning after
Mountanos was elected a Wantagh school board trustee, the 18-year-old, who just completed his freshman year at New York University (NYU), expressed excitement to begin serving his community, even though his victory still doesn’t quite feel real.

“It still hasn’t sunk in yet but I’m sure it will once I go to the first meeting,” said Mountanos, who will be officially sworn in as a trustee in early July.

The 2012 Wantagh High School graduate was elected along with Wantagh SEPTA Co-President Kera McLoughlin among seven candidates who were vying for two available seats.

Mountanos, who is studying technology entrepreneurship at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, said he first thought about making a run for a school board seat last year, when he was a senior but had not yet turned 18. He said Josh Lafazan, who was elected to the Syosset Board of Education as an 18-year old high school senior last year, was a significant inspiration.

“I talked to him and he was really encouraging me to go for it,” said Mountanos of Lafazan.

Mountanos, who commutes to classes at NYU from Wantagh, said his class schedule next year is designed so that he get out of school by 3 p.m., which will make his responsibilities on the board manageable.

A major part of Mountanos’s campaign platform, which he outlined on his website, is to bring Wantagh to the forefront with education by incorporating new technology and tapping into new revenue streams such as personalized internet revenue advertising. The young Wantagh High School graduate said that during his campaign he received some harassing emails and some of his signs were stolen, but he was able to not let these negative experiences discourage him.

“I tried to stay positive throughout the whole campaign,” he said. “I’m really excited to start.”